General Music Chat

I just bought a beautiful Taylor Acoustic for myself just for the helluvvit!
WOW! Does this thing sound fantastic!




Yikes! I better stop! this is getting very addictive, So Far I've bought 2 Les Pauls, A Fender American Strat Deluxe and a Taylor Acoustic all in the span of 11 months!


Not to mention 2 Line6 Amps (one 30 watt and one 150 watt and a nice stereo 4x12 cabinet!)

I goofed. I forgot the guitar in my avatar is NOT my strat, had to change it back to the Washburn when I changed pics and the avatar disappeared completely...But there's a pic of me with it at a local American Legion hall in my profile...

Howlin:

Two things that might interest you. My first "real" electric guitar was a Mosrite Ventures model double neck, 12 string over 6. Left it with a friend in Virginia in the 70's and never made it back to reclaim it. Nice guitar but too neck heavy to play onstage.

Also I have something here you'd like, being a keyboard player...My father had an old keyboard out back in his woodshop and told me years ago I could have it. I never had a chance to bring it home (I was in Texas then) and forgot to a couple of times, finally got it when he died a couple of years ago, turns out it's a 70's Wurlitzer Electronic Piano. The same one Tom Petty's Keyboard player, Benmont Tench, has in his setup. I've seen them onstage with a couple other bands too. I had to replace a blown capacitor and it works perfect now, have it leaning up in the corner because I have no room to set it up for use, so I can't leave it out and ready to play. wish I could, I'd like to tinker with it now and then and usually don't because it's a hassle to set it up then re-store it just to piddle around with for a few minutes. I'm not much of a keyboard player, but I like to tinker with it now and then.

Crip:

Nice guitar, Taylor makes some good ones. I played my first one about a week ago, nice sounding guitar but the neck was too fat for me. Kid who owned it has been playing 7 months, couldn't carry a tune if you put it in a wheelbarrow, never finished a song all night and didn't even try to play chords I tried to show him. Then started playing something else on top of me every time I tried to start off a song...I think he should have his Taylor shoved up his...never mind...

[start rant]

If you're going to ask someone to show you some guitar, at least TRY to play what they show you. TRY to finish a song now and then. And NEVER...EVER start playing something else when someone starts off a song, it's just rude...

[end rant]

Nice guitar...

Oh, and a friend has a Les Paul just like your white one, (and Weggie's) said he got it about 10 years ago, it's starting to turn yellow. I've played it, just like almost every Les Paul I've ever picked up the neck is way too fat for me, I can't play it more than about 10 minutes, my left arm starts to hurt. It plays and sounds good, the neck just hurts me. The only one I've ever liked was a '60 or '61 gold top a guy in Houston had, he could barely play at all and refused to sell it to me.

LOL I love the fat necks..Hence the reason for actually getting that model strat that you see, the neck is just as fat as my Pauls... My hands are normal size, it's just that I've been playing the fat necks my entire guitar life and when I picked up one of my friends "normal" necked strats, I just felt uncomfortable! I've always used Pauls since the 80's and tried so many different guitars recently and fell in love with this particular strat. They didn't have the maple neck in stock, though.. all the fat necks I wanted were in rosewood and I had to special order the same width neck in maple because I just felt that if you're gonna on a strat, it's gotta have that maple neck!

I did a New Years gig with my old band Aint Yo Mama. One of our old roadcrew was a guy named Ted, we used to call him Uncle Ted ala Ted Nugent. He shows up at the gig with a guitar he wants me to play live. I mean Ive done 5 gigs this whole year and someone wants me to play an unfamiliar guitar at the last second. I open the case and its a Gibson ES 175, I think this is what Ted used to play. I have an old Epiphone Sheraton which is semi hollow body and sounds great at lower volumes but on stage tends to feedback a lot. Anyway, we start our first set and Im having a hard time getting acclimated to the sound. Im playing with another guitarist who Ive only played with a couple of times and to top things off we blow 2 of the monitors, one of which is mine, so all Im getting vocally is main reflections off the back wall ot the joint. Anyone who plays I guess knows what Im talking about, you have to get your ears adjusted to any new room or enviroment. We play a 15 song set and I forgot about Teds guitar. So between sets he says man are you going to play my guitar and I say yeah. So I start the second set off with this Gibson. Turns out it is one of the sweetest sounding guitars Ive picked up in a long time. Its a little lighter than my Paul and of course its a bigger bodied guitar, but it feels real close neck wise. I decided for this gig to go simple and I set up a basic classic rock sound on my amp and didnt even hook up my channel switcher. Amp, wah wah, tube screamer. If you like Les Pauls and get a chance to play one of these guitars it will suprise you. I would turn the guitar volume to about 2-3 for rythyms and get a little tight breakup of distortion out of the amp and then roll the volume up to about 8-10 for solos. I liked the guitar so much I played the rest of the night on it.

Anyway since you guys are talking guitars I thought I would throw this one in. I never would have played one of these unless this guy had asked me and I was pleasantly suprised. In fact that might be my next guitar.

Crip2Nite, beautiful strat' man. Heck, I wanted a strat' myself, I saw it online at Fender's website. That thing was like $600 dollars I think, but it was this mystic blue with I think a maple fretboard.

jw123, I like that story. I have never played on a Les Paul before, but this dude I jammed with down here just got one. He bought an $800 dollar model and said it is great, he showed it to me in the guitar store. It was beautiful, it had cherry wood. The only thing is, he said that it did not stay in tune (His model at least), so he changed the tuners out. But other than, he said it was a great guitar. I played on an Epiphone Les Paul, as opposed to the Gibson. They feel okay, but I was not used to the single cutaway thing, I like double cutaways on my guitars.

A ton of the greats play that guitar, man. Look at Slash, he has been jamming out on Les Paul's since he began performing. Gibson is a good company, they are one of the first, so yeah.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

It was a Birdland that Ted Nugent played, not the ES 175, plugged into a Twin Reverb. Close but not the same guitar.

I have a Cort CL 1500, expected to have the same feedback problem but it gives me no trouble at all. It's about the same body size as a Les Paul and a bit thicker, with a much better neck. It only gets feedback if I hold out a note really long like at the end of a song and let harmonics develop into feedback. I've played ES 335's that wanted to feedback a little, but usually not bad, the big bodied guitars it's hit and miss, but most do try to feedback some. I think a lot depends on the pickups, and if they're microphonic, you can forget it. Even a solid body with microphonic pickups will feedback like crazy until you pot the pickups...I did one in a Telecaster copy a year ago, it made a huge difference, no feedback at all now.

I've read that BB King stuffed Lucille full of cotton to stop feedback until Gibson made him a custom solid body just like it, which he plays now. Not sure what guys like Bryan Setzer and Mike Campbell (Tom Petty's band) do to keep them quiet, but Setzer plays something like a Birdland or 175 all the time and Campbell plays different ones but more hollow body than solid, no feedback unless he wants it, which is not often.

I notice a lot of feedback when I switch to the neck pickup on my guitar when distorted. It will not be quiet, it just does that stupid buzzing sound. Maybe my humbuckers have had it, or maybe it is just that, that they are humbuckers. I do not know enough about this to say, lol. It is fine on the bridge pickup, to an extent. The wires are out of whack to begin with, broken, I had to tape them back to the outport because I have no way to solder them. I cannot wait for a new guitar and amplifier, anything to get rid of this one as my main. I might get it repaired though and keep it for certain songs, strangely enough this First Act's humbuckers sound good when playing songs from bands like The Offspring. It is the only guitar I can play "The Kids Aren't Alright" on without having a nightmare. Everytime I try it on other guitars it sounds like crap.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

I'm not sure but I think you said your First Act is a strat model? Then it would have a single coil at the neck, which is a noisier pickup but shouldn't be annoyingly loud. If it's the Les Paul-ish model with dual humbuckers, it's your bad wiring, probably lost the ground to that pickup. Get it fixed. Soldering is not hard with a bit of instruction, pick up a soldering iron and some small diameter resin solder at Radio Shack and I can tell you exactly how to solder. $15-20 total at most. But be prepared to try it on some spare wire first, don't use your guitar to learn on. Let me know and I'll post exact instructions, but probably in a separate thread.

Is it a buzz or feedback? there's a difference. A buzz would be either a wiring problem, most likely a bad ground, a bad cable between guitar and amp, or you're too close to the amp. Feedback of the uncontrollable type would be a microphonic pickup most likely, also not difficult to fix, by "potting" the pickup. That involves dipping it in melted wax to fill all the air spaces. No, it won't hurt the pickup, and is a common procedure.

Paleopete, it is a First Act Strat model, may be single coils. I am not sure, lol. I bought it two years ago. It does not get feedback when held close to the amplifier, it buzzes when switched to the neck pickup, it has to be a connection error. I doubt I have to pot the pickups, but if it continues after a repair I might. The pickups in this thing can handle some songs other guitars cannot (As I said before, it is strange for such a cheap guitar).

If I decide to solder it I will ask you for instructions, thanks for the help Paleopete, I really appreciate it.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

OK if if buzzes, that's not an indication it needs to be potted. That would be loud, uncontrollable feedback - screeching, howling feedback that starts instantly when you take your fingers off the strings and won't stop unless you cut the volume. Usually more a problem onstage at high volume than at home in the practice room, that's why I didn't find out about my microphonic pickup until I took it onstage.

The buzz you're talking about is almost definitely a wiring problem, my guess would be a bad ground, but if the wires have come loose it could be anything.

Pickups - If you take a look [url=http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitar-partsHere[/url] you'll see both single coil and humbuckers, makes it pretty easy to tell which ones you have. Being a strat, it can be 3 single coils or you may have a humbucker in the bridge position, I'm not sure how First Act sets theirs up. But partway down the page, the Gibson '57 Classic and Seymour Duncan SH-PG1 are humbuckers, while the Strat set just below are single coils.

Which ones are in your guitar make no difference as far as the buzz, either will buzz horribly if you have no ground or faulty wiring. (If you have a bad ground you can also be shocked if you touch something else electrical with a bad ground or reverse polarity. I'll bet every one of the old timers around here have been shocked onstage by a microphone at some time or other.)

That said, single coils have a reputation for being noisier than humbuckers due to their design. Humbuckers were originally designed to try and reduce the noise and hum produced by single coil pickups at higher volumes, and with wires everywhere, bad cables, neon beer signs and such, it can be really annoying onstage...even with quieter humbuckers... In most cases shielding the pickup cavity and pickguard can make a huge difference in cutting down single coil noise, and is a very good idea with humbuckers too. I've already shielded most of my guitars, need to get off my lazy butt and get the rest done one of these days...

What you're describing won't be solved by shielding though. Going back to the "wiring came loose" thing, that's your #1 problem and definitely needs to be fixed. If the wires are taped in place, they will eventually come loose, probably halfway through your next audition...get it fixed, there's no reason to have a guitar that's not in good working condition with the resources at your fingertips.

Paleopete, thanks for the suggestions. You are right, it needs repairs. I will be repairing it, and no I do not want to be shocked on stage, lol. Ouch.

Here is a picture of the pickups, I tried looking the model up to see what pickups it has in it, but First Act decided I never need to know, lol:

http://i12.ebayimg.com/03/i/000/c9/02/a301_1.JPG

I found it on Ebay with little description, so I just snagged the link to the picture of the pickups. I figured maybe you could tell by looking at them what they are. I sure have no clue, been playing too little years to understand this stuff that well.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Presently I play a Fender SQ Squire Strat made in Japan. I can't believe how well this guitar plays. I have a 78 US Fender Tele that I've had for 20 years that I like very much. Hands down, the best guitar I ever owned was a 69 Les Paul custom, "Black Beauty",[sigh]

my weapon of choise is the rg ibanez but i"m a sucker for old unloved wammybar locking head pawnshop guitars to tweek out...

The guitar in my avatar pic is a 1938 Gibson L-OO. It is by far my favorite.

im a bass player, so elrick doesn't count for all, but for a manufacturer of both that can't be beaten, rickenbacker. period