General Music Chat

So today I took a little trip to Sam Ash, and bought a guitar. Actually, it was a pack that included the Fender Squier guitar, a 15 watt amp with 15 effects and built-in distortion, and all the accessories. It's pretty good for a beginner guitar, and the distortion sounds really good.

http://www.andysmusiconline.com/product ... 01610.html

I'm sure you guys are gonna have some bad things to say about it, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be perfect...It's only my first guitar. I'll save up my money while I'm learning to play so that later I can buy a better one.

Hey Ryan,

I own a squire in the 80s' with a little roland jazz chorus 50 amp and it served me well..The only thing was the pick guard had be grounded during the winter...Static electricity would build up on that plastic and make a swishin sound over the amp ..A way to fully ground it is to glue aluminum foil on the back (inside the pick guard) then run a ground wire to the common...AND, ya might wanna run a common ground to ALL of your pots too..That way it will be totally quiet...Congrats on having your own guitar now..

John

Congrats, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Actually, for the price range, you did very well. I have 3-squiers. Not quite the same as the one you bought, but Squiers are good guitars.. Nice choice man..

Hey Ryan,

I own a squire in the 80s' with a little roland jazz chorus 50 amp and it served me well..The only thing was the pick guard had be grounded during the winter...Static electricity would build up on that plastic and make a swishin sound over the amp ..A way to fully ground it is to glue aluminum foil on the back (inside the pick guard) then run a ground wire to the common...AND, ya might wanna run a common ground to ALL of your pots too..That way it will be totally quiet...Congrats on having your own guitar now..

John

Kid.. Give him a break man... Hahaha. He just got it. He has no idea what you're talking about.. Take yourself back to when you got your first guitar. Would you have done all of that?? The new Squiers are grounded just fine, I bought one for my cousin last year.

Ryan, just play, enjoy, and learn. You'll have time for the tech stuff later. Your guitar is fine.

I'm doing pretty well too...I'm learning to play Slash's version of The Godfather theme. I got the beginning part down, now to learn the rest...I may skip the solos though...It's a little too early for me to be trying those...

Ryan, nice, not bad for a beginning guitar. Much better than my First Act, Lol. Slash's Godfather theme? Ha, it is fun to learn things like that. But, try and work your way up, do not jump the gun thinking you will become Jimi Hendrix over night. The reason I say this is because I did that. I thought I would pick it up and be brilliant automatically. Well, here I am, 2 years and some months later, still not brilliant! But good.

Man, just work slowly on it. Do not over do it, and most importantly, have fun, and always rest your hands if they hurt.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Yeah I'm just playing the beginning part so I can practice playing notes. I'm tired of just playing chords.

I believe mine is the exact same as the one you got Ryan. I got it for Christmas, no complaints with it yet. My wife lent me her telecaster, but I like the smaller neck of the new one better. It’s just easier to deal with.

Lol. Been there, done that with the notes instead of chords. Let your best friend become the Box Patterns:

e----------------------------------------------------1-2-3-4--
B-------------------------------------------1-2-3-4-----------
G---------------------------------1-2-3-4--------------------
D-----------------------1-2-3-4------------------------------
A--------------1-2-3-4---------------------------------------
E-----1-2-3-4------------------------------------------------

And reverse:

e------4-3-2-1-----------------------------------------------
B---------------4-3-2-1---------------------------------------
G-------------------------4-3-2-1-----------------------------
D-----------------------------------4-3-2-1--------------------
A---------------------------------------------4-3-2-1----------
E-------------------------------------------------------4-3-2-1-

You can move that pattern up and down the neck. Or start messing with it, and instead of doing it in that order (The 1-2-3-4) switch it to something odd, and uncomfortable, like:

e------------------------------------------------------1-3-2-4
B--------------------------------------------1-3-2-4----------
G----------------------------------1-3-2-4-------------------
D-------------------------1-3-2-4----------------------------
A----------------1-3-2-4-------------------------------------
E------1-3-2-4-----------------------------------------------

There are a multitude of box patterns that can be used. But these are great for warm up, strengthening, and dexterity. However, as far as stretching goes, that is another story. You will want to build that up slowly. Right now if you tried this

e-------------------12p7h12--------

your hand would snap. Lol. So slowly stretch your fingers, do not push it or you can badly hurt yourself. Stretching is important with everything, from chords, to basic note forms. You also may want to take your time and practice techniques. Such as pulling off and hammering on, or vibrato.

The easier for you may be sliding since you are just beginning.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Cool Ryan: You made a good choice, I,ve run thru a couple of squiers on and off over the years. One of my daughters still has one of them.
They are good guitars, and easy to upgrade if you choose to change pick ups latter on. I still have a Strat Jr. 3/4 scale guitar and a Ibanez 15R amp I like to fool around with. Enjoy!

I have an '88 Squire Strat. I eventually just changed all the electronics on it. It wasn't that expensive to replace the entire pick guard with all the p/u's & pots (plus now it's all black, which I prefer to the white on black "Eric Clapton" look). I replaced it all with US real Strat stuff, so it's much better overall. That solved the out-of-phase/wierd grounding prob's that I had with it, which made it so noisy at high volumes.

Just an idea if you decide to keep it & have similar prob's.

I got mine with the Fender locking nut system, which is much more user-friendly & less time consuming than the Floyd Rose whammy when changing strings, & works just as well, as far as I'm concerned.

I still think you should work on your dad's acoustic to improve your hand strength, esp for chording, Ryan, but do whatever you like.

The chromatic scale that GA gave you (1234...1234) is an excellent way to work on synchronization between your hands. I would add that, when doing that exercise, you should apply alternate picking. In fact, as you learn every scale, major (doh reh mi...) & minor, and all the others, you should continue to use alternate picking wherever possible. It improves speed, & is a good habit to develop.

Make each note ring exactly at the same volume, in exactly the same beat within whatever tempo you're playing, as you run through the scales. Again, start slowly & & ease your way into going at the higher speeds.

Don't forget to get someone to check your form occasionally to avoid deveoping & practicing bad habits that will eventually end in poor hand/wrist health.

I'm sure you guys are gonna have some bad things to say about it, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be perfect...It's only my first guitar. I'll save up my money while I'm learning to play so that later I can buy a better one.

Nope, no band things to say about it. I bought my kid that same guitar.
I played all of the entry level stuff from just about every company and I thought the Squier was the best of em.
Have fun.

I used to think bad about the Squire, But when I was given one I was proved wrong. Great Guitar for the price. Good guitar period.

I've gotten a Squire Bass and think it's great too.

Have fun and play as much as you can. Eveen when you reach the point when you don't want to.

On practice for fingers also try it

1234
xxxxx 2345
xxxxxx 3456 etc... forwards and backwards.
I'm trying to start learning bass and it's alot of fun doing something different.

I loved playing Bass as a young,un. Had this monster Peavy T40 Bass.
In retrospect if I'd stayed with music and not gotten so heavy into Kung Fu who knows where I'd be now. Turned down a place in a Country band, I knew I could do no justice to either music or martial arts by splitting my time. Not that I would do it any different, just speculation.