Anyone here play the guitar?

Mark Anthony

Mark Anthony

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Bit random, but just curious.
I feel like a bit of mid life crisis has kicked in as I've never really had the urge to learn an instrument before, but my 8 year old son has just started learning at school and I've been doing his lessons aswell, copying his written instructions etc when I've got the house to myself.
So does anyone else play?
And can anyone offer any tips etc to help me learn.
 
Yup, guitar player here. Best advice I can give you is to have a few lessons with a proper teacher first to get you started. You'll learn lots, (like finding out what's the best guitar to buy for what you want to play, for instance!) and avoid picking up bad habits.

Once you get going, there's loads of stuff on t'internet and youtube to help you learn. A site I'd definitely recommend is Justin Sandercoe's. http://www.justinguitar.com/

Beware, it's a slippery slope once you get into it and you can spend a fortune on gear...bit like photography I guess :D
 
Bass guitarist here! I only play for my own amusement but I love it. I have tried a few different guitars over the years but find the bass the most rewarding, the others have finished up all over the house as ornaments. There's nothing better to get rid of stress than to shut all the doors in the house and wack up the amp.
 
http://youtu.be/Di2d7-rsdUI

:)

Guitar, bass and a bit of mandolin here.

Mostly bass for the last 25 years as I knew too many guitarists as a teenager and bass players were in shorter supply.

Just off to rehearse a new set right now...
 
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My mid-life crisis kicked in a few years ago and a friend persuaded me to take up the guitar, he was a teacher and helped me in the early stages, but changes in work means that he is 200 miles away now, so no more lessons and moral support.

I would echo the comments about getting some face to face lessons to help avoid bad habits setting in and then using Justin Sandercoe's web site. I have a couple of his DVDs too, very good teaching aids.

My regret is not picking up a guitar when I was a lot younger, I started when I was 48 - too late! I've come to the conclusion that I have no natural talent, so it's all mechanical learning. A combination of enjoyment and frustration.

Chris
Epi LP Custom and a Faith acoustic
 
I've played various instruments since I was your sons age and I'm 41 now....still playing in a band loving every minute of it, I play bass mainly

My music "habit" has cost me way more over the years than my photography but I don't begrudge a penny of it

I think it is harder to learn as you get older, but that doesn't mean you can't - I think you will soon know if you have the aptitude and ear for it.
Nothing beats getting lessons, even people who have been playing years can benefit from lessons and even many famous players will still have lessons from time to time. Learning on your own is too easy to get into bad practices and it can actually be bad on your hands, posture and back and you don't really want that!

I'd say go for it. You can get decent gear at much lower prices nowadays to start you off, but the big name stuff will always be expensive although it holds its value pretty well in general. Happy to offer some advice, I make and repair guitars too....another blinking expensive "hobby"!

Just have to accept your son will probably be better than you will ever be by the time he's about 14 (assuming he sticks at it)!! :)
 
Yep. Played for many years.

Can get a lot more expensive than photography if it gets a grip!!!

Chris - Lowden, Gibson J45 and Faith (Furch made) x 2.
 
Played for more years than I have not. Met my wife when we were both gigging muso's. I played rock but my love nowdays is the blues and a bit of good old rocky punk. I play in a pub band now.

Presuming you are going for folk, rock or blues:

Biggest tip: find a teacher who lets you learn stuff you want to play. There are some tricky bumps you need to overcome and they are tough bumps, finger tip pain, dexterity and barre chords are really tough. It all seems worth it when you realise you can actually play a song you like.

Don't spend crazy cash on your early equipment, but decent equipment holds its value and makes playing a lot easier. If you buy in a shop ask for " a setup". A well setup guitar is a lot easier to play.

Washing up destroys any callouses you build up. Get washing up gloves.

5 watts of valve amplification is loud enough for home,

My main guitars at the moment are a tanglewood roadster for bottleneck, For electric work, an early agile Les Paul clone with iron gear pups.
 
siblingchris said:
I'd say go for it. You can get decent gear at much lower prices nowadays to start you off, but the big name stuff will always be expensive although it holds its value pretty well in general.
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I have to say that cheap guitars (£100-£150) these days are unimaginable leagues better than similarly priced guitars when I was first learning in the early 80s - and that's when £100 was worth far more than it is now.

My first electric was a Satellite Les Paul copy that felt like it was made of cardboard and cost £90 second hand. Budget guitars that I've tried in music shops lately are eminently playable.
 
Mark Anthony said:
Bit random, but just curious.
I feel like a bit of mid life crisis has kicked in as I've never really had the urge to learn an instrument before, but my 8 year old son has just started learning at school and I've been doing his lessons aswell, copying his written instructions etc when I've got the house to myself.
So does anyone else play?
And can anyone offer any tips etc to help me learn.
Click to expand...

Hi Mark,

I'm in an almost identical situation as yourself, without the benefit of learning from an 8 year old that is!

I've never had any music lessons as a kid and, like you, never had the urge to play an instrument and as such I can't read music etc

A few things have become immediately apparent:

1. I have zero talent!

2. It takes me 10 times as long to learn as I'm sure it would have done 30 years ago.

3. As has been said, guitars are expensive and addictive :)

4. I have no desire to ever play in public, nor would anyone allow it.

5. It is an absolutely wonderful way to immerse yourself into something new and escape from 'real-life'.

6. Those guitar legends make it look soooo easy!

A few tips:

1. Play as frequently as you can, even if only for 5 minutes. I ended up buying an acoustic guitar as well as my electric purely so I could just leave it in the living room to encourage me to play.

2. Find a good teacher. I still need to do this as my first teacher wasn't for me. No structure (which I need), just straight into a different song each week with little sympathy or patience of my simpleton like ability.

3. Don't dismiss youtube for learning new riffs/songs.

4. Rocksmith is fun!

5. Play as frequently as you can and have fun not matter how bad things sound!

Cheers
Osmo

Guitars: Alvarez electro-acoustic and Gibson SG (I don't deserve the SG but it's my money and I'll waste it as I see fit! :D )
 
Musicman said:
I have to say that cheap guitars (£100-£150) these days are unimaginable leagues better than similarly priced guitars when I was first learning in the early 80s - and that's when £100 was worth far more than it is now.

My first electric was a Satellite Les Paul copy that felt like it was made of cardboard and cost £90 second hand. Budget guitars that I've tried in music shops lately are eminently playable.
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I have to agree totally iwth That Rob, and little practice amps are great value as well.
I bought a Squier Strat off Ebay for £30, fitted new strings after having a go at lowering the action (plus a little fret filing), and it plays better than my old guitars. I also have a Yamaha Pacifica, which is really solid, and the rosewood neck is comfortable and quick.
My main tip for newbies to playing, would be to take care of your fingers. Blisters are inevitable, but if they are really bad, then leave it for a couple of days and then start playing again.
 
I play Bass and a little guitar, self taught, can just about string a tune together. Currently have 3 Basses: a Tanglewood Rebel 4k which is nice, a no name Fender Jazz copy which I set up from scratch and is a dream to play (has amazing metric strings which I can't seem to get replacements for anywhere) and an Encore Precision bass copy that was in a very bad way when I bought it, but I stripped it to it's components and rebuilt with decent hardware as a 60s retro wannabe and it's now my 'main' bass.

One thing I would say is really concentrate on your technique rather than rush into playing a song.It may seem less enjoyable at the time but it will pay off later - I learnt this the hard way!
 
I've been playing since I was 14, and also play keyboards, harmonica and some basic drumming.
It's not enough though, and even though I've not done anything musically notable for years, I've recently started to learn the saxophone.

Last weekend I surprised my girlfriend (who didn't know I was learning) by waiting for her outside of work and giving her a rendition of Careless Whisper. =)
 
I've dabbled on and off for some years, played very basic stuff in a London band for a year or two, but only have a cheep acoustic at the moment (which I barely touch.)
 
Right, you got me thinking of getting an electric again!

If I was to budget for £500 to include an amp (thinking along the lines of a Marshall
MG15CFR 15) I'd have around £400 for a guitar.

Saw thiss locally on gumtree, but having got the serial from the guy, it might be 8 years older than he says

1962 reissue Fender Telecaster. Made in 2004 in Japan. Sunburst body with double white binding and maple fretboard. Three way selecter switch. Chrome hardware. Fantastic tone. A dream to play. Comes with soft gig bag. An absolute bargain!
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Personally I would not buy a guitar without the chance to play it...actually there may be some exceptions to that, but as a general rule I think it's a good one

In terms of quality (and spec) fender stuff goes in this order.... MIA, MIJ, MIM
That doesn't mean the Mexican ones are not decent guitars but the risk of getting not such a good instrument increases as you go from MIA to MIJ to MIM...

You will,never regret a MIA deluxe in my opinion it's money we'll spent
A that sort of money you may want to consider non-fender stuff, you might be surprised what you can get. But you might want to think a little about what you are going to play style wise and what sound you'd like to achieve...
 
£400 will get you a lot of choice if you look at the used market. It gets you into the upper tier of build quality, before you start adding the luxuries.

Similar to with cameras, do your homework before you part with cash. Some brands out there make quality instruments but have no name value, and so can be picked up for an absolute steal.
 
I've a fantastic guitar in the forsales for under £400
 
I've only owned cheep electric guitars years ago and know the quality has moved on a bit since. The price range of Fenders is mind boggling, but I have played a couple friends' copies in the past and loved them both, Strat & Telecaster. I'm quite an impatient sod and not good at shopping around ... I do know that I need a slightly slimmer than average (if there is an average) neck though.
 
I've been playing for around 10 years now!


Played in a few local bands and owned many different guitars!

A 30 year old Rickenbacker, a 1961 reissue Gibson SG, a 27 year old Yamaha SG 1000, strats, teles but my favourite one (and one of the few I regret getting rid of) was a Yamaha AES 500 which I picked up for £250 about 8 years ago!! It was ugly as hell but played amazingly and a some real character about it!

Forget the Marshall amp at the price!! Get one of the fender mustang amps! Great value for money, amp models, built in effects etc!

Or if you are confined to headphones for any reason (kids etc) the seriously consider a Zoom g3 effects unit!! I purchased one about a year ago and it persuaded me to sell a few of my pedals which were way more expensive than the zoom unit!

Guitar wise, as someone has already said, Yamaha pacificas (strat style guitar) are amazing guitars for the money you pay and I haven't played a duff one!!

Promise to take it up, you will love it!! Oh and check out some YouTube videos of the Zoom!!
 
Yep, been playing badly for 20 years. :)

Edit: reading this thread has made me want an electric guitar too. Can somebody recommend a really cheap but half decent body with a reasonably thin neck? I'll be looking at used.
 
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shaunyshaun1234 said:
Promise to take it up, you will love it!! Oh and check out some YouTube videos of the Zoom!!
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I had a Zoom 505 years ago and did like it. That g3 looks interesting :D
 
I had a Zoom 2020, then a 4040, and then an 8080. There are better sounding units out there, but none that gave so much flexibility in creating bonkers/expressive sounds.

I've got a Fender Mustang Floor nowadays. Great sounding overdrives, but you can't have an auto-wah, a pedal operated EQ shift and a flanger with pedal adjusted sweep, going into a harmonised pitch shifter and tappable tempo ping-pong delay simultaneously.

Obviously that would sound hiddeous, but it's nice to have the option.
 
I wouldn't have touched a zoom unit years ago because , quite frankly, they were pants!! I spent hundreds and hundreds of pounds on separate effects pedals!

Then came the G3 which really is a huge leap in the right direction!! They are brilliant!
 
shaunyshaun1234 said:
I wouldn't have touched a zoom unit years ago because , quite frankly, they were pants!! I spent hundreds and hundreds of pounds on separate effects pedals!

Then came the G3 which really is a huge leap in the right direction!! They are brilliant!
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I use iMac/iPad/iPhone now, only play for kicks and did have an 8 stomp floorboard & valve amp, sounded superb but the effort and hassle started outweighing the fun, still go a POD in the cupboard but I don't even bother with that.
 
The early Zooms (the rackmount ones and the wierd Gameboy looking thing) were excellent units, but the second generation of floor units were just inexplicably terrible - both in terms of sound build quality - and is probably what stopped them from being seen as much more than for in the bedroom and on a budget.

I love the versitility of the 8080 and I wish they'd build a proper successor to it.
 
The23rdman said:
Yep, been playing badly for 20 years. :)

Edit: reading this thread has made me want an electric guitar too. Can somebody recommend a really cheap but half decent body with a reasonably thin neck? I'll be looking at used.
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Have a look at an Ibanez RG550 with a wizard neck (old but lovely to play)
has a very thin neck and flat fret board.
 
If you like the slim necked Ibanezes, then the SA series are well within your budget.
 
Guitarist here too, I'd suggest getting a nice acoustic and learning some simple chords, then play along to some easy songs like, Sweet Home Alabama, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Wish You Were Here, Hey Joe, stuff like that, to get in to learning the rhythm and strumming patterns. Once you've got the basics learn how to read "tabs" and the internet is your oyster ;)
 
Ha, I forgot the OP was asking for tips :D

Like Colin JOnes says, get an acoustic and learn some chords and practice rhythm. I spent about ten years messing with electrics and cheep pedals and learned little. When I bought an acoustic it helped me focus more.
 
Music is my greatest and oldest passion. I play guitar, bass, drums, mandolin and most recently started learning the banjo (don't knock it, it's a great instrument). I also tinker a bit on the few keyboards I own. I played in a lot of bands when I was younger but sadly haven't had the time to properly commit to one for a long time now, but I still play music every day on my own.

I genuinely believe that learning a musical instrument is one of the best things anyone can do in their spare time. Music is an amazing catharsis and a great discipline, and has the ability to satisfy you on so many levels. Most people will find it difficult initially but just persevere and it'll come to you eventually.
 
colintjones said:
Guitarist here too, I'd suggest getting a nice acoustic and learning some simple chords, then play along to some easy songs like, Sweet Home Alabama, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Wish You Were Here, Hey Joe, stuff like that, to get in to learning the rhythm and strumming patterns. Once you've got the basics learn how to read "tabs" and the internet is your oyster ;)
Click to expand...

This is great advice.
 
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