OT: Need advice on elec. guitar buy

[Simon Ravn]

I know this is not the right place to ask, but I think it is the BEST place to ask so I\'ll do it anyway. Recently I\'ve begun doing a good deal of music for commercials, and it irritates me that I have no real guitar that I can add to my compositions. So I was wondering... having close to never ever had a guitar in my hand, will it be a waste of money and ignorant, buying a cheap guitar in the hope of being able to add simple melody lines or just single notes of nice distorted, rock guitar to my pieces, without months or years of training? Or is it likely that I\'ll be able to practice the few notes I want to add and play it in a matter of hours/days? I\'d really like to just add some more bite and realism to the guitar side of things, as I don\'t think neither my Roland XP-50, Yamaha VL70 or Hans Zimmer sample can cut it.

[Robert Kral]

Hi Simon,

I don\'t think its a waste at all, but it does depend a bit. I bought a Fender Strat, one of the cheaper ones, and its been great to have around. I simply cannot play solos, but bar chords and arpeggios etc, especially for rock music, aren\'t hard to learn. Once you get some bar chords down, you can at least do your own rhthym tracks. Very simple melodies would also be possible but that takes a while. My strat was about $300 (mexican version!), it sounds excellent, plays wonderfully, and paid for itself right away. I needed 8 seconds of rock music and it would havve cost me about $700 to hire the guitarist at union rates.

Now whenever I need some extra guitar, rhym or weird stuff, its sittng there ready to go.

Perhaps grab some chord charts from somewhere that list all the bar chords. Once you learn a few, you simply move your hand up and down the neck for all the other chords (F, G, Bflat etc).

For solos, I\'m hopeless, however!!

[This message has been edited by Robert Kral (edited 10-09-2001).]

[pantonality]

Hi Simon,

Can I also recommend you look at the Johnson J-Station (or Line 6 POD). These are amps simulators and can accurately emulate a wide variety of amp and speaker combinations. I have the J-Station and will never go back to my Marshall combo. At $300 it sounds much better (better quality too) in a much wider variety of amp styles. It\'s perfect for recording because you plug it right into the console. The J-Station even has a SP/DIF out.

Regarding playing the guitar I\'ve heard it put this way. Guitar is an easy instrument to play poorly and a hard instrument to play well. Give yourself a month or so to grow callouses on your finger tips and you\'ll be ready to wail all day.

BTW learning to play solos is simply (haha) a matter of figuring out all the positions as it\'s all the same scale (with minor differences for harmonic and melodic minor mode) just in different places. I recommend playing along to the radio for maybe a half hour a day, that\'ll force you to play in less common keys.

In 6 months you\'ll realize guitar is a ton of fun.

Steve

[Doc]

You can pick up a new cheap clone Strat for $150, in fact I\'ve seen them as low as $50 at a flea market. For what you want to do it will be fine. As for geting a good distorted tone on a budget look into picking up a used Digitech GSP-2101 on ebay for around $200. These things have a couple of tubes in them and you can use it for other things in the studio besides guitar (good reverb and effects). There is plenty on the net about the digitech unit for your research. The newer digitech guitar boxes offer less flexability and some players don\'t like the sound out of them as much as the 2101. Good luck with whatever path you choose. . . sometimes its better/faster to go with the real thing and forget about samples.

[Simon Ravn]

Thanks for your replies. The guirar I am considering is a Fender De Armand S-73 which goes for around 400$ at the moment. I will try using my Pulsar and/or OASYS for tube/amp sim in the beginning and will then decide if I should get a POD or something!

[Simon Ravn]

I finally decided on an M-72 instead of the S-73. Now it\'s practise time http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[KenC]

OK, I should add my 2 cents since I\'ve been playing guitar for over 30 years now. I\'m not familiar with the guitar you bought, but its a fender and should meet at least minimum standards for a decent guitar. But for general knowledge, before one buys a \"learner\" guitar ask someone who really plays well to pick it up and see if they can still play well on it. If not, you never will either. Its that simple, and hopefully prevents people from wasting money and time.

[Simon Ravn]

Yes I had a friend with me who tried a bunch of guitars for me. When deciding on M72 or S73 he had no specific preferences, and a guy at the store liked the M72 so I went for that. And hey, I already know 5 chords http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif) hehe. Now I just have to be able to shift swiftly between them. I guess thats the hardest part http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[KenC]

Glad to hear it. I wish you a lifetime of enjoyment with your new instrument. Its a lot of fun to use programs like Gigasampler to make convincing music, but there still is no other greater musical satisfaction that really playing an instrument well. To continue answering your requests, the easiest way to learn is find a good teacher to do lessons in scales, finger gymnastics, and a bit of chord theory, and at the same time get out and jam with as many different (and varied) musicians as you can find.

Best, KenC