Dad3353

Good afternoon, @alembic1989, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

In this context, it indicates 'flattened'; I'd prefer to think of 'B flat, flattened fifth' in the case presented (I don't think of 'A#', usually...). It's a valid substitution for Dm, when passing through to C. Sounds good..!

... or ... Where would you consider the Root to be..? That would determine its harmonic importance.

Good evening, @Jeff29361 , and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Done (lacks a 'Never' choice for 'Disposing of guitars'; I replied 'Once only' as nearest neighbour...).

I've just scotched this on my PC (same issue...) by rubbing out the latest 'Windows Edge' update which crept in, crapped, and has now been booted out. Thank you, CCleaner, Good Job.

Good afternoon, @krysh , and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Good evening, @Toms Guitars , and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

I don't find this strange at all. Most guitars, of the same make and model, are very similar, once a set-up has been done. Some folks (quite a lot, it would seem...) even commission custom guitars from builders; obviously they haven't been able to play 'em beforehand..! They're just confident that the spec they agreed with the Builder will satisfy them, and they're mostly right. I will admit to having gone through the whole range of cymbals in the shop, once, (I'm a drummer...), but have also bought decently spec'd stuff online, and never been disappointed. If it's broken or damaged, that's a different affair, but, to me, a Tele is a Tele is a Tele, really. We're all different...

Good afternoon, @Badscrew, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. I started a few days after my 16th birthday, so 1966, with money from my first meagre pay-packet. Happy daze.

Ha..! Searching for that oh-so-elusive 'clean' sound, eh..? Good luck with that (and the tap-dancing lessons...).

Good evening, @bouvier, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

... which Google translates as ... Hello I see you changed the peavey pickups. Have you already sold the old pick ups? I'm interested Hello

It'll take a while, and I doubt that I could get a wide enough angle to get them all in one shot, anyway. If I'm allowed regular pics, one by one, I'll see what I can do, but they're mostly stored up in my 'den', where it's cold, and I've little energy for climbing those stairs. Patience (but, be warned: they're not top-flight 'boutique' guitars, anyway..!). Here's two that I have 'to hand'... Xavier XV610, bought for little money from the US, and a delight to play. Split-coil 'chimie' humbuckers, a bit 'Ricky-ish'. It's my second; the first, similar but bright yellow, went to our singer, as he 'clicked' with it... ... and my 'go to' acoustic, on the wall behind my armchair, is a Takamine G220NS, acquired s/h from a buddy of Our Eldest. No electronics, just a simple, honest-to-goodness nice acoustic... More later, as and when I'm inspired (and that the camera and flash are fully charged up...).

Good evening, @2pods , and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Hmm... For 2000€ I would expect 'em to be good.

The 'trick' to doing this with no risk is to ease a boot-lace under the knob's skirt (oh err..!), wind it loosely all around, then gently ease it up. The knob will slide up its splines, no problem. Check, of course, that it doesn't have a grub screw (some vintage guitars have 'em, but not Gibsons; they're push-on...). Well done for fixing the issue anyway.

Two further comments, if you would; take what you will from them... Firstly, some encouragement. There are moments (there always are; no exceptions...) where one 'hits a wall'. We've all been there; some are still stuck there..! One thing I use, to test one's progress, is to reverse the guitar (righty, play lefty and vice versa...). This simulates to some extent the way it felt when you first picked up a guitar, and illustrates the progress that has been made. Try playing whatever you're good at in this 'reversed' manner. Tough, eh..? Now turn it back to your normal fashion, and smile at how relatively easy it seems, and carry on building. Another 'top tip', for which the benefit is a little less immediate, but worth solid gold, in my humble opinion and experience, is the 'investment' in the most useful guitar method I have (and I have a stack of 'em...). An 'oldie but goldie', it's the ludicrously-priced... Mickey Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar: Book 1 Paperback – 30 Dec. 2004 ... I first bought this, in total innocence and ignorance together with my first guitar, a Russian-made cheese-wire-strung acoustic, with a flat 'classical' fingerboard, and a bolt to hold the neck to the body. I knew nothing (late sixties...), and have spent the many decades since working through the stuff in there. The very first pages are daunting, but, by perseverance and stubbornness, I unwittingly laid the foundations for what I can now play (and understand what I play...). Disclaimer, for those that don't know me... I'm a drummer, and play guitar and bass solely for fun; I'm still working on 'Misty', a favourite of mine. I've worn out several copies of this book, and it's the one method I've gone back to, every time I feel I've 'hit a wall'. At the price asked, it's mad to not give it a shot. Two comments, did I say..? OK, here's the third one, for even further encouragement, and meditation... It's the first forty years that are the hardest, after which things sometimes tend to get slightly easier. Keep well, stay safe. Douglas

Good morning, @Defontaine, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. This is a common enough issue with those learning the guitar on their own, and is easy enough to answer, but it's maybe not an answer you're going to like. Those chord diagrammes are a fairly simple means of getting beginners started, and are very useful. They are, however, a bit like 'painting by numbers' as far as Music is concerned. No, that's not snobbery (I was a Learner, too, some decades ago, and went down a similar route...). You've already worked out, I suspect, that the figures represent the neck of the guitar, seen from above the finger board, looking down. The double line at the top represents the nut of the guitar (where the string's sounding length ends and they go on to the tuning pegs...). The vertical lines are the strings; the horizontal ones the first frets of the guitar. The number outside of the diagramme indicates at what fret the diagramme is placed (in all three here, it's the first fret, hence the double line for the nut...). The black dots, and the black bar, are the fingers of the Player, '1' for the index, '2' the middle, '3' for the ring, and the '4' is the pinky...). Above each picture, the 'O' shows a string to be played 'open', that's to say with no finger on any fret, but is to be heard, the 'X' shows a string that is not to be played, either by simply not plucking or strumming it, or by 'damping' its sound by some means (using the palm of the other hand, or lightly touching the string with an adjacent finger...). The letters below the diagramme tell us the name of the chord (C major, D minor and F major respectively...). All of that is perhaps easy enough to explain, but the difficulty, for a beginner, is the clean execution of these chords, most especially the 'bar' chord, 'F'. It's played by laying one's index flat over all six strings, then placing the other fingers on the strings at the frets indicated. That's quite a job when starting out, and many folk struggle with it if there's no-one to show how that is to be done, comfortably and quickly. What to do, then..? First recommendation: understand that it's not essential, especially as a beginner, to play every string, every time. If you're strumming these chords, it's very common to only play either the bottom half or the top half; the song won't suffer. If it's hard to play, play what you can and move on. It'll come, but not if you persist in a technique too early. How to acquire this technique..? the short answer is: good guitar tuition, with a tutor. OK, OK, that's not possible for everyone, but it's the best route just the same. Meanwhile, here's what to do. Use that same fingering pattern, but further up the neck, at the seventh fret, for instance. Placing the fingers higher up is easier. Do this as an exercise, not when playing a song, as the resulting chord won't be the right one for the song. Just get used to getting the fingers in place, slowly, methodically, ensuring as best as possible to get all the six strings sounding correctly. Move the whole position up a fret and do it again, then back down a fret; continue doing this, placing the fingers, playing the chord slowly, adjust the position until it sounds right, then back up a fret, then back down... Once this becomes a bit more natural (a couple of weeks, doing this for a few minutes every day...), move down to the sixth fret and do the same exercise. After a while, gradually moving down the neck, you'll find the 'F' chord easier to play, cleanly. Take your time; I often say that the fastest way to play is to do it very, very slowly. That's the secret to rapid results. There, that's enough for now; I hope this helps a little. Well done, and carry on; meanwhile... Keep well, stay safe. Douglas

Good afternoon, @Peter_K_, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Good afternoon, @Jag, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. Tips..? Here's a couple, from another 'oldie'... The fastest way to learn to play anything is to go slowly. Get it right at slow speed, then gradually up the tempo. Slow and steady; that's the way. For longer pieces, learn the last few bars first. Once they're mastered, add the preceding few bars and start again. Rinse and repeat until you reach the beginning You'll find that you're playing into familiar territory as you progress, and the endings sparkle, as you'll have played 'em so much. Have fun, though, that's the important bit.

It's a darned shame that you're the other side of The Channel; that's a quite fine guitar for a more than reasonable price. Good luck with the sale; sooner or later someone is going to get a very good deal indeed.

Some of this comes with practise, but another approach is to not play barre chords..! No, it's not a joke; it's not necessary, for much modern music, to play all the strings. Not the same for the classical guitar repertoire (and there are many tiny tots managing to play full chords on flat finger boards, so it can be done..!). Most of the guitar stuff I play, for instance, uses jazz-style 'drop-two' chords; there are very few barre chords used in jazz playing. What style (what repertoire...) are you aiming for..? I can't think, off-hand of many genres that use the whole width of the finger board, except campfire stuff or some folk strumming. Have a look here, for instance; there are many other sources and examples of how to do without barring and such ... The Barre Chord Alternative ... I started playing, at sixteen, on a Russian-built steel-strung classical-style guitar, with a wide, flat neck, as thick as a baseball bat. My first method book was Mickey Baker's 'Jazz Guitar', where the whole first page is full of chord diagrammes. It was a struggle, and far from ideal, but it taught me a lot. I don't believe in the 'small hands' syndrome, really; it's just a case of adapting one's technique to one's morphology. If you really need them, start off by playing them at the twelfth fret, and move down a fret each week or so. You'll find it all comes together, just by doing it, and there's no 'silver bullet'. I certainly wouldn't recommend a smaller guitar; your choices are already limited enough. Perseverance is the key, I'd say; that's how everyone learnt, whatever their physique. Hope this helps.

Good evening, @Cutsdean, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.