Dad3353

I've never used, or even been tempted to use, oil of any kind on any of my guitars or basses. I do clean them upon acquisition and after heavy use, using a very tiny amount of Dr Duck (I have had the same bottle for a couple of decades now, and it's still over half-full; really only a drop or two at a time, for the whole guitar or bass...)...

Shawn... Excellent, and real progress. I approve the cadence (several moderately short sessions, rather than longer ones...); I think that that, in itself, is helping. It's fairly easy to fit a strap button to the heel of the guitar; it's a pity that the 'tied to head-stock' method didn't please, as you already have all you need for that. Having the guitar 'hold itself' will bring much better feeling for the left hand, and also allow the right arm to relax a little, bringing the confidence that the guitar isn't going to crash to the floor. It really will help a lot, you'll see. If I may suggest, as a little 'light relief' from the intensity of chords and strumming..? Could you try to play the strings individually, note by note..? There's two simple exercises that will always stand you in good stead. Try, for instance, starting on the 6th string (the low 'E'...), playing one note at each of the first four frets (so 'F', 'F#', 'G', 'Ab'...), using the four fingers one after the other. That's 1st fret, Index, 2nd fret Middle, 3rd fret Ring, 4th fret Pinky. Then play the same notes, but in reverse order, so 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, and relax. Same again for the 5th string 'A', one finger per fret, up then down, 4th string etc... This will 'teach' each finger to obey your brain and play the note, and increase dexterity in a useful way. If the stretch for the fingers is too much at first, do the exercise in the same way but from the 7th fret for a while, until the fingers realise that it can be done. Go down, fret by fret, until it works easily from the 1st fret. As a bonus, it would be extremely useful to call out loud the note that's being played, so that the note names and their position on the fingerboard become ingrained. That's optional, but very useful later on. The second useful 'single note' thing to try would be to play a major scale, note by note. The scale of 'C' major, for instance, can be started on the open low 'E', then 'F' (1st fret...), 'G' (3rd fret...), 5th string open 'A' , 'B' (2nd fret...), 'C' (3rd fret...), open 4th string 'D', 'E' (2nd fret...), 'F' (3rd fret...), open 3rd string 'G', 'A' (2nd fret...), open 2nd string 'B', 'C' (1st fret...), 'D' (3rd fret...), open 1st string 'E', 'F' (1st fret...) 'G' (3rd fret...), 'A' (5th fret...), 'B' (7th fret...), 'C' (8th fret...). This will help in 'hearing' notes, and help the fingers to play at all points of the fingerboard. Just a suggestion; keep on with the 'Justin' modules, too; it's just a way of 'ringing the changes' in a useful way. 'Enough..!' I hear you cry. OK; until the next video... Have a splendid day. Douglas

Take both to your luthier, then, so that he/she can see what you're after.

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

Yes, re-fretting is easy, for experienced guitar technicians..! It can be done 'at home', but results can be disappointing, especially if one doesn't have adequate tools for the job. Best done, for the first (and second, and third..!) time on a neck with no particular value. What would 'slightly larger' frets bring to the party..? If it played well before, have the same fitted, and it will play well again. Remember the old adage : 'If it ain't busted, don't fix it.'

I'm assuming from reading your post that you're not going to try re-fretting yourself (a wise decision, I'd say...). You don't give your location, but there must be a reputable guitar technician somewhere close enough. Show him/her the guitar, and they will advise as to the best course of action, probably with several options, depending on budget and result requested. It may just need a fret dressing, or it could be a complete 'good as new' job; you decide on what seems the best choice for yourself, guided by competent professionals. Good luck with it; let us know how it goes, please..?

Good morning, @miahat, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Paul... You might be in luck, then; try to contact The Repair Studio, Mark Adams, at 4 Caer Berllan, Llangefni, Wales LL60 6ND for advice.('Phone zero seven, followed by ..817 479374...). No personal knowledge of his services, but if he can't do the job, he'll know someone who can, I'd hope. Worth a shot..? Douglas

Good afternoon, Paul... Ah, memories of my Watkins Westminster amp, over half a century ago..! Happy daze..! As these amps are now very collectable, I think I'd recommend confiding the amp to a specialist who knows what he/she is doing, and respects the vintage nature of the amp. I can't see your location, but I have two addresses (there may be others...) that are experienced in this field. One in Nottingham (Champ Electronics, hoping he's still working..!), the other in Wiltshire;(Vintage Amp Services...). They can get your amp back to its best performance, maintaining its value as much as possible. Either would, I'm sure, be able to estimate repair costs. The alternative would be to sell the amp 'as is', hoping that the buyer understands that it's a vintage amp, with all the foibles of its age, and will, in any case, need to be attended to. If you intend to keep it, of course, it's a 'no-brainer' : get it fixed by the experts for another fifty years of loyal service. Hope this helps. Douglas

OK, the videos are working, but take forever and a day to display (far too big, probably...). I can now see and hear the 'clean tone a chord' video. and can see that you're going far too fast down the wrong track, so we'll have to start from basics. First thing : have your thumb placed in the middle of the back of the neck. This will enable your fingers to point down onto the fingerboard, not across the strings. You will need to have each finger able to point down onto any one individual string, and the thumb on the back of the neck will help with that. Have you tried to follow and practise the 'How to play chords' video that you posted..? That very first lesson shows how to play an Em7 chord (only one finger required, no barre chords...), then an Em chord (two fingers...). Could you try that exercise and post your video of that, please..? Each string should sound clearly, when playing each string, slowly, one after the other. You'll need to be able to do this to make progress, and once you've got the idea, progress will come all the more quickly. Over to you... Douglas

I don't understand what you mean. I use a PC, and have done for many decades, and videos, correctly posted as were your previous ones, show up. Post your videos in the same way as your original ones and I'll see them. It's not an issue at my end. Over to you...

The videos are not working, I'm afraid. Can you do them again, please..? I'll delete the duff posts once the good video is up...

That'll be that much less time spent practising, then.

Most of the books I buy from Amazon are sold as 'second-hand', at a very low price, compared to new. Might be worth watching out for this ^^^^ title (there's none at the moment; I've looked...) to get a Good Read at reasonable cost..? Just a thought...

@ShawnE : Firstly : congratulations on taking on this video 'blog'; it's excellent, and well filmed. We can see and hear what you're doing, and some little snippets of advice may help. You're doing fine, though, so take it all as positive, not criticism. We all, every one of us, started out in the same way. Just a 'correction', if you will: the high 'E' is usually referred to as the 'top' string, the 1st string. This is because its note is higher than the other strings. Next to it is the 2nd string ('B'...), then the 3rd and so on. The thickest (6th...) string is the bottom string, the low 'E'. Now for the advice; make of it what you will... Take your time; the fastest way of getting anyway in this is to go slowly..! When doing the chord shape ('D', for instance...), don't try strumming it yet, just play, with your pick or your fingers, each string individually (for the 'D' chord, this means sounding only the top five strings, as the low 'E' on the 6th string is not, musically speaking, part of this 'D' chord, and should not sound. The idea here is to get the fingers on the fingerboard to hold down each string so that is sounds clearly, without muffling the neighbouring strings. Sorry, a little aside comes back to my mind. You seem to be having the strings hurt your fingertips. This, up to a point could be considered 'normal', but not after twenty seconds or so..! It appears to me that you are pressing down on the strings with great force, but I suspect that it's because, if you didn't, the guitar would fall to the floor..! Please consider getting a guitar strap, fitted to the guitar such that it holds itself from your shoulder without any need of your left arm and hand. You can then use very little force between thumb (on the back of the neck...) and any finger, to get the fretted note to ring out clearly. All the finger should be doing is just enough to get the note to sound, and not hold the guitar in place. OK, that being said, and once that's sorted, get each finger, on its own, to hold down each note for the 'D' chord, and get it to sound clearly (just that one note...). Start with the 'A' (3rd string, 2nd fret...), using the Index finger. Once it rings out clearly, with little finger pressure, take the finger off, and place the next finger in position on the 2nd string, 3rd fret ('D', using the 3rd (Ring...) finger. Get it to sound clearly, and remove the fingering Now the 1st string, 2nd fret, with the 2nd (Middle...) finger. If that rings out nice and clear, hold it down and put back the Ring finger on the 2nd string. Play each of these strings, and make sure that each rings out clearly. If there's any deadening of an adjacent string, take the fingers off the fingerboard and start again (3rd string and off, then 2nd string and off, then 1st string, then 2nd string put back. Do this, slowly, meticulously, until the 1st and 2nd string both sound cleanly, then hold them in place and put the 1st finger on the 3rd string. Make sure each string rings out clear. If not (no worries; it's normal at first...), just start again, adjusting the placing of each finger carefully until all three strings can be played individually, cleanly. Then , and only then, reward yourself with a slow 'sweep' of these three strings to hear the 'D' chord ring out. Don't do this exercise for very long; a few minutes at most, then rest your hands. A while later, do the same exercise, but for the 'A' chord, finger by finger at first, then adding a finger until it, too, rings out clear. Another rest. There is no need to time the changes between the chord fingerings until the chords themselves are ringing out clearly. T'will come, later (and all the sooner if you go through the laborious part first. Don't worry; things get to be far more interesting, very quickly, but only once the 'baby steps' have been gone though. It'll take a couple of days (less than a week...) doing this stuff two or three times a day for 15 minutes, and it lays the foundations for so much more. Patience, diligence and yet more patience, and you'll soon be up and running. Hope this helps. Douglas

That's excellent, and well filmed, for this purpose, so well done. There is, however, a problem with the tuning. The low 'E' (the sixth string...) is OK, but all the other strings are tuned too low. It may be easy to fix, if you do the following... Play the 6th string (the low 'E'...) at the fifth fret. This note will be 'A', and the 5th string should be tuned to that note. Tune up the 5th string, then, until the 6th string/5th fret and the 5th string 'open' sound the same note ('A'...). Once that is done, play the 5th string at the 5th fret (the note is 'D'...), and tune up the 4th string, open, until it is that same note. Once that's done, you can check you're on track by playing the 6th string 'open', followed by the 4th string, 2nd fret ('E', an octave higher in pitch...). Assuming it's all good, we continue by playing the 4th string at the 5th fret ('G'...), and tune up the 3rd string to that same pitch. Once again, we can check that the 'open' 5th string and the 3rd string, 2nd fret sound the same note ('A'...) an octave apart. Now for the tricky one (not really, but it changes slightly here...). Play the 3rd string at the 4th fret ('B'...) and tune up the second string to match that note. Now for the last one : play the 2nd string, 5th fret ('E'...) and tune up the 1st string to that same pitch (the high 'E'...). If you now play the 6th string 'open', followed by the 4th string, 2nd fret, then the 1st string 'open', you should hear a low 'E', and 'E' an octave higher, then the high 'E'. Read this through again carefully, and try it out; reply here once it's done, or if you have questions or issues. From there, once successful, we can start looking to chord shapes and how to finger them. Firstly, though, the guitar must be tuned as described above. Over to you, and well done, again. Douglas

For learning chord fingering we only want clean tones..!

Very good; thank you. Could you remove all of the effects from the amp, please, to have just a clear, bell-like tone of the string itself, amplified just enough to be audible, then post the same video, sounding each open string on its own, clearly. We're progressing...

From what I see on the video, you're doing nothing like the chord diagram with your fingers, which won't help. I don't know what you're plugged into, but it doesn't sound right, either. We're going to have to go back a few steps to find out how to help you. First things first, then. could you do a video, playing one string at a time, starting with the low 'E', then the 'A', the 'D', the 'G', 'B' and high 'E'. No fingers required on the fingerboard, just the open strings, one after the other. Let each one ring, then damp it, and play the next string. With this simple check, we can hear if the guitar is in tune, and what the amp sounds like. Can you do that for us, please..? Over to you ... Douglas

OK, the '1' indicates the first finger (the Index...), the '2' the second finger (the Middle one...) and the '3' the third finger (the Ring finger...). If the fingers are placed, pointing down towards the fingerboard, the string marked '0' is open, and should be sounded. The string between the '1' and the '2' should be noted with a '0', too, really, and should sound. The low 'E' is marked with an 'X', to not be sounded. The reason for that is rather academic; it may also sound as well, but the name of the chord is often taken from its lowest-sounding note (here, the 'C' on the fifth string, held down by the '3', Ring finger...). Ignore that stuff, and just get the fingertips onto those frets, and get each string to sound clearly. You'll want to avoid having any finger contact on the first and third strings that would tend to 'deaden' them. Try it, and come back with the result, please..? Douglas

You'll have to give an example, as I don't understand what you mean by 'a gap between two or one notes'. Over to you...

This is not an easy one. The EMG should have four insulated wires : Red, Black, White and Green. The non-insulated 'grey' wire' is the earth. The new pick-up is much more simple, with just one insulated Red wire for the signal, the White wire will be the earth. Without the fourth EMG wire, you'll have to try some experiments. In all cases, the new White wire connects to earth (usually a pot case, where you've put the black circle on the photo. The Red wire from the new pick-up may go to where you've drawn the green circle; try that, and try each of the selector positions to see if it works. If you know where any of the other EMG wires were connected, you could try the new Red wire to there, trying each time all selector positions. Sooner or later, one will work, and there's no risk of anything breaking elsewhere, if your soldering is up to the task. The EMG was conceived with coil-switching features (which the guitar may or may not have exploited...); the new pick-up only has one coil, so coil-switching doesn't apply, of course. The new pick-up is single coil, so will not sound the same as the EMG switched as a humbucker (double coil...); the result will be what it will be. Hope this helps. Douglas

I agree; that's a Good Place to start from.

Good call, well done. Now get practising..! (Well, not too hard..! A couple of 10-15 minute sessions, each and every day to start off with...).

Have a look here ... Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book (Left-handed edition...)... ... This will get you on the right track; it's very good. Here's another on the subject, but I've not looked into it very deeply; probably worth the minimal expense occasioned... How to Play the left-handed Guitar ... Another, based more on the electric guitar (although the ideas are the same for any guitar...)... Left-handed Guitar Method ... I usually buy books and methods of the sort second-hand, as they are almost always in 'new' condition, but cost far less. It would be a Good Idea to buy all three, second-hand, in my opinion, as there is always something to learn from all of these methods. The cost is very low. Have a look at these; if questions still remain, get back to us on here. Hope this helps Douglas