randythoades

As I said, I have tried different sized tremolo blocks of steel and brass and couldn't tell the difference (sorry if that was unclear on my post). I can't tell the difference either between a floating or fixed/blocked tremolo either, I only do it for convenience as I don't use the trem.

I don't use the tremolo much, but I do believe it adds an airy element to the tone, so I tend to fix it down it in Eric Clapton style. I have tried steel and brass blocks of various sizes but I haven't found it add or reduce tone in any big or meaningful way. The only difference I found was when swapping a really cheap cast trem from an import guitar for a 'proper' one. It added a little (and only a little) of body to the tone, but that could have been a combination of fit, quality, saddles, the trem itself as well as the trem block.

I could see a medieval Angus Young rocking one of these...!!

Notes? What are these 'notes' people talk about? All I hear is random white noise... Ahh, maybe that is my tinnitus and I need to turn the amp up

I will echo other responses. A lot of guitar tone is 'in the fingers' so an expensive guitar won't necessarily sound better to you. It might be slightly easier to play and the components nicer, or even just a different colour. If that makes you want to pick it up and play more often then it starts to become worth it, but overall not necessary. I have splashed out on custom made guitars as well as US made Fenders and Gibson that I didn't like for one reason or another until I found my perfect guitars in a Squier and a Vintage. Both of which wouldn't be considered to be expensive, but they feel perfect to me.

Help with what? Only you can decide what not to take with you. Just take a few photos of guitars you are willing to part with (which is the hardest part...!! ) and either post them in the For Sale section here on GC, or on other well known auction sites. If you put them at reasonable prices then they will sell quickly. Trouble with some auction sites is that people over price their items and they stay listed and unsold for months.

Nothing at all. This is the way that I do it myself. I was just adding a comment about your point about whether a headphone output would be required.

The Joyo series do work with headphones if necessary, but it is quite a low output as it isn't the right level for headphones. I use mine with my IEM headphone amp if I need to. But for purely practice I use a Vox amplug which could also use the headphone out to run into a DAW.

I would suggest using one of the Joyo or Tech 21 amp simulators (there are several flavours to choose from depending on your amp preferences). I use the Joyo American Sound version (Tweed) which I slightly preferred to the Tech 21 Blonde. Although you mention analog, I would be surprised if many of the amp simulators with IR are anything but digital anyway, but I agree that I like to have knobs to twist. You can add reverb etc in your DAW. The Joyo ones already have cab simulation built in and mine records very well. I have tried the VST route and was just too many options for my tiny mind, so went back to hardware. Mine was about £35 new, but you can get them for less on eBay. The upside is that it also doubles as a backup for gigs, or even the basis of an ampless setup.

It is often a good idea to replace the wiring at the same time, but not a necessity. Keeping the wiring installed shows you where to solder the connections, and to be honest, investing another £50 of wiring and pots into a budget guitar means you will have spent more than the guitar is worth. If you do go for it I would suggest getting a new scratchplate and just wire the new bits all onto a new plate. Then you can remove it and replace the original one when you sell the guitar and upgrade to a new one.

Yes, very sad. A good innings though. Saw the Bluesbreakers play once in Guildford. Cracking gig.

Just stick with it, follow your tutor and keep at it. I don't think many of us on here can claim to have 'done it all' on guitar, we all need help and we all have stuff we can't play. You generally only hear other people playing stuff they can actually play rather than the stuff they can't. You can already play a huge amount better than someone else just starting their journey and probably a huge amount better than some that have been playing for years. I had a massive issue with Mr Brightside by the Killers. The band wanted to play it, but I just can't get it. I have tried. The melodic intro section that repeats through the song is just beyond me and my fingers. So I got them to slow it down and change the key by a semitone and we did it acoustically like a country song with open chords. They got to play it and I managed to change it sufficiently enough for me to play it. Crowd still liked it and sang along so everyone was happy.

The best advice I got was from a guitar teacher (not mine). He told me to join a band. I said that I couldn't do that because I just couldn't play... He asked me to play for a few minutes and then asked why I was so frustrated. I said that I wanted to play like Clapton, Van Halen and Chuck Berry, but I just sounded like me. He agreed and pointed out that those players really only played in one style too (their own), and none of them could play like me either! I was about 18 months into playing at this point. I gained confidence in that, whatever I can do I do in my own style, shaped through experience, bad habits, physical restrictions etc and I realised that I didn't need to play everything in every style. I just needed to play the stuff I wanted in the style I play, both good and bad. Some songs work for me and some don't. In a band you pick up so much, you gain confidence and you push yourself to keep up with the best player there. You don't have to play live, it could just be a regular jam in someones living room. Once you have gotten over that initial hurdle of being able to play the main open chords, some barre chords, some major and minor pentatonics then the rest is window dressing, you can play along with a small group. A large proportion of the pop, rock and blues from the last 70 years have featured pretty much this. Some players never progress beyond that, some go on and on. As @Dad3353 says, pick a few songs that you like and play a simplified version of it (there are bound to be simple versions on YouTube), play for 15 mins at a time and then gradually add in bits as you learn them, it doesn't have to be note perfect, it is just an approximation. I used to jam with a guy who could play any scale you wanted at 100 miles an hour top to bottom, but couldn't play Knocking on Heavens Door.

Everything that @Dad3353 says above. It happens to everyone, whatever their skill level. Sometime, just taking a week off really helps. For some reason the brain digests everything when you aren't even playing and suddenly you make a jump forward without even realising it.

Definitely. But I suppose that the more you play with that much gain you end up doing it naturally. I would be horrendous at this, I find palm muting easy enough but I can't mute unwanted string well...!

My wife says the same and I know what she means. It isn't a nice full pleasant sound like a full acoustic, but it is much louder than the solid body electric. I am tending to play more acoustic than electric now in any case so try to bury myself in the furthest part of the house to prevent the banging on the ceiling/floor or walls to 'turn that bloody thing down'...

Yes, as far as I know this is correct. Certainly the way I have read it before. You will often see it like that (and below) but with the chord box above the bar and not the finger tab, but Bo Rhap is a little more complex than your standard 12 bar blues to notate

Welcome @Matt81. I am also in the vicinity of Woking so our paths may cross...!

I can't see his right hand properly for palm muting, but it seems to me like he is effectively stopping the G string from sounding after the note with the flesh of his first finger. He has his fingers positioned unusually for this sort of player. Certainly when I was learning and everyone wanted to be like Steve Vai et al, you were taught to play literally with the very tips of the fingers and the thumb down the centre line of the neck as it gives a lot more freedom to move and stretch across intervals. He seems to play in a bluesy style with thumb slightly over. Also, often on the lick he is adding vibrato on the G string note whilst then going back to the B string, thus masking any extraneous noise. I am sure it isn't deliberate, it is just the way he learned to play.

To be honest, any of them will do it, but you are paying for flexibility with the Fender and the Boss. The Katana is incredibly useful and reliable and sounds great, but really shines in a cover band situation where you cover multiple genres, the Champion a little less flexible but still covers a lot of bases. This makes them great for home practice or when you play a variety of things. But if you are playing blues (which I know can cover a lot of ground) I would pick the one amp that does the sound you like, the only way is to try them out. You might not like the mid gain amp model on the Katana but love the equivalent on the Fender for instance. The you have one you like and the extra voices are just a bonus, but no point getting one that has all the flexibility but no tone that you love. If your blues is at the heavier end then the Orange Crush series is great. I have a friend who has one and that mid to heavy gain sound is really nice. I wasn't so keen on it's lower gain sounds so wouldn't choose this for the style of blues that I like. Out of this choice I would choose the Fender because I really like a blackface tone rather than full on high gain drive tones. In fact, for myself, I would just get a second hand 2000's Fender solid state such as the old Frontman series, late 90s Deluxe 112 or maybe an older Peavey Bandit. But I much prefer a solid state tone than a valve tone so your opinion might vary.

That is lovely. I have a similar Aria that I am struggling to get on with, mainly due to the size. But this style does look beautiful.

I struggle to tune 6 strings accurately. Don't think I would manage 12...! Looks nice though.

I have been trying this on my spare guitar at work. I can't pick fast enough on acoustic for the riff itself, but works for me palm muting it and starting with an upstroke. Even better it I pull off the 15th fret B string and letting the G string finger rest on the 14th fret for a tiny bit longer. The barre hardly makes a noise and is covered by picking back onto the B string again. But I suppose it depends on gain levels needed.

Yes, the barre is closer to a mute and is much less likely to sound clearly than the open G. Certainly in the way I play for right or wrong.

The OP already has an acoustic and is looking to get an compact electric for under £400