Crusoe

I can't say I've heard of them. Looks interesting, but how does it sound? It's a bit out of my price range.

Welcome to the forum Lewis. Do think there will ever be a day when a boy can beat a shark in a swimming race? You did say to let you know if we had any questions!

Score! That should be plenty loud for playing in the house. I have a 20W ss amp and it never approaches halfway on the volume knob.

I'll not be much use at advising on a particular amp, as I don't have very much experience with them, but what sort of budget do you have in mind?

I'm afraid I can't help, but I did notice that Tube Screamers of that vintage sell for quite a lot of money.

I'm just a bedroom player, so I'll just have to wear shades.

I am sorely tempted to get one of these Adam Black OM-RB Acoustic Guitar Rainbow | Reverb UK , just for the fun of it. I think they look great. It's not going to be the greatest guitar in the world, but my daughter has their O2-T travel guitar and it's not a bad wee instrument. My only niggle with it is that the nut is set slightly off centre. It's maybe half a millimetre to the treble side, but it still sounds ok.

I'm away from base for a few days and brought my guitar with my, but when I arrived I realised that I'd forgotten my amp. Now, I'm not too far away an it would only be a 40 minute round trip to go and get it, but I have access to an acoustic guitar while I'm here, so I'm not bothered. However, I happened to be scrolling through Facebook yesterday and came across this being advertised NAMM 2023: Positive Grid unveils the Spark Go, a 5-watt modeling amp that fits in your pocket | Guitar World. I decided to take a punt on it, as it's something I can slip into my guitar bag if I am on the move. It doesn't ship until late May, but I'll leave a review after I receive it. It can be used as a Bluetooth speaker too. At the minute it's on an early bird offer for £89 + VAT (£105 in total). After that it will be £129 +VAT.

I wonder if @Frank Blank would be interested in buying it...

Welcome Mark

Will you make a gingham scratchplate? Please? Someone has to!!

Welcome to the forum @BadSituation

I'm another one in the "it doesn't really matter" camp. I doubt if I could tell the difference between the most expensive wood and plywood, other than the weight.

There a few similar guitars on Reverb and they seem to correspond with the prices Douglas suggests. If you are able to remove the stickers and polish it up a bit, you be able to get a few quid more, though some people might say that would ruin the mojo,.

It wasn't necessarily the best gig I've ever been to, but U2 in Botanic Gardens, Belfast in 1997 is one 9f the most memorable. There was an IRA ceasefire, so we had peace of sorts. I finished work at 3.30pm and went early to get a good spot. I was right at the barriers at the front, between the main crowd and the VIPs. The band passed me almost within touching distance as the took to the stage.

Could you use WD-40 on a cotton bud to remove the rust, or would it cause problems? I was thinking that doing that would mean you wouldn't have any dust coming off on the guitar.

That looks amazing. Disappointed by the lack of gingham scratchplate though...

Thanks Douglas. It was just when I thought that I had nailed it at full tempo, then realised I was only playing it at half speed, I could have cried. Then I laughed at myself.

I've been trying to learn this for about a week and a half. I was having trouble with the little descending run in the chorus, so decided to use the metronome. The song is at 138bpm, so I decided to start at half speed and work my way up. It was going well and I was able to play the piece at almost full speed, but something still didn't seem right. I then realised that the notes I was playing were eighths but I needed to be playing sixteenths . Oh well, I'll just have to keep working at it.

Can you give us an example of the chords you are playing? If you play an open E chord you will finger fret 2 on the A and D strings and fret 1 on the G string. You will strum all six strings to play the chord. If you play an open A, you will finger fret 2 on the D, G and B strings. You will only strum the A, D, G, B and E strings, missing the thickest (E) string.

I'll not talk about the mixing, because I wouldn't know what I'm talking about. The song itself, the playing and the vocals all sound really good. I could imagine this being played on the radio. Well done.

Welcome to the site Alan. The finger pain will go as the callouses form and you'll get there with the co-ordination. Just take your time and enjoy it.

Yeah, I do the slow start and build my speed up thing. I suppose I should clarify that what I meant was, even with parts that I can play, if I am too tense, I will have more trouble playing them. My playing won't be as fluid.

Rookie error Frank. You should have used duct tape, not sellotape.

Welcome Tom!