Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Give Mrs S a slap and buy the lad an electric guitar... ;]

That Yamaha is a classical, nylon stringed thing. It's a very different style of playing - you fingerpick it. In my experience of teaching kids they're fickle little animals and if it doesn't look cool then generally they won't wanna play it.

Depends how much your lad wants to play, how musical he is and whether he's just in it for the sex and drugs. If Mrs S wants him to go down the classical / jazz route then a Yamaha like that will be perfect as a starter.

Just had a chat with Mrs S - she is insisting we go the accoustic route. A shame really, as I think he would have been more inclined to persevere with an electric guitar. However, she is the one who will have to listen to it!! Looking at the net, I'm inclined to go for a Yamaha CS40 3/4

www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/10144-yamaha-cs40-3-4-size-classical-guitar-natural-gloss.html

Am I missing anything?

she's missed the point entirely. With an electric she won't have to listen to it.

As long as you only buy a headphone amp, or one of those little mini-marshalls:
http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/marshall-ms-2/309

I think he's in it to be a rock star - REM is currently flavour of the month!! To his credit, he can hold a tune when singing (which is more than can be said for me).

Electric every time then. It doesn't have to be loud.

the mrs knows nothing. if you get him a classical he wont play as he wont be getting the sounds he strives to create.

^ This.

As soon as music becomes a chore to work towards rather than a personal goal to achieve that's inspiring and fun, he will start to resent it.

buy this

https://www.lfgss.com/thread38856.html

I lost the battle - she has bought one of these:

www.ritzmusic.co.uk/product_info.php/cPath/1_14/products_id/1309?osCsid=15cb81c5c9f02205419ecdf6ffabf825

Will be looking to upgrade to electric in due course I have no doubt...

The day rock'n'roll died.

The day rock'n'roll died.

ha! (sorry just saw this).

do any of you nerds use compression? never really understood the point of it till i started playing 50s type stuff more regularly and needed to leap out of the mix to play basically clean (but suitably hairy) toned solos and various riffy instrumental bits...

overdrive even with the gain backed all the way off doesn't do it (too much tone colouration), even a clean boost sends my wee little valvey amps into ackerdacker territory so i've been using a cheap shitty compressor. seems to do the job and i'm warming to the overall effect. been checking out demos and reviews but am pretty ignorant as to what i should be looking/listening for.

any suggestions for an affordable, good quality compressor to mainly be used as a clean-boost/pick-me-up?

Also, acoustic pickup for my Sigma (Jap made Martin D28 clone) for live use only (in a 6 piece folk band)? Need something by next week. I'm thinking Fishman single coil unless anyone has a better suggestion. Ta.

Compressors - no idea dooks, that's well out of my field of expertise. Basically you squeeze the signal to boost frequencies without having to apply gain to the amp channel? Is that it? If so I'd have thought any old vintage bit of kit you can lay hands on, found this thread - might help - sounds pricey tho.

As for the pickup, I've got a Fishman single in my Martin and it's superfünkgezeit. Perfect for folk - who's the band?

Thanks ockerdocker. Yep, I was just wondering if anyone used one they could recomend. I tried a CS3 a while back and didn't get on with it... but at the time i was in a very different band (loud math-punky-pop trio) and clean/squash wasn't what i was after. Now i reckon i might think differently. I'm currently using one of those super-cheapo £15 Behringer things. Been watching demos of stuff like the Keely, Barber Tone-Press and a few other industry standards... I'm at a bit of a loss though. Might just eeny-meeny one and see how I get on with it.

Fishman seems like the obvious choice for the folkies. Cheers for the confirmation. It's for a new-ish folky pop band I joined/re-started in the Autumn, provisionally named "Fictive Kinship". Been recording and got gigs coming up in New Cross in May. Will probably pimp on here nearer the time.

Speakking of pimping, if anyone's interested the aforementioned loud math-punk-pop trio (Daddy Long Legs) are re-forming for one night only this Saturday at the Offside Bar on City Road.

We will be skronking through our old set of Heavy Vegetable covers, Wesley Willis tributes and generally stacatto sillyness from about 8. www.myspace.com/daddylonglegsuk free to get in and open late.

www.myspace.com/daddylonglegsuk free to get in and open late.

Yeah! Songs about bikes! I'd be up for it if I weren't otherwise engaged. Have a good one mate.

Yeah! Songs about bikes! I'd be up for it if I weren't otherwise engaged. Have a good one mate.

Of course songs about bicycles! Thanks man. Will do. Had a cracking rehearsal last night. First time we'd met let alone played together in a few years. So much fun. Real ear-to(ringing)-ear grin stuff. It's funny playing songs that were written 7 or 8 years ago when I was in my mid-twenties though. Some subject matter is so alien to me now. These include:

• breaking up with girls who are now long-since married and babied,
  
• smoking and drinking heavily in my shared house bedroom,
  
• being very angsty about having to work in an office and wear work-clothes,
  
• and my beloved "ten speed (carlton) racer"!
  
  

Ahhhh nostalgia-rock eh? eh? eh?

do you need stompbox or rack mounted compressor?

Pedal. Heard goodness about keely, barber and t-rex. I know CS3 and Marshall Ed The Compressor are quite highly regarded too. Was just digging for real-world recomendations really. There's a youtube guy called "gearmandude" who despite the terrible name and terrible taste in man-rock actually does very handy side by side comparisons of just about every pedal available (there's over 600 clips on there). But it's sometimes hard to hear subtleties though a camcorder recording on a laptop's speaker... especially of an instrinsically subtle effect like compression.

Compressors basically both boost and limit - so they boost the gain, but prevent it going over a certain volume, so you don't clip or overdrive. It limits the dynamic range makes all your notes a similar volume, and is invaluable for bass players and certain styles of lead guitar.

I've only ever used a)Sonitus, Waves or Timeworks software modelling when recording,
b)Joe Meek MQ 1 when recording (this was great for vocals),
c)Line 6 Pod XT Live modelled effects for live playing and recording (usually modelling a Dunlop MXR Dynacomp), and
d) whatever is modelled by the Vox AD120VT amp when playing live.

I could not tell you which hardware is best. The pod's great but pricey.

the mxr dyna comp is well priced and considered the industry standard, so it would be a safe option.
this one is the nuts but pricier,
http://www.diamondpedals.com/products/compressor.html
as is this one.
http://www.mpamp.com/pedal/pedals-fgc.htm

@Dooks, if you are doing 50s stuff a compressor might not be what your looking for. If you have a small valve amp, I will assume you are pushing it to get a nice valve driven tone. Unfortunately you cant add much more in volume, it will just clip/add more gain.
What does work really nicely is backing off the volume on your guitar. This cuts the input, effectively cutting the gain on the amp. You wont lose much volume at first, it should just clean your signal. This is the old school way of doing it, saves you some money and the cleaner tone can often sound a lot nicer because the amp is still cooking without being overdriven.
With regards a compressor for 50s stuff. You would have to spend a lot of dollar on one that wont kill the sparkle that 50s music needs. A top boost will just drive your amp, an EQ pedal might work if your amp has a FX loop. Maybe try the BBE sonic stomp for added sparkle.

i agree

And probably more controversially, get an old 90s danelectro and use the neck pickup. Its all the 50s sound you could ever want without blowing your brains out on a Gretsch.

Get an old Watkins Copicat (less than £100 on the 'Bay), instant 50s with the right set-up... It's actually all in the fingers tho'... ;]

If you can find a Copicat that works for less than £100 I'll have 5!
(ready's spoon for serving of humble pie)