Any Musicians or Guitarists Out There?

[Turbo]

I have tried to learn the guitar before but my mind wasn't on it & I struggled, I think partly due to the acoustic guitar I was using. I picked this guitar up tonight at a local auction for £40.

It's a Ibanez Blazer, a 1995 model, made in Japan according to the serial no. It came in a decent hard case with a strap & lead. I don't know much about electric guitars so I'm not sure what model it is or what pickups are fitted. From what I've read online they are regarded as one of the best strat copies at the time, some say they were even better. Most owners seem to love theirs and would never part with it.

I think it is a beautiful guitar & it is in good condition given the age. I would like to try learning to play again this time using an electric guitar. But to do that I need an amp, what would you recommend in the less than £100 price range? There is a used Line 6 Spider IV for sale locally at £50 and they seem to get decent reviews but is it suitable for a beginner?

 

[winchman]

Just buy the £50 one, it will get you started then if you loose interest you should get your £50 back, then for less than £100 you are all ready to go.
The cheap Marshalls are crap but can be had for £20 or so, but are ideal for what you want.
Our son plays, he started out with a Marshall but has since upgraded to a Blackstar valve it was £150 second hand, but its fantastic, he also has a small battery amp which is handy as its tiny.

 

[rtbcomp]

I've got a Fender Firewood (£40.00 Ebay) and a practice amp (Freecycle), just to keep my hand in until I can afford something decent.

I've also got a couple of cheap digital effects units, not really very good at all. Surely there must be some decent effects software out there? I've tried a few but never managed to get them to work.

I never make mistakes, although I do occasionally indulge in spontaneous experimental improvisation

 

[gerrymoore]

The mistake most beginners make (including me) is to buy a guitar that has a neck that is too wide and an action that is much too high. If your guitar has a good action (the height of the strings over the frets) then you are halfway there. As said, the amp just makes your 'noise' louder...it does nothing to help you learn.

I've been playing for a long, long, time but it's only in the last 15 years that I started to get any better. It's easy to learn a couple of songs and then just keep playing them....you need to learn something new as often as possible.

You Tube is an amazing site to learn the guitar..it's the first place I go to learn a new song. I have posted quite a few videos up myself to help people learn 'difficult' songs in an easier way... search youtube for gerrymoore5 ....

 

[rtbcomp]

I've been learning (or at least trying to) to sight read, for that I download MIDI files and load them into Noteworthy Composer, once learnt I then download a backing track.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Line 6 are alright, they're one of the better modelling amps out there. I've just upgraded from a Marshall solid-state to a Marshall valve and its massively better. But I'm quite happy to play with the solid-state at home to practice. As above its the guitar that the sound comes from, I've heard good things about them strat copies. The amp only adds a bit to the overall sound and makes it more noisy!

 

[pedrobedro]

I used to "play" one (using the term very loosely) through the stereo, the amp doesn't make a lot of difference to a beginner. I also had a battery powered amp you could carry round anywhere, ran on two PP9 batteries or an adaptor. I got a cheap practise amp with distortion and it sounds good to my uneducated ear, don't get carried away with the spending side and get a cheap multi effect pedal and have some fun with it.

 

[rtbcomp]

...........
Don't get me wrong, the only thing I can play is a record (or tape/cd/dvd/mp3 depending on how old you are) but amp quality does make a difference to a beginner imo.

....

If you produce a sound you like you're more likely to keep motivated in learning to play.

 

[W4yne]

I have a Korg Pandora PX5D a small unit I can plug into with headphones as not to upset the neighbourhood or I can feed it through a PC or any amp. This unit is brilliant it has internally the pre set sounds of just about every famous amplifier ever produced. This has no doubt been superceded now?

Part of my collection, my old 1938 Gibson Valve amp with Gibson Hawaiian lap steel my Dad had imported late 30s early 1940s, and still sounds sweet.

 

[voipio]

I'd go for some effects pedals, too e.g. distortion/overdrive, delay, reverb and flanger, or go for a decent guitar effects processor which combines all of these, if you want to sound like U2's the Edge.

 

[DanielW]

I once knew a bloke that used an old amp deck and its speakers just for practicing.

The old amp deck is of the kind they made back in the 70's? ie radio,amp,cassette seperates hi-fi system stack.

 

[500e]

Look at VOX as well

 

[DanielW]

Picking up a guitar is easy,its the bad points you may experiance trying to play it.

Book guitar lesson if you can afford it? its the only way for learning to play an instrument,some people have the knack when it comes to palyin musical instruments others have to learn the hard way.

I can play the clarinet(not now due to failing windbags) awsomme sound.

 

[the snooper]

strings make a difference some are very hard and unforgiving on your fingers and make it very hard to fret the strings also have a look on youtube and alike for instructions for setting up the bridge and truss rod, once you have tuned the guitar to perfect pitch it should be exactly the same on the 12th fret if the bridge length adjustment is set up, the next part is how good is the action and does it have any fret buzz if it does then the bridge height and truss rod may need adjusting, as far as amps go if you are only just starting to learn don't spend a wheel barrow full of cash on one until you know the guitar is for you and if you intend to gig it then get at least 100 watts, beware of what you buy all that glitters is not gold, search on ebay for faulty guitar amps and see which makes pop up regularly there are some, effects pedals there are some good ones and some nasty ones do some research before you spend I use a boss gt10

 

[vmaximus]

I started by coupling the stylus wires on an old gramophone to a jack socket on the back and played my first guitar a 1962 Burns Vista Artiste through that in our front room, it sounded awful but I thought I was the poodle's dangly bits. Buy the line 6 amp, it sounds the right price and it will give you the effects that you want while you are learning, then you can get a better amp and either separate effects or multi effect board like the one above as you improve. If you loose interest you will be able to sell them and get your money back. Have a look on Fleabay you might be surprised how much your guitar could be worth if you get fed up with it. YouTube is another place to look for any tutorials either playing or amp set ups. As mentioned before strings do make a difference so get a decent set and the heavier the gauge the harder it will be on the fingers, i have always used light gauge .009 to .042's. I have had line 6 stuff for years and always been satisfied with their products. Have fun.

 

[Tigman]

Ive been slapping the bass for a few years , still cant play it lol

 

[the snooper]

Ive been slapping the bass for a few years , still cant play it lol

i play a bit of bass aswell and drums but don't practise the drums as much as I should

 

[500e]

Don't play a thing, but did a lit of work in the 60 with Burns guitars VOX amps & reverb units of a make that I cant remember (could have been Bird they were S**t)

 

[DanielW]

Music instrument palyin runs in our family....evn the leccy meter is on the fiddle.

 

[brightspark]

Music instrument palyin runs in our family....evn the leccy meter is on the fiddle.

is that called blowing your own trumpet