grcsomd
December 28th, 2006, 11:22 PM
Folks,
I am glad I found this online forum and want to thank Robert for recomending it. I was recently online looking for reviews of the Squier '51 and found his site and very nice videos and review of the '51.
I have posted a clip or two and since a few have asked, I wanted to share with you something about my background and gear, what I am looking for out of playing, etc..
I had a neighbor who taught me some basic chords and a few songs on an acoustic about 10 years ago. My first guitar was a Vantage dreadnought with solid spuce top. I have always wanted to learn how to play Zappa and Rush style music. They don't do a whole lot with acoustic guitar, so in the last two years I finally broke down and bought a Carvin bolt kit. It took me a few weeks to put it together and get it all setup right. Shortly after I put the Carvin together I started using an RP50 Modeling processor pedal. I recently hooked up an expression pedal to the RP50 and aside from a Kustom 30 Watt solid state amp, thats pretty much my setup. I use Acoustica Mixcraft for recording. Most of the time I just play to relax and see what comes out, fool around with some Zappa or Rush inspired licks/progressions but I also free jam. Lately I have also started playing some classic Pink Floyd tunes... and maybe a little Grateful Dead, a little Hendrix. I am always concerned that something I play and think is original is really a rip-off of something I heard before... (There are only so many notes on the guitar).. I am not really too good at covering other folks material.. even if I do, I normally make up my own arrangement, which is usually pretty far off.. ;) I tend to use very heavy effects and mostly as a crutch since I don't like what I hear playing clean.. In that respect I admit I am lazy and have not put in the time to learn how to sound good clean on electric.. When I want to hear clean, I typically pick up an acoustic.. Some day I hope to improve so I can back off on the effects.. but for now I am having a lot of fun with the sound. Some of my guitar playing friends suggest getting a "real" tube amp which is more forgiving noise-gate wise (shrug) I am more inclined to try various patches on the RP50 and see if I can get some recognizable tone out of my setup.
In terms of music theory, terminology, reading music, etc. I can read most guitar tabs, but mostly play by ear. I am not sure I can even play a major scale, or know what it means that a song is played in the key of "x"... I put the guitar down for about a year and just picked it up again recently, hoping for a fresh start. I taught my two teenage kids to play guitar, enough to get them started and now they are taking "real" lessons; one is concentrating more on bass...but he borrows my Carvin electric often enough that he just got his own Squier '51 for Christmas.. ;) Some day I hope to be able to play Frank Zappa's "Sleep Dirt" clean through.. I am only about 1/4 of the way there, and I have been at it for more than five years now.. I have not seen any tabs for it.. so its a lot of heavy lifting..:)
Thanks for listening...!
I am glad I found this online forum and want to thank Robert for recomending it. I was recently online looking for reviews of the Squier '51 and found his site and very nice videos and review of the '51.
I have posted a clip or two and since a few have asked, I wanted to share with you something about my background and gear, what I am looking for out of playing, etc..
I had a neighbor who taught me some basic chords and a few songs on an acoustic about 10 years ago. My first guitar was a Vantage dreadnought with solid spuce top. I have always wanted to learn how to play Zappa and Rush style music. They don't do a whole lot with acoustic guitar, so in the last two years I finally broke down and bought a Carvin bolt kit. It took me a few weeks to put it together and get it all setup right. Shortly after I put the Carvin together I started using an RP50 Modeling processor pedal. I recently hooked up an expression pedal to the RP50 and aside from a Kustom 30 Watt solid state amp, thats pretty much my setup. I use Acoustica Mixcraft for recording. Most of the time I just play to relax and see what comes out, fool around with some Zappa or Rush inspired licks/progressions but I also free jam. Lately I have also started playing some classic Pink Floyd tunes... and maybe a little Grateful Dead, a little Hendrix. I am always concerned that something I play and think is original is really a rip-off of something I heard before... (There are only so many notes on the guitar).. I am not really too good at covering other folks material.. even if I do, I normally make up my own arrangement, which is usually pretty far off.. ;) I tend to use very heavy effects and mostly as a crutch since I don't like what I hear playing clean.. In that respect I admit I am lazy and have not put in the time to learn how to sound good clean on electric.. When I want to hear clean, I typically pick up an acoustic.. Some day I hope to improve so I can back off on the effects.. but for now I am having a lot of fun with the sound. Some of my guitar playing friends suggest getting a "real" tube amp which is more forgiving noise-gate wise (shrug) I am more inclined to try various patches on the RP50 and see if I can get some recognizable tone out of my setup.
In terms of music theory, terminology, reading music, etc. I can read most guitar tabs, but mostly play by ear. I am not sure I can even play a major scale, or know what it means that a song is played in the key of "x"... I put the guitar down for about a year and just picked it up again recently, hoping for a fresh start. I taught my two teenage kids to play guitar, enough to get them started and now they are taking "real" lessons; one is concentrating more on bass...but he borrows my Carvin electric often enough that he just got his own Squier '51 for Christmas.. ;) Some day I hope to be able to play Frank Zappa's "Sleep Dirt" clean through.. I am only about 1/4 of the way there, and I have been at it for more than five years now.. I have not seen any tabs for it.. so its a lot of heavy lifting..:)
Thanks for listening...!