Guitarists

Messed up hands? I've got permanent nerve damage and no feeling in my ring and pinky fingers on my left hand from playing guitar (and to a lesser extent karate), doesn't stop me. Passed my Berklee audition that way, was a session player that way. I don't cotton much to physical limitations, if Tony Iommi can do it without fingertips.

Right now I'm working on restoring a Carvin DC 127 from 1985 I got on ebay pretty trashed, but I love restoring guitars so I'll spend the rest of the summer working on that project.
 
Yeah, i know about Django Rhinehart training himself after he lost parts of his fingers as well iirc.

But, it's not just parts of fingers that is the problem, it's like, the whole spring-y sense of my hands are gone, they are quite stiff and feel 'bunged up' with crap, the fact is, i just can't play as fluidly as i did before.
i basically ****ed them up by my overconsumption of marajuana, i was depressed and self medicating with it, and the stuff i was buying was only about 22percent mj, the rest made up of solid crap like tyres and rubber and crap, so over the years my hands just went all stiff.
mj is not good in general, if you overdo it, as it attacks your bones, so it was a combo of that and all the crap in the stuff i was buying, cause i was not smoking it, i was eating it, cooking it into yogurts.

So, aye, i was not the greatest guitarist b4 that, but that was cause i did not practice, but even if i practised now, i could only play so far and my left hand couldn't take me past a certain level due to it feeling all stiff.

i would probably go back to it if i could get that remedied, i always wanted to be able to actually be able to play very wel, i was just too ****ed up back then to put in the effort.

i mean, i did sit and play the guitar a lot in the 90s, but i mainly sat and wrote songs, recording them into my four track, trying to write new ones for the band, instead of researching new techniques etc.

edit: I can still play, but just not as slickly and i know there are things i can't do now that i could've before, mainly lead guitar stuff, like, there was a riff on our last record that i could not get down as slickly as i wanted, it still has a little glitch in there, but i couldn't get it down perfect due to the stiffness, so just had to make do with the best take i could get.
and there is a guitar solo on our first record i got down very slickly, and could not play it back live quite as slickly as i did ten years before.
so, if there are these simple guitar lines i can't reproduce nowadays, there is no way my guitar playing could progress beyond what i could play back then, with the state my hands are on nowadays.
 
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But, it's not just parts of fingers that is the problem, it's like, the whole spring-y sense of my hands are gone, they are quite stiff and feel 'bunged up' with crap, the fact is, i just can't play as fluidly as i did before.

it will help if you play without a guitar pick and loosen those fingers up a bit. Warm ups help as well. Practice your scales for 15 minutes first, even if you're doing something like watching TV and not paying attention.
 
Basicly how much trouble are they to install. I'm looking to upgrade the pickups in my 335 copy and a couple of the pickups I like don't come with covers and a few are still cheaper if you buy the uncovered pickup and seperate covers.
They are for the most part pretty simple. You'll need a sodering iron to secure the cover to the tabs on the bottom of the pick up. Depending on what you have, you might need to wax pot them, but it's not a big deal.
 
it will help if you play without a guitar pick and loosen those fingers up a bit. Warm ups help as well. Practice your scales for 15 minutes first, even if you're doing something like watching TV and not paying attention.

Yeah, when our band re-convened after an 8yrs hiatus, i used to sit and practice scales all the time while watching tv, I mean, everytime i sat down to watch tv, which was a a lot of times, being unemployed an all.
But, my hands were really damaged by then, it only helped me maintain a competant level, i could never progress past a certain level because of the physicla problem I described above.

It's a more serious problem than you realise i think, like, just sitting here now, typing, my hands are ****ed, they just don't have the much spring to them at all.

I find that generally though, if you really have something seriously wrong with your health, people don't generally beleive you, think you are exagerating, or can't possibly imagine the extent of the sickness, and it's because they are sitting at home in perfect health with no bearing at all on your specific physical problems.
 
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It's a more serious problem than you realise i think, like, just sitting here now, typing, my hands are ****ed, they just don't have the much spring to them at all.

I find that generally though, if you really have something seriously wrong with your health, people don't generally beleive you, think you are exagerating, or can't possibly imagine the extent of the sickness, and it's because they are sitting at home in perfect health with no bearing at all on your specific physical problems.

I'm sorry to hear that, friend. I didn't intend to make light of your problem. Have you spoken to a physician about it?
 
I'm sorry to hear that, friend. I didn't intend to make light of your problem. Have you spoken to a physician about it?

You have nothing to apologise for man, you were just trying to be helpful.

I'm sorry my tone came across like I was thinking that, I wasn't at all, that last paragraph was just a general rant that came to me, nothing to do with this, just because I am not feeling too great tonight.

Maybe one day medical science will come up with a way to give me superpowers, and then i can super-busk.

tbh, i don't know if I would play guitar or write songs even if i did, I was only ever really interested in doing that when i was in a band, y'know, it gave me a creative impetuous, cause i knew I would be playing them with other musicians, and in front of an audience.
I think i will probably stick to trying to get better at prose writing in my spare time, that has the upside of you being totally responsible for the piece being good, unlike the collaboration of being in a band. So, that is very refreshing to me, as it is annoying when you only have so much time in a studio to record a song, so never get it quite right, or it goes wrong playing it live, other musicians don't get what you are trying to do with the song etc...

anyway, sorry again if my tone was uber moany back there, you gave good advice for someone under normal circumstances of health, or who had minor health problems in that regard, thanks.
 
It's alright. When life afflicts us with an ailment that keeps us from doing the things we love, it's a hard thing to come to grips with. :O I hope you get better.
 
Ach, I just have a desire to make music at points in my life, i usually concentrate on one thing or the other for a few years, depending on circumstances, whether it's comics, prose or music.

So, that doesn't necesarily have to be made through playing the guitar, I have always wanted to try my hand at using samplers and electronic types of music.
I am very good, if I do say so myself, at coming up with lyrics and melodies, so I would just need the means to create music of any kind to go with that.
I mean, even if my hands were magically repaired, i might not want to sit and practice for years and years to get to a level that was substantially greater than where I was at, if I had the itch to make music again, I might go into trying my hand at samplers and synthesizers.
 
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Me too love playing guitar. I have learned it from my teacher and he says i play it well.
 
So the guitar I'm looking to get new pickups for is a Michael Kelly: Deuce(335copy) which is now discontinued. I actually call the guitar my Warren Haynes guitar. I want to upgrade all of the hardwear, the nut, pickups and even the pots. I want to make this guitar a tone monster while staying with in a reasonable budget. The hardwear, pickups, nut and bridge is:

Grover: Origanal Rotomatics

Rockfield: SWV (Select Wound Vintage)
I'm not sure if this is the exact model in my guitar but it's the closest they now make. The guitar does have a quick disconect already installed.

The bridge and tailpiece is your basic import bridge and tailpiece. Same with the nut.

The upgraded parts I'm currently looking at are:

Grover: Rotomatics with 18:1 gear ratio

Seymour Duncan: SH-1 '59 or Pearly Gates
The '59 set fits my budget way better but the Pearly Gates is what I would rather have. If they weren't so far out out of my budget Gibson: Burstbucks 2 and 3 is what I really want. I've also considered the Gibson: '57 Classics but still out of my budget.

GraphTech: TUSQ nut

As for the bridge and tailpiece I'm looking at the Graph Tech: Resomax NV2 or a Tonepros bridge. But when it comes to the tailpiece I'm may just get the matching tailpiece to the bridge. But I've also wondered how the Tonepros tailpiece would match up with the Graph Tech bridge.

As for the pots and toggal switch I'm still looking.

Since I was asking about pickup covers for this guitar I just thought I would give you guys an idea of what I want to do with the guitar to see what kind of suggestion or thought you had.
 
How much are the 59s? The pearly gates I got weren't even 100 each.
 
Pearly Gates are nice. I like the Air Norton and Air Zone if you are going for that modern meets vintage sound. Dimarzio for life.
 
How much are the 59s? The pearly gates I got weren't even 100 each.

The '59 set is $130 and the Pearly Gates is $95($105 covered) each. If I go with Seymour Duncans I'm gonna get them from my local shop. The pickups might cost a little more but I would rather support my local shop than some big retailer.

I did run across the Gibson: '57 Classic Vintage and Burstbucker Pro for $99-110 and the Gibson: '57 Plus for $120. So those are now being looked at.
 
Yeah, for me Dimarzio is the local guy. But I hear ya. I use the stock Carvin or Jackson pickups, but if I switch it is always Dimario.
 
I'd go with the 59's, honestly. The pearly gates are nice, but they are pretty weak in the output side of things. Though, if you have the cash to throw around, check out these pick ups:

http://www.joebarden.com/main.php?section=Products&pageID=HB and HB TwoTone

I got the single coil pick ups from a local guitar store - original price was $500, but he gave em to me for $350. Gotta say - they're WELL worth the price.
 
Yeah man. I've been seeing them around a lot the past two years or so, though I myself haven't had the opportunity to hear them outside of already produced demo tracks. I've heard good stuff about them. I'm in the design phase of taking a junker Malmsteen strat and turning it into a steam punk styled guitar. Been contemplating picking them up, sine they look so wildly different.

On another note, do you guys know of any good guitar forums? I used to go to the guitar world forums, but last I checked, they got rid of that feature on their site.
 
Yeah man. I've been seeing them around a lot the past two years or so, though I myself haven't had the opportunity to hear them outside of already produced demo tracks. I've heard good stuff about them. I'm in the design phase of taking a junker Malmsteen strat and turning it into a steam punk styled guitar. Been contemplating picking them up, sine they look so wildly different.

On another note, do you guys know of any good guitar forums? I used to go to the guitar world forums, but last I checked, they got rid of that feature on their site.

Have you checked out he forums at Harmony Central or Ultimate guitar?


I actually like the looks of the Lace Alumitones. The bad thing is that guitars with pickups like these will probaly never show up in one of the shops in my area. I'm not even sure if there is a dealer in my area. Just seeing them in person would be nice.
 
How 'bout some gear pics?

Guitar gear, that is.....

;)
 
Two Les Pauls....

The first is a recent model Goldtop Deluxe that I replaced the mini-humbuckers with P-90's....an alnico 2 in the neck and an alnico 4 in the bridge. Basically turned it into a '56 Goldtop. It has a 50's neck and is chambered.

1enwgj.jpg

2n6xnjm.jpg


The second is a '11 Traditional, 8.6 lbs, in Light Burst which on this one seems to be a cross between a Orange Teaburst and a very light Iced Tea or 'Dirty Lemonburst'. It has Duncan Antiquity pickups, with a new/full-charge alnico 2 magnet in the bridge PU.

13zvm9e.jpg

vgoswn.jpg

2lt5x4x.jpg

xudqh.jpg


Both have Historic plastic hardware and nickel bridge/TP, vintage tuners, and an RS 50's wiring kits.


Amp - gone through a whole lot over the years, but I mostly build/hand-wire them from kits. A Deluxe Reverb and a tweed that I switch between a 50's 5C5 Tweed Pro and a 5F6A Bassman...

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6264/board1alc4.jpg
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7449/under1ahx0.jpg
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/755/fullonegl7.jpg

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/4870/backhl5.jpg
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/6568/frontrv3.jpg
 
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Oy. Too lazy to upload anywhere else. PM me and I'll email you a couple.

Sorry. I didnt realize you would need a password. Join the forum or start learning karate. lol.
 
So I'll need a password.....or kung fu.....

:doh:



:oldrazz:


Just post them here! C'mon. :woot: Surprised we don't have more guitar talk here.
 

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