Guitarists

[Spider-Who?]

To get the most out of learning your scales and the modes, you need to also learn your chords in tandem. How the various modes relate to the chord tones is everything. I've known the modes forever, but for example, I couldn't make a Dorian scale work until I learned how to make it fit with a minor one to a major four chord. Once you've got the modes ingrained, that's when it gets fun, because that's when you can start playing with non chord tones and modulating the modes. That's where the real flavor of music is.

This pretty much. I'd also suggest looking into the Guitar Grimiore books. Their book about scales and modes is top notch.

I've been playing for about 15 years. From a technical aspect, I'm pretty good (without trying to be a braggart - feel free to check out my music in my sig ), but the aspect of scales and modes and advanced theory had always been my Achilles heel. I just could never find the drive to really buckle down and be a student of it. I've always gotten by with my ears, but within the last year or so, I've realized that its hindered my playing more than I ever realized. I've recently started to try and really dig my nose into the technical aspects of things.

 

[jaqua99]

Guitarists, let me ask you a question, what do you prefer out of your drummer? Technical ability? Or natural feel/groove?

 

[KalMart]

Guitarists, let me ask you a question, what do you prefer out of your drummer? Technical ability? Or natural feel/groove?

Musicianship and musicality is ultimately always most important for any player...you, the drummer, etc. So moreso the latter, although you hope that the drummer can at least keep time. Do what's best for the song.

 

[Brain Damage]

Guitarists, let me ask you a question, what do you prefer out of your drummer? Technical ability? Or natural feel/groove?

I've played with all sorts of drummers. From the ones who were both technical masters and still very groovy to the ones who didn't have any technique or groove to speak of. And in all of those scenarios, I've always enjoyed playing more with a groove-orientated drummer, even if they're chops aren't quite up to snuff. Technique orientated players who don't have a good groove tend to just do fill after fill after fill, never focusing on establishing a pulse for the rest of the band to sit on. These drummers are hell to play with.

But really, that goes for any kind of musician. If you play for yourself, you'll end up playing a lot of gigs by yourself in your basement to a crowd of no one. If you play for the song and don't show off too much you'll suddenly find a lot more musicians giving you calls to play with them.

 

[Spider-Who?]

Guitarists, let me ask you a question, what do you prefer out of your drummer? Technical ability? Or natural feel/groove?

I'm in love with the groove.

 

[Brain Damage]

Edit

 

[Megarob]

Guitarists, let me ask you a question, what do you prefer out of your drummer? Technical ability? Or natural feel/groove?

I have been playing music with people for a little over 13 years, and I can say for me, a drummer must be confident in what they are doing. i can't be leading a band with a drummer that lacks confidence. Technical ability, natural feel, groove, creativity, all means nothing if I think they are gonna choke at a gig.

That's the biggest thing for me. Everything else can be worked on and improved as well.

 

[3rdstone]

Whoa, a guitarist thread on the Hype! I've so missed out on this one.

Well, I have a question about Tonerider pups in strats.

Simply put, do any of you guys have experiences of Tonerider pick ups? I have a Tokai Goldstar strat from -85 which I love. Unfortunately the original pups were changed to Fender Noiseless, and whenever I plug in some other strat I just realise how good this very well built guitar really could sound.

It's perhaps a bit hard to explain exactly what I mean, but to me these Noiseless pups feels quite "dull" and some lack of "personality". And over the years I've realised that there's seems to be quite some other strat-guitarists who thinks the same.

I know there's tons of great makers of guitar pups out there, but I just don't want to pay tons of money just to try lots of different pups. Tonerider has got some really great reviews (esp. considering their price), and I felt it could be great to start out there.

I tend to play bluesier/"Gilmourish" stuff on this strat. If I want to play heavier/metal stuff, my Tokai SG or Kramer fix that. The two Tonerider sets I'm considering are Pure Vintage or Classic Blues.

Well, any experiences and opinions are wellcome.

 

[ChickenScratch]

I deon't know toneriders, but I do know Dimarzios and it sounds like you need a set of HS3's. It's a single coil that's really a stacked humbucker and works in all 3 positions. You can hear it on every Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen record, as well as Eric Johnson. It's very versatile and noisless.

If you wanna spend some serious money though then you can go with Lace Alumitones.

 

[3rdstone]

Yeah, I've heard about the DM HS3's, and I believe it is Yngwie's favourite pups (or was? Didn't he get some new signature deal? Well, whatever). But I didn't know they were stacked HB's though.

Although they're great pick ups, I'm afraid they might be a bit too "hot" for this guitar since I mostly use it for bluesy/Gilmour stuff. I would like some more vintage strat-style sound of this axe (but more 60's than 50's kinda vintage).

But I'll check up more info on the HS3's, thanks for the tip.

 

[ChickenScratch]

As I said, even Eric Johnson uses it so it's perfect for clean and blues stuff.

 

[KalMart]

I've only tried Tonerider's humbuckers...figured it was worth a shot for not so much money. the Alnico IV ones. They were okay, certainly serviceable. But I've stuck with Duncan Antiquities on all my guitars and in general prefer vintage style/output pickups for my type of playing.

I tried those Dimarzios strat PU's years back. They cancelled the noise, but didn't really have as much character as I was looking for...a bit flat sounding. Went with a set of Fralin vintage-styled that did the job great. I prefer cleaner pickups so you can turn your amp up more.

 

[ChickenScratch]

Oh, I'm a Dimarzio fan thru and thru. Most of the shredders I was into growning up played them so as a teen I leraned their entire line and what evey PU sounded like.

If you like Duncan Antiquities then I suggest checkng out Dimarzio's Air series of pickups.

 

[KalMart]

Oh, I'm a Dimarzio fan thru and thru. Most of the shredders I was into growning up played them so as a teen I leraned their entire line and what evey PU sounded like.

If you like Duncan Antiquities then I suggest checkng out Dimarzio's Air series of pickups.

Tried them (as well as dozens of others here and there) when they first came out...they were okay. For classic PAF tone, aside from higher priced boutique pickups, the Ants are pretty much as good as you can get that's readily available and affordable. I actually replace the aged/degaussed magnet in the bridge pickup for a fully-charged one to get a bit better balance with the neck PU. You also need to go with quality correct-spec pots and caps as well. Very different approach altogether than shred or metal pickups.

Some DM's are fine, but Larry DiMarzio is a *****e for monopolizing the name 'P.A.F.' as well as the sale of double-cream-bobbined humbuckers.

 

[Spider-Who?]

Whoa, a guitarist thread on the Hype! I've so missed out on this one.

I tend to play bluesier/"Gilmourish" stuff on this strat. If I want to play heavier/metal stuff, my Tokai SG or Kramer fix that. The two Tonerider sets I'm considering are Pure Vintage or Classic Blues.

Well, any experiences and opinions are wellcome.

I'm not familiar with Toneriders...I've got a 60's Road Worn Strat. It came with Tex-Mex pups. Tonally, they were great - had a nice organic tone, but the humming inherit in single coil pups was really bad, so I replaced them with these:

http://www.joebarden.com/main.php?section=Products&pageID=S-Deluxe

These are the BEST single coils I've EVER heard. These pick ups are absolutely astounding, and are handmade just 30 minutes from me in VA. They take everything that is great about the sound of a Stratocastor and elevate it, leaving behind all of the weakness of single coil pups. You still have the lovely organic tone, but absolutely NONE of the hum. They have a higher output than other single coils (hell, even most humbuckers), so they're great for more distortion BUT they are incredibly responsive to your touch, volume/tone knobs and pick up height. They're tight in the low and bright in the high end - very clear sounding. I can kick on the heaviest distortion and play an open chord, and each note is perfectly clear - not muddy and unbearable sounding with other pick ups. And playing with just a little overdrive or totally clean...it's heaven, man. HEAVEN.

I love Gilmore and SRV - play a lot of their stuff and I am extremely happy with these pick ups. They'll do what EVER you want. Price is high, but they are worth EVERY damn penny. I'm currently saving up for some of their humbuckers to put in my Black Beauty.

 

[KalMart]

I had Bardens in a '52 Tele RI a while back. Big output and great sound, but a bit too 'polished' and hi-fi for my tastes. I don't mind it in the neck position, but for the bridge I wanted that classic rougher Tele sound. My favorite is actually the Voodoo/Florance 50's Tele bridge pickup, with a Gibson mini-humbucker in the neck.

 

[Rorschach2012]

I've always wanted a 3 color sunburst SG with a maple neck.

It's a shame Gibson doesn't make that

 

[Matt Mortem]

Anyone got any tips for remembering chords and whatnot? My technique is pretty good, I can play fine, I just cannot remember chords to save my life. I can only remember E because of it's simplicity.

 

[BoredGuy]

yeah, it's called power chords

lol

 

[Matt Mortem]

yeah, it's called power chords

lol

I know power chords and that's basically all I play. I want to do more though.

 

[BoredGuy]

yeah i hear ya

for me it's just repetition of playing a chord until it becomes second nature, look it up and play it
I still suck at names, but at least I know a ****load of em now

that and I tend to play chords strangely since I never took lessons
I'd be a guitar teachers worst nightmare

 

[TheBat812]

Anyone got any tips for remembering chords and whatnot? My technique is pretty good, I can play fine, I just cannot remember chords to save my life. I can only remember E because of it's simplicity.

I'm pretty bad at remembering the theory, but just play a variation of songs you like from tabs on ultimate-guitar.com and you'll eventually start remembering the basic ones, and then you can just play it by ear, which is what I do typically nowadays.

 

[Matt Mortem]

yeah i hear ya

for me it's just repetition of playing a chord until it becomes second nature, look it up and play it
I still suck at names, but at least I know a ****load of em now

that and I tend to play chords strangely since I never took lessons
I'd be a guitar teachers worst nightmare

I had to stop taking lessons. The teacher could not believe I could play a multitude of Slayer riffs, but couldn't remember an F chord to save my life.

 

[ChickenScratch]

Anyone got any tips for remembering chords and whatnot? My technique is pretty good, I can play fine, I just cannot remember chords to save my life. I can only remember E because of it's simplicity.

You have to learn your major scale and how the scale degrees relate to chord formula. Playing power chords are fine, any punk can learn power chords. But learn and understand the scale degrees and how they build a chord, then you will understand more where to put your fingers.

Do you know your Barre Chords and their inversions? Barre chords might help you get a few hundred more chords under your fingers and you can used them along with the major scale to learn how they are actually built.

Here is a small chart with barre chord inversions with the root note on the 5th string. Moving each shape up and down the neck translates into 22, 21, 24, how many chords you can fit on the neck in that shape. http://guitar.ricmedia.com/Lessons/Barre-chords-part-1/images/barre-chord-voicings-2.gif Here are a couple more with the root note on the 6th and 5th strings. Same rules apply. http://www.trueoctave.com/uploads/3/4/8/9/3489050/barre-chords.jpg http://www.adventure-learning-initiatives.com/images/guitar-barre-chord-shapes.jpg http://www.guitarcats.com/images/Bar Chords Extended.gif
http://guitarmodus.com/vol4/images/barre-chords-advanced-forms.png http://www.milespetering.com/storag....jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1254219161813
The best diagram of all. Has the scale degrees above, all chords from the same root so it's easier to understand what moves tonality.http://home.roadrunner.com/~nils/images/BarreChordShapesRH.gif

After you've learned to barre properly you would with all the different inversions and how to move them would have learned literally hundreds. Take your time with each shape though. Learn the learn the shapes one at a time, slowly (the shape for a 6 string major chord looks a lot like the 5 string shape for a minor chord) because it's easy to get confused at first. Keep in mind where the root is, where the second note is (in many cases i's the 5th degree of the major scale [a 5th, ya know, like a power chord] making many of them seem like extensions of the power chord you already know.

 

[Matt Mortem]

Thanks a lot Chicken Scratch. Those links are really helpful, as are your pointers.