It's from Thomann, a huge Germany-based online music shop that definitely ships to the Netherlands as well I'm sure! Looks like this:
They have a ton of other motives as well, Hetfield/Metallica, Motorhead/Warpig, Frank Zappa/Freak Out, The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, you name it! :p
@Girondelle: I've tried these Dava picks and HATED them haha. They bend sooo much when I play with them somehow. Grip's excellent though. Also, nice new gear there, let us know how it sounds when it arrives!
Looks good. Once I have more guitar stuff to shop for I'll get a set as well. 8 euro of shipping costs on an order of 7.90 is too much. Thanks.
Haha damn, good luck. In Germany it's no shipping costs for orders >= 25 Euro, not sure if it's the same in all of EU.
Also, I just re-tried my Dava picks and... they aren't as bad as I had remembered them. Not sure if I remembered incorrectly or it's just a matter of one pick feeling better one day and worse the next haha. I guess next time I'll order more stuff I'll also include another batch of Jazz IIIs since I lost my original six ones somehow (don't ask) :p
No shipping costs on orders over 100 Euro, and there's nothing I really want in that price range. Nor do I have that kind of money to spend at the moment. Hoping my job interview goes well this weekend so I'll have money to spend again
On November 01 2014 06:21 Mikau wrote: No shipping costs on orders over 100 Euro, and there's nothing I really want in that price range. Nor do I have that kind of money to spend at the moment. Hoping my job interview goes well this weekend so I'll have money to spend again
Working a trial day next week, which will decide whether or not I get hired. He basically told me he can't promise me anything in terms of hours per week because it's just not that busy in November (then why say you have a job opening in the first place?) so I'm not holding my breath.
Meanwhile (have to post something on topic right?) working on my first 12 bar blues shuffle thing. I feel so slow in the membrane when my brain can't comprehend when to mute and when to make the E5 power chord into an E6 power chord but at least I'm learning.
On October 30 2014 09:26 Teoita wrote: I use them for everything and every genre i play, except my acoustic i guess.
Same here. Jazz III are just the way to go
Yup. I've used them for coming up on 8 years now. I find everything else uncomfortable and huge.
Oh and RG3250 update. It continues to be amazing. The neck continues to be my favourite of all time. It's so comfortable. At this time of year (when we transition from warm, humid summer to cold dry winter) the necks on all my guitars usually go completely out of whack, but the 3250 hasn't moved at all. Must be some combination of the 5 piece neck and the stabilizing reinforcement beams they put in it. If this is how all the Prestige Ibanez models are, I'm definitely getting another. They're so good for not that much money (well, used ones anyway. I was lucky to find this RG3250. They're apparently a lot rarer than I thought. Especially considering it wasn't much money and is in amazing shape). This thing plays circles around almost all my other guitars.
My poor ol' Jackson Soloist has like half centimetre action right now on the treble side (bass side is even worse). When I get some time I'm doing a complete teardown of it and then going to straighten the neck out into a bit of a backbow without strings on it in hopes of getting rid of this completely unplayable action. For now I threw it in a case to at least try and hide it from the environment condition changes but I don't think that will do much since it is already so far gone.
I'm looking into getting one of those notched straightedges so I can do proper setups on all my guitars. I already have everything else. I just need a way of quickly checking how flat the neck is.
My stuff arrived today, the Dunlop fretboard cleaning kit is pretty useful. Managed to get my fretboard nice, clean and fast again, feels much better. The string change was also badly needed. The pick box is cool as well, small but with a nice sliding top. Holds all my 32 picks at the moment (6 dava, 2 stainless steel, 12 dunlop tortex and the 12 heavy nylon picks with jimi hendrix album art on them that are honestly nice to look at but bland and shit to play with). Good stuff all around and I'm absolutely happy to have one small locking box where all my picks are.
I have a question for you guys. Is it normal that I get bored/move on to a new subject (and I don't mean song, I mean actual basic skillset) before mastering or at least being adequate at the former. For example, I started with power chords, moved on to open chords. I know the standard open chord grips and can do them all, I just can't switch between them fast enough to actually play anything. As in, I might as well not strum past the 3rd count if I want to be able to switch chords on time. Next came barre chords. I'm a little better at those but they're still kinda hit or miss and switching between different shapes is slow. I'm now doing a 12 bar blues shuffle, but I'm not even close to being able to do even the simplest one and I'm already looking up Pride and Joy lessons (bad idea I know).
Is it normal to sort of cycle through subjects or did you all 'master' something before comitting to the next subject?
Yeah, when you first start out things tend to be fairly boring. I'd advise you to be patient and stick to a single subject though (probably i'd say open chords>power chords>barre chords for your level), or it will take you way way longer to learn the basics, which means that the boredom also lasts longer Once you start being able to play at least the basic chords of most songs (which really isn't that hard) playing becomes a -lot- more fun
And switching like this has the additional demotivational side effect of me thinking, 10 months or so into my playing, that I still can't really *do* anything. Sure I've made progress, but there's no songs I can play, no techniques I can showcase. I can play a couple of iconic riffs (Day Tripper, Money and some other similar ones) and a solo (Smells Like Teen Spirit), but it feels like I have learned nothing in the past months.
Though for the most part that is because of a lax practice regime, the stuff I'm doing doesn't help.
On November 06 2014 21:51 Mikau wrote: And switching like this has the additional demotivational side effect of me thinking, 10 months or so into my playing, that I still can't really *do* anything. Sure I've made progress, but there's no songs I can play, no techniques I can showcase. I can play a couple of iconic riffs (Day Tripper, Money and some other similar ones) and a solo (Smells Like Teen Spirit), but it feels like I have learned nothing in the past months.
Though for the most part that is because of a lax practice regime, the stuff I'm doing doesn't help.
What really helped me was working with books.
Blues you can use 1+2, Absolute Essentials of Music Theory for guitar, Berklee Method for Guitar, Learn and Master Guitar, Learn and Master Fingerstyle Guitar, Guitar Aerobics, Jazz Harmony, Play Funk and Soul Guitar...
There's a shitload of fucking great books out there, and if you worked through one, you'll certainly get a sense of accomplishment.
@Mikau: I started learning Western Guitar around May/June. What really got me going was to focus on the things I needed the most to move forward. I think you need to set some clear goals to know what you should be practicing and why. You need to answer questions like: "Do you want to be good at fingerpicking or do you want to play with a pick?" A good point to start and what really gave me a sense of accomplishment is to practice switching between open chords and being able to strum some simple songs or simplified versions. I would suggest that you should devote a large portion of your practice to doing that and then you give yourself some time to experiment with other stuff whatever you feel like doing. Like that you will constantly get better at one thing while not feeling bored by it too quickly.
I've been learning electric guitar for about 7 months now When I first started, I went through a beginner basic book, which sort of went through some basic scales and open chords So I can play all the open chords pretty well
Then I started to learn barre chords and power chords sort of together by looking up guitar tabs and learning from that The tabs also helped me to learn different strumming patterns
I have few questions on Palm Muting How are you suppose to do it? I kinda assume you just press the strings you strum, but I'm not sure which portion of the palm I suppose to do it with Also how hard do you have to push? I usually just practiced without an amp, so am I suppose to muffle it completely or kinda let it vibrate a bit? Maybe I'm doing it wrong but it feels really clunky Do you keep the palm on the strings stationary while your fingers/pick strum?
So confusing
Also, related to guitar issue, I feel like my high E string is too close to the edge maybe? Like I would accidentally bend the string over and off the fingerboard sometimes I have to consciously make an effort not to do that Or maybe it's just lack of skill on my part lol
I don't think the string tension is too low or anything either, since I find my guitar pretty hard to bend the strings
Keep the side of your palm resting on the string as close to the bridge as possible, while still using a pick. Normally the string shoudl be fairly muffled, but that depends on what/how you are playing tbh. To make sure it sounds right just play with an amp using some overdrive or distortion. I personally find guitars with tune-o-matic bridges (think Gibsons) to be particularly comfortable for palm muting, much much more so than my strat.
I always bend the high E string upwards for that reason. There really isn't room on the other side of the fretboard (unless you play one of the new 2015 gibsons but those are a piece of shit to play imo).
Thanks for the response! I'll definitely try out your tips
I have this guitar (minus the whammy bar, because mine didn't come with it for some reason lol) + Show Spoiler +
Hmm so I'm still not exactly sure where to put my hand Like if I put it close to the bridge, then I'm strumming in a weird place? When you strum, is there an ideal place to strum? Just in the center? I've been strumming mostly between the first two pickups (closer to the fingerboard)
If you are palm muting you want your hand to be to the bridge. I agree it does feel a bit wierd on a strat, when i play mine i tend to move my hand back and forth a bit depending on wether im palm muting or not.
Random example, look at where EVH's hand is during the intro:
Overall there really isn't an ideal place to strum, it depends on what you're going for. If you strum close to the bridge it will sound brighter (and a bit better for rock rythm kind of stuff usually), if you strum close to the neck the sound will be warmer. It's kind of like switching between pickups.
Any singers here? Every now and then I try and get better at playing guitar/singing. Just now I recorded a quick thing and I HATE the way I sound. Any tips? Obviously one thing is hitting the notes better which I need to work on, the production quality isn't great of course either (it's a quick recording) but in the end I even just hate how I sound, voice-wise. It's so boring and dry.
Is there any way to improve that with technique or something? To project your voice more, to sound better? Or am I just unlucky and born with a horrible singing voice lol