ChuckS
Forum Replies Created
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Real nice job there – sounds great
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Nice job there my friend.
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Right there with you mrfredsporty. I picked up a Seagull for the express purpose of taking it out on the front porch or down to my daughter’s when we visit. I try to be careful, but won’t lose sleep if it gets a ding or two. I do however keep the Martin’s hanging on the wall for easy access in a controlled environment.
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@cadgirl: 20′ X 35′? Wow, you have room for a lot of guitars there😀 Room to host open Mics, etc. 🤣 Sounds to me like you are on top of things wrt setting up the basement and all the humidity stuff. Just as fyi, I used Luxury Vinyl Planks (look just like wood, but much better for basement situation) for the floor and they don’t have any negative affect on acoustics like some mentioned here. Lucked out as I was not back into guitar when I did the basement.
Also used something called Insofast for insulating the walls. It consists of 2′ X 4′ tongue and groove foam insulation panels (either 2″ or 2.5″ thick) that form a nice tight seal. They have embedded polystyrene studs so you can screw drywall in and also preformed channels for running electrical wire.. Again, great for helping to control basement environments. Something to consider.
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@cadgirl, I am kind of shocked that you are still needing a Dehumidfier up in Michigan this time of year. Would have thought that went into storage weeks ago (: Assume you do have a good Humidifier for winter? I was using a smaller one originally and it could not keep the humidity up where it needed to be and so I posed a question to the crowd on the Acoustic Guitar Forum for recommendations. Based on their feedback (there are a ton of folks on that forum with decades of experience) I picked up a Vornado Evap40 4-Gallon Evaporative Humidifier. That did the trick. It has no problem keeping up. Also important to add some Bacteriostatic solution in the tanks each time to prevent mold and other nasty stuff like that.
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@cadgirl, I refinished my basement room back in 2017/2018 before I got back into Guitar. Once I joined TAC in May 2020 it became my own little Guitar room/studio/whatever. I have it all set up with a small desk like thing for the computer and music stuff and an armless, comfy chair, and easel etc. It is probably about 225 square feet give or take. I now have a 5 Guitar Guitarseal and they are all hanging on the wall for ease of access.
I am in NJ, so lots of humidity in the summer and dry in the winter. I watch the humidity like a hawk and try to keep it in the high fortys % or around 50% (Martins seem to like it right about there). Monitoring the humidity is very important. The room is insulated with something called Insofast, but it officially has no heat or air conditioning. Tends to be in the mid-sixties in the winter and mid-seventies in the summer. I have been thinking about adding a mini split system to maintain a more consistent temperature. If we go away for any length of time, all the guitars go into their cases again to maintain that humidity.
Bottom line: It works great and it is a remote space where the door can be closed and I am not bothering anyone, more specifically not driving my wife nuts by playing the same thing over and over again (:
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Wow! You really nailed it @jonathandavid. Nice
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Congrats!! Wish you the best of luck with it.
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Know where you are coming from @N-lightMikeN. I also became a lifer and like you adjusted fire a bit. Now, while having coffee and breakfast, I go to the daily lesson, pull up the to digest and then listen to Tony’s walk thru and it always seems that I find out I missed a few nuances going over the tab on my own. Anyhow, I take it all in and then put it aside until later in the day when I have time to give it a shot for at least 10 minutes. Then I hit “complete”and move on to other stuff.
Re alternate tunings – good excuse to have more than 1 guitar, as you can keep the others in different tunings and work on songs or whatever.
I also struggle with Mississippi John Hurt (I have come to the conclusion that if you want to be a good blues player, you need 3 names 😄, Robert Crossroads Johnson, etc.) and Funkified Blues, so I put them in my favorites, not because I really like them, but because they are beyond my current skill set and this way it is easier to revisit when so motivated.
Always enjoy your insightful and thoughtful posts. Keep em coming.
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If this just started happening out of the blue, my guess is too much or too little humidity is the culprit. Make sure you guitar room is between 40% and 50% relative humidity or of you keep it in a case check that as well. Once humidity is stabilized, it might take a day or 2 or 3 for the guitar to settle in.
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CONGRATS! @NW-NJ-Guitar-Dave. That is really great.
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@1967kerbygmail-com – I think many of us have been in the same situation you find yourself in. When I first signed on 2.5 years ago, I found myself getting very frustrated by my inability to play most of the daily exercises despite spending much more than 10 minutes working on them. I remember feeling very guilty clicking the complete button after not being able to even come close to executing the exercise with any kind of competency.
Just be patient and it will start to come, albeit slowly at first, and then gradually better. At some point you will find that when you try to play a song or something else new, it will start to come along much easier than it did pre TAC. This is the exercises paying off.
BTW, those same exercises will reappear down the road a year or so and you will find that now you can actually put a dent in something that was not possible a year earlier.
Guitar takes time and patience. Hang in there – it will get better.
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@rando – I did the same thing when my 1 year tour ended. Congrats!
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Tony’s program really covers both techniques and there are some separate finger style courses there as well for you to digest. I am personally much better with a pick, but I trick I employ, especially with the warmup exercises is to reverse the technique to further challenge my already challenged self. In other words take a warmup that uses the pick and try playing it finger style and visa versa. I find that some of them are really hard to execute when you do this – but I guess that is the point – you don’t get better without trying things that are beyond you.
Anyhow, some food for thought.
Enjoy
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@Marty69 – Wishing you a quick recovery so you can get back at it