jorgemac
Forum Replies Created
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Good point DSL, The blunter sides of the pick do offer a different tone. Like you I vary my Dunlop Primetone picks/1.5 to different pick sides and angles striking the strings. I’m slowly getting away from picks and using thumb picks and finger picking more and more As i started TAC by picking most of the exercises with a pick and switching to finger style after a few times through the daily lesson. Hit lesson 300 today, really enjoying the lessons and the community.
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I agree as I pretty much don’t need to look at a string when forming chords or picking single notes. I actually close my eyes a lot on familiar chord changes. But that is all a natural progression over the years of just playing so much. Just like mature wine it takes time to achieve good results. Keep the chord changes simple and rotate between the 3 major chords in each key every day for a couple of minutes before practice.
we are currently working in the key of E this week and your 3 chords you can practice any time are E, A, and B7. spend a couple of minutes before each practice just becoming familiar with the finger positions for those 3 chords.. Practice going from E the A and E to B7.
B7 is a beautiful sounding chord but it took me forever to learn how to finger it comfortably.
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On cheaper instruments the 1st fret on the guitar body seems to be the one that causes most of the trouble. A good 24″ straight edge is a good way to check for overall fret issues if you have the neck adjustments perfectly straight. This gives you an over idea of where problems can exist. Then your fret rocker can zero in on which frets are causing the most problems.
Like you said if you raise the bridge saddle it can overcome those issues but it is harder to fret. For every 16th of an inch that you raise the saddle will raise the string action, at the 12th fret a 32nd of an inch or which ever amount you raise the saddle height equals half of that height higher at the 12th fret.
Also if the frets weren’t dressed properly to begin with you can have one part of the fret too high and all of the other string positions on that fret perfect.
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A cheap guitar is the one to practice on. The most important tool for checking which fret is actually too high is called a Fret Rocker. It is small straightedge that you use to check each fret or a series of frets. It is about $30 and was on of the 1st tools that I bought when I first got the guitar repair bug and It was about $15 way back when.
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That is a strange place to have 1 high fret.
Just tweak your truss rod a smigen more to make sure that is the problem. If that cures the problem, then put your truss rod back where you had it and take a triangle file and slowly remove just a touch of that fret. you have to be careful with inexpensive guitar neck adjustments . you take too much off of the fret and the 16th fret will start buzzing and you will end up chasing the problem all the way to the last fret on the fret board.
You can buy cheaper files on amazon or go to the Guitar Nomad site and you can get a cheaper set. Again the Amazon feature of free shipping might be where you want to buy the files.
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thanks Bill.
I have a wall chart, that I reference daily, called “Guitar Charts” by Timita, that I picked up from Amazon
it has
Complete Fret board.
Guitar chords in all major keys, 30 charts for each chord.
11 Scales broken down on separate fret boards.
Chord diagrams in each key
Triads including 1st and 2nd inversions for major and minor chords, plus fretboard positions
Circle of 4th and 5th
Chord notes for major, minor, dominant, sus, diminished and augmented chords.
2 foot by 4 foot. by Timita
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Very nice, great song choice.
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Hey Pete, I know i can seem over enthusiastic at times and can’t seem to explain what I’m trying explain in a way that is easily understood. Some day maybe I’ll be able to organize my ideas better so they make sense. i am having so much fun now that i should have retired a long time ago…
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Unless you are using the new MAC with AI you have tackled typing messages out on your computer. That has to feel fantastic. Good luck in your recover and love the way you are tackling this curve ball. I forget who said it 1st but “never say never”.
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Just thought of something else I used to do the make my thumb seperate from my finger movement.
In the mornign while reding the news or some other article and dring a beverage. i used to have my right hand laying flat on the table surface and think 1, 2, 3 and 4 while reading the paper or an article and twitching my thumb on the 1, 2. 3, 4 beats that my mind is running through my brain. After i did this for a few days and added in the finger twitch on any “and” beat my mind had added to the exercise.
If you are doing this while doing another chore, like reading the news your thumb begins to separate from other tasks and becomes more independent. Kind of like how teenage children stop listening to you….
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The metronome helped me, more that any other tool, plus the foot tape,That I perfected using the metronome, to learn how to keep thumb time.
I also found it easier to thumb alternate strings the E, 1st beat and D, 2nd beat on the 2nd fret, 3 back to the3rd beat Bass E string and the 4 beat, back to the D 2nd fret strings. string. or Alternate A and D strings, than using the dead thumb like we are practicing now with the L Hopkins lesson.
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Like you I have played through many years of frustration. I seem to have all of thepartsthat iI need but couldn’t seem to put much together for more than strumming.
Many years ago I bought the Dan Earlewne Guitar Repairs Guide and slowly have accumulated every tool needed to do pretty much everything from building acoustic and electric guitars, 10 of each, and have learned to make repairs , refret jobs, tune ups upgrading tuners , refinishing, well just about everything regarding guitars. I have rebuilt and done setups for years. a good set up is easy to learn how to do and just takes a little practice.
As long your guitar has a truss rod and the neck isn’t crooked but just bowed not enough or too much you can fix that or leveling frets, making new bridge saddles and nuts you can do this your self for the same cost in guitar repair tools that you would spend on a set up.
I enjoy doing this and am always adjusting something on one of my instruments.
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Longbrew, there are plenty of online articles regarding learning to read the TABs.
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Looked on StewMac and found this, check it out.
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When I 1st starting doing my own repairs I purchased Dan Erlewine’s Guitar repair book on StewMac. They probably Have a video on there site just for this repair That you could check out. In the 90’s there wasn’t the same amount of internet help that there is today.