: I'm interested to know people's opinions of the guitars commonly associated with the 1980's. Most younger players are only familiar with the low end imports made after these companies sold out to large corporations. Do people know about the high quality guitars made by companies like Kramer and Dean? In my experiences lately players think Charvels were made by Jackson!

Hey I know what you mean. A good Kramer, Dean, or Charvel back in day rocked big time. Its hard however to find one of the good ones. I have seen how jokers replace necks and certain details on import Charvels so they look like the real thing. Kramer however is easier to find, you find a thousand used Kramer now a days because nobody else wants them, except a VH fan. Dean, is one of the companies that you mentioned, that has kept up the quality. Though non are made in america anymore, some of the Czech made Dean's are pretty dam good for the money. By the way, the bulk of Charvels made were under the Jackson umbrella. There was just so many made out of Wayne's custom shop, though they were excellant non the less

: Doesnt anyone know how to tune to this? If you do please tell me, I would like to know how. Thanks. -D&C

Its easy all it means is to tune to E flat,A flat, and so on. Need more help just post it.
-Chained Down

That just means to tune the guitar down a half step. If you have an electronic tuner tune to the E Flat, A Flat, etc.

If you don't have a tuner, just drop them down each a half step (starting with the high strings, and checking them against each other)

Stevie Ray Vaughan pretty much always tuned down a half step, and a lot of the older VH stuff is tuned low like that.

If you dont know how to tune you are obviously crap

I have only ever bought I tab book in my life (the black album) because I could not find accurate tabs on the net! The official transcriptions will save you time and frustration (i know from experience!)

Hi it sounds like you have pretty good gear, so what you need is an effects pedal! I had the same problem i wanted cool sounding distortion, aswell as reverb, delay, etc. So I decided to go for a Pedal! It sounds like you may only need a specific distortion or metal fuss, grunge pedal? Or the other option is to go for a multi effects pedal! I would recommend this because having a multi - pedal means you have so much to play with! It's great fun, and so satisfying having heaps of efects! I can recommend many to you just give us an e-mail and I can help you greatly: Just to give you an idea, you can pick up reasonable multi effects units for around $400 - $500. I hope I have managed to be some sort of assistance! From Chris

: How do I find Date of manufacture for a Fender Gemini 2 with serial # S0000000250 ? Please e-mail me if you can help... [email protected]

Have you tried emailing Fender for the information?

why dont u fuck the guitar off and have a shop like ya father ,u nig nog

Custom shop pickups will definately improve your tone but the interplay with your guitar is critcal. I guess my answer is this, you need a good guitar first then add custom pickups to bring it over the top. Do you have a guitar that sounds good when not plugged in? If so, I think it is a candidate for pickup replacements.....

: Hello electric guitar experts.

: Jonathan here from Paksitan.

: Just one question. I have a custom made { Mahogany, Les Paul shaped, beautiful looking solid body electric }.

: Problem is, it sounds very average - poor.

: My question : the pickups that were placed in it are cheap { from Tawain or China }, will buying better quality pickups improve my overall sound through my amp { which is a good quality Marshall } or must I buy a brand new guitar to imporve my sound through the amp ?

: In other words will replacing my pickups improve the sound or does the entire guitar{ wood, body, fretboard etc... have that much of an influence on the overall sound of a electric ? What do you advise me to do ?

: Please help ..... this could cost me hundreds !!

: Jonathan

Somebody else pointed it out too: if your guitar sounds good unplugged it should sound good plugged in. The probable culprit of bad tone is cheap pickups assuming the guitar sounds good unplugged. Not all Marshall's sound that great either though...you should either play what you know is a good sounding guitar through your Marshall, or your guitar through what you know is a good sounding amp to make sure it's not that.

I'd put my money on it being the pickups before anything else.

: Hello electric guitar experts.

: Jonathan here from Paksitan.

: Just one question. I have a custom made { Mahogany, Les Paul shaped, beautiful looking solid body electric }.

: Problem is, it sounds very average - poor.

: My question : the pickups that were placed in it are cheap { from Tawain or China }, will buying better quality pickups improve my overall sound through my amp { which is a good quality Marshall } or must I buy a brand new guitar to imporve my sound through the amp ?

: In other words will replacing my pickups improve the sound or does the entire guitar{ wood, body, fretboard etc... have that much of an influence on the overall sound of a electric ? What do you advise me to do ?

: Please help ..... this could cost me hundreds !!

: Jonathan

I've got to echo what everyone else has said. If it sounds good unplugged it should be fine as an electric. If its well made, and you mention its custom built from mahogany, then you're on the right track to start with. I'd go with pick-ups, but do follow Eddie G's advice and try and play it through another amp first, and/or another guitar through your own amp, as the problem may be the amp rather than the guitar. I've just built a mahogany body guitar myself and I fitted Seymour Duncans to it. The sound is absolutely wonderful. I'd like to flatter myself that my craftsmanship is the key, but I doubt it. It's the nicest sounding guitar I've ever played, and I suspect that's down to Mr Duncan's workmanship, rather than mine.

SURE, I LOVE BRITISH PUNK, BECAUSE ITS IN ENGLAND WHERE IT BELONGS

: Thanks for reading this! I am a good guitar player, however I need a lot of help on my lead playing! What can I practise, or play to get my lead playing up to scrath. Are there any scales, melodies, or tunes that will help me play better? Thanks heaps, if you could site references to books, songs, or web sites I would greatly appreciated it!

: Thanks again
: Chris.J

Some people get cynical about the following. Trust me, okay - it's going to cost you next to nothing.

Buy a metronome. Electronic or mechanical, it doesnt matter. Yes, I know metronomes aren't particularly rock n roll - wear a disguise or something when you go into the shop, if you must. Draw up a list of 12 licks that you like. These are little phrases that you're going to use in your soloing. They may be things you already know, or things you get from a guitar magazine, or things you pick up off a record. Doesn't matter where they come from, and it deosn't matter if you play them slightly differently to wherever they came from - you're coming up with your own stuff here, ultimately. If you don't have any licks and are completely stuck as to where to start come back to me and I'll get you started. However you write them down is up to you. You don't have to use tab or proper notation or anything else - no-one's going to come and mark this or try and read it. It just has to make sense to you. Okay, so you've now got 12 licks. Right, find the fastest metronome setting at which you can play the first lick in time, cleanly, every time without fail. Note it down. Now do the same for the other 11 licks. Now practice all 12 for 2 minutes - time it - every day, 6 days a week (the 7th day rests your fingers). After a couple of weeks you'll be aware that it feels easier playing these licks and you could play most if not all of them at a slightly higher speed. Fine. Go through them all and find the slightly higher tempo at which you can now play them. How fast you're aiming for depends on what you want to play. I'm not trying to turn you into some kind of speed demon here. Listen to what you'd like to play and work out what tempo you need to be comfortable at in order to play along. Every couple of weeks, then, you can note down a slightly higher tempo for each of these licks until eventually you can toss any of them into a solo, at full tempo, without thinking about it, playing each of them cleanly every time. Your audeince doesn't care about the metronome, or about how many times you got them wrong while practising - all they want to hear is those notes flying off your fretboard with absolute confidence when they're listening/watching. Once you can play any of those licks that well, drop it from your practise schedule and replace it with another one. That way you're building up your vocabulary of licks all the time.

I don't know who you listen to, so I won't reccomend anyone by name, but if you listen to the people you like you will find that most top guitar players - whether they've learned them like this or any other way - do have licks which you find reappearing from time to time.

Practice scales as well.

If you need more help, or clarification on any of the above, come back to me on the forum here. If it sounds too much like hard work then either think again or take up embriodery!!

Good luck, and have fun.

Keith.

Hmm.I would practice my Pentatonic scales and the 7 modes.Don't worry about the names for now.But you'll need to know both.Also,the Major Pentatonics.Use a metronome for speed pratice.Watch your picking techniqe.Songs? I'll jam Maggot Brain,(Steve Kahn's) Tightrope,(Frank Zappa's)Moving to Montana.Also,Bobby Militello's flute solo on Maynard Ferguson's Star Trek.
I don't know your skill level,but Maggot Brain is an 8
minuet solo,good for endurance.Take some arpeggios and
create different riffs out of them.Milk 'em to death!!
Sorry to be long winded,
Hope this helps

: who is the best rock guitarist in the world?
The best guitarists in the world are people that are not rock stars. The masters of guitar have regular jobs and play for the pleasure of playing, not to make money.

: Kirk Hammet-Metallica, Steve Vai, Dimbag Darrel- Pantera, Allan Holdsworth, ??????
: I was just wondering what you thought?

: who is the best rock guitarist in the world?
: Kirk Hammet-Metallica, Steve Vai, Dimbag Darrel- Pantera, Allan Holdsworth, ??????
: I was just wondering what you thought?