Sorry MrByngBell. I was referring to practicing alternation on each string. I would hope the the extreme awkwardness of the technique you mentioned would alert the aspiring player to the fact that something was wrong. This is what I was talking about in the form of an ascending major scale. Please excuse the primitive diagram – I have never posted tab. on the web before. u’s and d’s for up and down and numbers for the tones of the scale. The first note on each string is played by the index finger and the last by the pinky. I realize that this somewhat violates the rules of position playing, but you can’t (shouldn’t) shred with sheet music.

—|——–|———|—-2d–|——-|—-3u—|—4d–|—etc.
—|——–|———|—6d—|——-|—-7u–|-8(1)d-|——
-N|——–|—3d—|—4u—|——-|—-5d–|——–|——
-U|——–|—7 d–|–8(1)u-|——-|—2d—|——-|——-
-T |–4d—|——–|—5u—|——-|—6d—|——-|——-
—|–1d—|——–|—2u—|——-|—3d—|——-|——-

I would advise you to head down to your local music store. They should be able to help you out with A) the name of a qualified guitar repair person and B) guitar lessons. New and used guitars often need to be “set up”. This involves simple adjustments to the neck and bridge and a new set of strings – your new guitar should be as comfortable and “playable” as possible. A set up job should cost around $30 or less. One or two sessions with a guitar teacher will give you the basics on how to string, tune, and care for your instrument and an understanding of the switches and knobs. Good Luck!

GEEEEZ! I guess this is the opposite. Although I once owned 9 guitars at once (fenders and charvels), I got sick of all the cases laying around and a normal person can really only play one guitar at a time. I play (hack) on these 6ers all the time and my 2 sad little electrics have accounted for thousands of $$$ from serving up crap to dancing drunks. The paisley is actually starting to show some nice wear on the fingerboard and is coming up on a fret job. The Hag was a gift from a friend and its fate is yet to be determined – Yo no comprendo el basso. I’m starting to think (once again) that I need more guitars!

http://usera.imagecave.com/vitaminE/Guitars.jpg

Re: a Ross or a Boss???

While in highschool in the late ’80s, my guitar playing friends and I all seemed to have one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=22669&item=7331078017&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

They weren’t bad at low levels for overdriving an amp, but if you cranked them up they sounded terrible. I also had a ProCo Rat that, in my opionion, sounded like crap.

I live in a small mining town in Northern Minnesota, and there are some pretty tough crowds in the local bars. I’ve probably been tempting fate by wielding the pink strat for all these years. I though for a moment that if I could handle the meth freaks in our local pubs, I could easily stand up to the North London crowd. Then, I remembered that my only experience with socialists is occasional contact with friendly Canadians and that you vicious Sids would probably eat me alive!

As for the green knob on the strat, the drummer from my band in college procured several large and multicolored sheets of the adhesive-backed reflective material from which road signs are made. We proceeded to cut the stuff up and paste it all over our instruments – don’t try this at home because it’s a pain in the a$$ to remove! Aluminum foil, duct tape, and green knobs were added for maximum effect. This was my first trio and I tried really hard to step up to the task. Now, 12 years later I listen to some of those old tapes and marvel at the guy on guitar. In those days I had nothing and I was perpetually stoned and pissed off. I’ve found out now that comfort and prosperity equals mediocre guitar playing. The green knob remains to remind me that I didn’t always suck at playing guitar.

Over the course of the last 17 years, I’ve absorbed a fair amount of abuse over the color of my Stratocaster. “Big pink Hondo” and “wallpapered wonder” are just a few of the slams I’ve had to endure.

http://usera.imagecave.com/vitaminE/oldax.jpg

I still think it’s cool.