Time to Rock!

[thedonal]

I'm very excited.

I ordered a pair of pickups for my Ibanez today. Both DiMarzio- A Norton at the neck and Evolution at the bridge.

I'm praying it got despatched today and first class post will get it to me tomorrow (though not banking on it!).

That way, I can have a busy day soldering and shredding.

It's step 1 in my return to serious guitardom plan!

[anna]

what´s step two??

[thedonal]

Actually start playing the fecker!

Well no- the plan in the long run is to mix filthy beats with guitar, like recent Jeff Beck albums. But basically start writing and playing again.

[thedonal]

They're here, they're here!

I'm even more excited now (I know- it doesn't take much!)

[thedonal]

Well- got them in. Much swearing abound, but this time not at the soldering iron.

Fitting a pickup to a scratchplate without the spring zinging off A THOUSAND TIMES is rather trying on the patience. I like to think I'm quite good at it now, after so much practice.

The new pickups are ace. The Norton is really punchy with loads of bottom end and plenty of harmonics too (hard to get from a standard neck pickup).

The Evolution is powerful and remarkably clear. I almost thought I'd missed something as it wasn't creating loads of distortion across the spectrum, but no- just really outstanding tone and volume. I did turn the pickup around after a couple of hours practice followed by a check on the web to ensure it was sitting the right way round. It's a bit brighter now, so great for searing leads.

Some pics will follow and eventually some noises.

Next I need to look at the bridge setup- tuning stability isn't great at the moment (though that could be a combination of ambient temperature and new strings, despite stretching them in while tuning up).

[Spikenipple]

Do you have an audio interface?

[Alpinestarhero]

thedonal - I too have been planning to get back into shredding for my life

first task - relearn Pagannini's 5th caprice

[thedonal]

Spike- yeah. Got a studio at home. I may record some random noodling tomorrow and post it up- had very cold hands and was just doing tryout today- plus hurting my ears with amp volume!!!

Go for it Matt. Ive got Pagannini's Moto Perpetuo as well- may give that a go for good finger practice. Maybe a few watches of John Petrucci's Rock Discipline- well worth getting the DVD for seriously helpful warm ups and speed exercises, as well as good routines to practice for techniques like tapping and sweeping.

I'm going to put myself a practice folder into place. I've got a copy of the basic instructions for Steve Vai's 10 hour workout from Guitar World. Going to get it onto a page an hour (hourly exercises) and start practicing and building up stamina before attempting an effort at a full 10 hours training (not sure I'll manage it, but it's worth a go).

In the mean time, I'll be starting to put some breakbeats together in Cubase to jam along with. It's all quite exciting.

It's good to rock.

Now to save up for a new neck on the Ibanez and a Plek setup too. The guitar is gonna be absolutely blinding by the end of this year!

[Alpinestarhero]

thedonal, perhaps one time we can arange to meet - if you have a spare guitar, and a sae place for me to put my bike

then I'll show you how us young uns do it


really crap, if you must know

[thedonal]

Sounds like a great idea. I'm well up for jamming and stuff- helps broaden the old tonal horizons and that. Maybe we can sort something out in Feb.

[Alpinestarhero]

mucho metallica jamming

:cheers:

[thedonal]

Ah- now my thrash rhythming isn't that hot right now- just can't manage all those down strokes.

I guess I'll have to build the wrist up... :)

[Alpinestarhero]

oh its not that hard, its mostly palm-muted open E string :cheers:

Compeletly Empty they say!

[thedonal]

Yeah I know. I started learning to play Master of Puppets, but playing with just downstrokes, as the Het does. I guess it's just practice, as with everything- I just don't have the right hand stamina for it right now (but I'm better after some warmups).

Creeping Death is another great set of riffs that are totally knackering with just downstrokes. Sounds great though. I love playing the harmony part (the thirds that come in played by Kirk) with the main chords- sounds great with distortion...

[Alpinestarhero]

Master of puppets is quite hard, getting the chord movemtns perfect for it to sound more than just alot of sliding over the fret-board

Creeping death is a personal favorite of mine - i like the middle part (die, die, die!) and the solo eats me alive.

But at the end of the day, its all about fade to black

[thedonal]

Lol. Fade to Black is aces. I remember being well chuffed to work out the opening solo by ear. It was a good few years until I nailed the swept arpeggio though...

So many I love. Sanitarium, The Thing That Should Not Be (again- solo and Cthulhu!), Battery (FIERCE!) and Orion.

Have you heard Rodrigo Y Gabriela's cover of Orion?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=L0CsLefLisE

[Spikenipple]

I spy a .org band project :cheers:

Now to work out how to strap the drum kit to the SV....

[Alpinestarhero]

oh rly?

i sense a little rockin' out at AR09.....

On lead guitar, Thedonal!!!

on drums, spikenipple!

on bass...er......volenteers?

on voacls.....again, volenteers?

on rhythm and general wind-up-the-crowd-duties

Alpinestarhero

[thedonal]

Only if someone offers to drive my kit about...

[Alpinestarhero]

Only if someone offers to drive my kit about...

+1

ukelele's?

[thedonal]

I'll play banjo then.

I've wanted to get a banjo for a little while now.

I'd also like a banjo/guitar- like Satriani used on some tracks. Banjo body, guitar neck. Lovely.

And a Dobro or National resonator

and....and....

OK I'll stop.

[Spikenipple]

Come to think of it, if I bought a manhattan kit I could quite easily take it around on the bike...hmm.....

http://www.heartbeatpercussion.com/drums/images/Manhattan235_000.gif