Learning electric guitar - your thoughts please...

[dizzyblonde]

if they start caffoooffling your noodle with amplifiers just ask em if the volume goes up to eleven!

What about the setup if you buy online?

Originally Posted by the white rabbit

What about the setup if you buy online?

I'm hoping my mate will teach me how to tune it, but in the meantime I was going to go buy a tuner to use until I learn to do it by ear. Figuring out the settings on the amp is a different matter though - Im thinking just turn everything up to max, sod the neighbours!

[dizzyblonde]

Originally Posted by El Saxo

but in the meantime I was going to go buy a tuner to use until I learn to do it by ear.

You can never really get it spot on by ear TBH. IIRC my pedal thingy has a tuner built in...makes life easy.

You lot are so making me want to get my electric out of mothballs. Thanks guys
My acoustic is permanently on its stand in the living room for anyone to pick up and have a go, so its always in tune. I have a little pocket tuner that can be used on both cost about a tenner

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by El Saxo

I figure I'm more likely to get better if I'm playing stuff I like.

Thats the most important thing, if you enjoy it you'll play it more and the more practise you get the better you will be.

I do like my electric it was ok when I lived at home, as we lived in a detatched house and I didnt disturb anybody with it, as long as my parents were out.

I live in a terraced house now and my neighbours wont appreciate it ( 4 year boy one side, 3 month old baby t'other )

I could use headphones throught the amp, but it never sounds as good through headphones as it does without em.

So my acoustic makes more sense and I have a big soft spot for my Takamine...

Buy a decent tuner, it is worth it, I have a Seiko digital one. You will get an ear for when its in tune, once you pick up on the harmonics etc, but to start with a tuner IMHO is worth investing in.

This is what my electric is like...

I also agree that using a classical or acoustic guitar is the way to go over going straight into an electric! That way when u pick up an electric 6 months down the line it will feel so easy to play! If you learn on electric and pick up a classical after 6 months, you'll probably struggle to play the A chord!

The amp choice looks good, you may also want to look at the Vox AD15VT as its perfect for home use, had a load of amp modellers and a nice range of effects to mix and match with the amps!

I taught myself my first song (Mr Writer by the Phonics) by putting their album 'J.E.E.P.' into my pc and using their in-built software - its the perfect chord based song to learn for an absolute beginner!

What wattage for home us, assuming you don;t worry about neighbours too much? Are you better with more turned down, or less turned right up?

chaps. if u are considering buying gibsons go and play them first. if youre not to bothered about finish , consider looking at the gibson BFG,

Originally Posted by the white rabbit

Any recommendations for an SG?

I used to have a Vintage SG copy, it had a nice heavy distorted tone, not so good clean. Gibson style shorter scale length so if you have stunted hands like me you don't have to stretch so far, could get a fairly low action on it easily. Just swapped it for a bass - woops!

anywhere between 15 and 30 watts is ideal for home use, 10w is too little. If the master volume is turned below about 4 (out of 10) you lose the quality of tone, so a smaller amp at volume 5 is much better than a 100w amp at volume 2!