Stupid Things You Used to Believe About Music/Guitars

[groverj3]

I don’t even know what happened in the last 5-6 posts.....

so, returning to the “real” about all this....I’m actually generally curious about the “what if’s” about people (Jon Schaffer among them) being in what would generally be considered “publicly accessible areas” of the Capitol Building while all the BS went down.....

I think you meant to post this in the Jon Schaffer thread.

On another note though, I used to live in Edwardsburg/Niles, MI. Just across into MI from you there in Elkhart, IN. Grew up hanging around the South Bend, IN area a lot. Small world.

 

[Fis:Destroyer]

I honestly used to think "distortion" was just the "electric guitar sound' and "clean" was the "acoustic guitar sound."

as recently as two years ago, I still have had trouble overcoming this. It’s so ingrained in my head that guitars need distortion that even light overdrive sounds acoustic/clean to me sometimes. On the first Creeping Hush record, I kept my phaser on the entire record just to not sound “clean”. I’m a dumb 40 year old, sometimes.

 

[exo]

I think you meant to post this in the Jon Schaffer thread.

On another note though, I used to live in Edwardsburg/Niles, MI. Just across into MI from you there in Elkhart, IN. Grew up hanging around the South Bend, IN area a lot. Small world.

correct. Multiple tabs and multiple drinks don’t always mix


And yeah, small world indeed.....

 

[TedEH]

I honestly used to think "distortion" was just the "electric guitar sound' and "clean" was the "acoustic guitar sound."

I honestly think a lot of people think this. (Mostly non-musicians, obviously.)

 

[Seabeast2000]

OMG, how do I get a tube amp, must be tube, tube amps are so expensive (they were relatively, for a time), SS sucks right? yes, I guess for sure! Really need a tube amp. Tubes, and then I need NOS tubes because they are also expensive or something but they are required. Genuine or reissue pre solid-state era guitars and gear is just so much better.

 

[Electric Wizard]

That a whammy bar functions not by pulling up or pushing down on the bar, but by spinning it.

I honestly thought this right until buying a guitar with a floyd. A friend of mine broke the arm on his strat thinking this too.

 

[littlebadboy]

When I was a young kid as an air guitarist, I thought it would be cool to use a ball pen tip as a pick on an electric guitar and shred. I don't know why. Never tried it.

 

[spudmunkey]

When I was a young kid as an air guitarist, I thought it would be cool to use a ball pen tip as a pick on an electric guitar and shred. I don't know why. Never tried it.

I can imagine the tip getting damaged, losing the ball, and ink slowly leaking out. But, like, not in a cool way. Just enough to get on a part of your finger you don't see right away, and then you leave a smudge on the guitar, your shirt, or your nose.

As a young air guitarist, that almost all guitar music comes from playing with both of your hands very close together as if playing on the 32nd fret.

 

[LordCashew]

I even ran into it recently from A CLASSICAL guitar instructor. I was asking if he would work through a Russian Classical Guitar method book, and it got poo-poo'ed because:

1. It was in an open tuning
2. It required a 7-string guitar

At least fingerpicking pejoratives were left out.

My guess is he just didn’t want to do the work to make that happen with you. Probably the open tuning or extra string seemed like too much hassle/not worth his time to figure out for one student. Trying to invalidate the music on any level because of those things is ridiculous though.

OK, one last "vent". When I lived in Baltimore, Peabody Institute required applicants to rote-memorize one of the acceptable improvisations for any audition piece where the original sheet music was noted "improvise here". I don't recall if this applied to all auditions, or just Classical Guitarists.

This does seem very odd. I could see a transcription or rote memorization of an improvised solo as a reasonable requirement in a jazz audition, sure. In the rare instances I’ve seen improvisation called for in classical guitar music, it was for the express purpose of creating an element of randomness in an avant-garde piece.

Do you happen to remember the piece(s) in question?

 

[Seabeast2000]

I can imagine the tip getting damaged, losing the ball, and ink slowly leaking out. But, like, not in a cool way. Just enough to get on a part of your finger you don't see right away, and then you leave a smudge on the guitar, your shirt, or your nose.

As a young air guitarist, that almost all guitar music comes from playing with both of your hands very close together as if playing on the 32nd fret.

I think you guys just came up with a cool custom finish idea.

 

[thebeesknees22]

When I was a young kid as an air guitarist, I thought it would be cool to use a ball pen tip as a pick on an electric guitar and shred. I don't know why. Never tried it.

when i had my first electric I would mess around using pens as a substitute for a slide since I didn't have one lol. It kinda worked. ..sort of.

 

[InfinityCollision]

This does seem very odd. I could see a transcription or rote memorization of an improvised solo as a reasonable requirement in a jazz audition, sure. In the rare instances I’ve seen improvisation called for in classical guitar music, it was for the express purpose of creating an element of randomness in an avant-garde piece.

Improvisation fell out of favor in orchestral performances over the previous century, especially from about the 60s on. Playing prepared work for cadenzas is quite common, and improv has only recently begun making a comeback in those circles. It's likely that this practice was extended to cover the entire department in question and thus also included their classical guitarists.

 

[DrakkarTyrannis]

when i had my first electric I would mess around using pens as a substitute for a slide since I didn't have one lol. It kinda worked. ..sort of.

I'd completely forgotten that I tried this a couple times when I was younger. I did it because of the "solo" on Run Like Hell by Kittie.

 

[Fenriswolf]

when i had my first electric I would mess around using pens as a substitute for a slide since I didn't have one lol. It kinda worked. ..sort of.

I've always used my lighter for a slide.

 

[Science_Penguin]

I've always used my lighter for a slide.

I only ever want to play slide when I have beer... So that's what I use.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I only ever want to play slide when I have beer... So that's what I use.

howlin wolf and robert johnson would be proud.

 

[Fenriswolf]

I only ever want to play slide when I have beer... So that's what I use.

To me it feels weird using a beer bottle if I hold the guitar normal. The couple times I've done it, I flipped the guitar on it's side like a dobro. But then you need an empty beer, and another beer.

 

[Science_Penguin]

But then you need an empty beer, and another beer.

I don't see the downside.

 

[bluffalo]

There was a local music store catalog in the junk mail and it had a bunch of Ibanez range in it. The first page had two of the GiO range, eg beginner and cheap guitars that I might be able to get for Christmas.

The only visible difference was the colour, and the vol / tone knobs. One guitar had Strat style ones with the numbers printed on them, the other was just the typical metal round knobs with no "flange" I guess is the word where the numbers are printed.

The product description was near identical - with one saying tremolo and one saying vintage tremolo. So I gathered the "knobs" were the trem.

Then I went to the store and wanted to play that model without the numbers printed on the knobs. the salesman asked what drew me to that model and I said "it has a better tremolo" - he looked very confused and his confusion made me feel embarrassed.

I was 11 years old or so.

 

[Noisy Humbucker]

I was stupid as fuck.

LOL. You don’t know what you don’t know when you don’t know it.

Add me to the group that abhorred Fender for no good reason (until I found the Billy Corgan hardtail Strat).

Also frowned upon “drop/bar chord” tunings and assumed most bands didn’t - whereas now I spend 95% of my playing time in drop A, B, C or D.

Also was an “EMG or go home” snob for a decade or so. The rails pickups I tried in the above mentioned Strat were the perfect gateway to the joy of passives (not that I have anything against active, I just don’t hardly use them anymore).

Then there was insisting on building all of my own string sets from singles. I learned a lot - but mostly what I learned is that (for me) it’s not worth the hassle if you just stop obsessing and play. I allow myself to swap out one (two at most) on the standard sets I’ve come to like.

P.S. When it comes to string gauges, ideal tension ≠ ideal tone.

In fact worrying about all the smallest details when I should be worrying about playing

See line under my username.