The Guitar Advice Thread

Thread title speaks for itself really. I dabbled in playing guitar a couple of years back, but never really practised enough. Recently though I've really wanted to get back into it again. I've got some old song tabs, scales, arpeggios and finger workout sheets lying around, but I'm not too sure what to begin with/practise regularly with. If anyone could impart some of their guitar wisdom upon me, it would be very much appreciated.

Also, I have a Fender Squire Strat (I know, I know. I ain't made of money), a standard Fender amp and a capo. I'm a big fan of sound of the 90s american indie rock/post hardcore stuff, and a bit of early post punk. A fan of the lo-fi end of the spectrum of music. Any advice on how to achieve that kind of sound? I've done a bit of digging on what kind of pedals and effects some of my favourite artists use, but its all a tad confusing. And what equipment have you found helpful for acquiring a sound you like?

Hopefully this lil' sample would give you an idea of what I'm on about:

Thanks in advance.

#bump

I can hear a FUZZ effect in all of those.

One thing you might try, as it's not mentioned yet, would be to go after Rocksmith just in the fact that it's a good guitar tool (know one friend of mine that has it & quite pleased with it in addition to Vinny's thoughts on it). After seeing the vast amounts of virtual pedals & amps in the game, it'd be easy to look at the bands you are trying to get a sound close to then go into rocksmith to play with the things there to see what works good for what you want to hear.

@fox01313: Rocksmith hasn't been released in the Uk because some shite-y unsigned band shares the same name and is claiming trademark. I would actually pick it up if it was released here though :(

@CookieMonster said:

@fox01313: Rocksmith hasn't been released in the Uk because some shite-y unsigned band shares the same name and is claiming trademark. I would actually pick it up if it was released here though :(

I imported my copy from Canada and its actually pretty good, but I had to rig some crazy shiz to get the analog audio working so there was no audio lag. I ended up having to pipe the audio through my bass amp that just happens to have a red white input on it, was very odd

@CookieMonster: That's messed up to hear that & surprised by now they just didn't rename it under something else. Wonder if you can just get it through amazon or a nearby country that hasn't blocked it for you & others in the great U.K. to enjoy.

I've played for about 13 years and the best piece of advice I could give anyone is to never overextend themselves. I've heard of people trying to learn how to play by starting with Classical Gas of all things, which is absurd. Use the tools out there thanks to the internet. You have sheet music readily available, you have tutorials and online instructions, you have tools such as Rocksmith to actually help you learn to play, things like that. Probably the best things to start with would be ordinary chords then work on finger-picking. That always feels like the logical progression.

I got a Gibson Les Paul Standard that my old lady got me a couple years back for my birthday to replace my old Fender Tele and a Marshall JMC 900 amp that I picked up not that long ago. If you're just starting out it's better to go cheap though so go to guitar shops and fiddle around with what they got until you hit the right sound. Most of those guys will know what you want right when you say it and in my experience all of them are just... cool. They don't treat you like a walking dollar sign.

If you want to have variability in getting that sound you probably want a Multi-Effect Pedal. I don't have much experience in using them so I can't tell you how work in terms of usability and quality, but I have seen someone use them before and it seemed decent. You can quickly go overboard on the effects though.

Everybody seems to find their own way. I learned by playing CS and dying a lot. As such, I've developed a very unstructured style that is based a lot upon the tools that I have available.

Sorry I can't be more help :(

Probably the most important advice I can give is to INVEST IN A METRONOME. Start from the slowest tempo at which you can play whatever it is you're trying to play. Then, when you can play it perfectly at that tempo, increase it by another 5 bpm or so. Then when you can play it comfortably at that speed, go up another 5 bpm and keep increasing your speed piecemeal until you can play it at your desired speed. It's important to do this rather than rush things or else your timing will become sloppy and you'll develop poor technique.