ok, thank you all for your help. i am retarded. i took it to a store and the guitar guy immediately started twisting the tuners like a madman...i literally flinched, thinking the strings would snap. "here ya go" he says as he handed it back to me.."but..but..what the.." was all i can muster. so yes, i was one octave low on every string because i was too afraid to tighten the strings. i guess that could be a good tip for a newbie. "Don't be afraid to turn those tuners!"
thank you all again.
one last Q: now that the strings are really tight, pressing the 1st fret hurts like heck...any tips?
sincerely,
edwin
Sorry to say that the fingertips are going to hurt for a little while. About all you can do is keep at it. The pain will go away - with regular practice.
-- John
"Hip woman walking on a moving floor, tripping on the escalator.
There's a man in the line and she's blowin' his mind, thinking that he's already made her."
'Coming into Los Angeles' - Arlo Guthrie
Ive said this before but anymore I tune new strings to tension and eventually fine tune with a tuner. It only took me 2 or three years to figure it out.
Chuck Norris invented Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous secret recipe, with eleven herbs and spices. But nobody ever mentions the twelfth ingredient: Fear!
ChuckNorrisFactsdotCom
Well, be carefull with turning up the tuners, specially with the high E string, it snaps easily and might hurt !
If I'm not in the band
Don't mean I'm square
Mercury Rev - Car Wash Air
one last Q: now that the strings are really tight, pressing the 1st fret hurts like heck...any tips?
Play daily but in moderation. The pain goes away pretty quickly.
Jim
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
Like others have said your fingertips will be sore.
It is all a part of learning to play guitar.
It will take a couple of weeks to start building up calluses and the soreness will gradually go away.
If it is a real problem to fret up close to the nut try playing some notes farther up the neck. a scale perhaps.
The strings are easier to fret farther up the neck. Then as you get used to sounding clean notes up there work your way down toward the nut.
It won't take long to get there.
