Are you as dumb as I am?

I might admit it - under torture......

I found a tab for a song I wanted to try in open E - didn't know how to tune to open E, so I worked it out for myself.... thinking went something like this....

"right - open E - I need to tune to an E chord.....so every string will have to be E, Ab or B.....

Bootm E - leave that as it is.....
A string - easy, down half a tone to Ab...
D string - easy again, up a full tone to E....hmm, nice E powerchord on those bottom 3 strings....
G string. - easy, up half a tone to Ab
B string - hah, leave that as it is
top E - no need to touch that either......well that was easy enough...."

So I try the riff - sounds OK, but not perfect.....

Then I try the little runs and fills on the bottom 3 strings, and they sound absolutely awful - nothing like what they should... I keep trying to find out where I'm going wrong, but finally - in disgust - go back to EADGBE

Few months later, I find another song in open E - this one actually gives the tuning....

And I find that where I've previously tuned to

E Ab E Ab B E.......
E B E Ab B E is what I should have tuned to....no wonder those runs and fills sounded off, they were - by three semitones every time I hit the 5th string.....

D'oh......

Another time, I was browsing the Led Zep tabs....thought I'd have a go at Kashmir....there's one chord where you need to stretch from the 3rd to th 9th fret, or something like that....it was impossible....till I went back to the start and noticed "capo on 3rd fret"......

D'oh.....

and yes, I've plugged into the headphone socket as well, wondered why there was a total absence of sound from my amp...

:D :D :D

Vic

Another one I just remembered....

I bought a Yamaha acoustic last year with a cut-away - there was a jack socket in it, so I tried plugging in to an amp...nothing. Tried the controls every which way....nothing. Tried another guitar through the same amp, forgetting the volume was on full - the resulting feedback scared all the cats and dogs, and probably people too, for at least the surrounding two streets....

gave it up as a bad job, made a 10 mile trip back to the shop the following day - whereupon the assistant gently pointed out to me, "You need to put a battery in here......"

D'oh again.....

:D :D :D

Vic

Thaks for sharing Chris - really. People tend to share successes more ofte than failures I think. A result is that a great amount of information is biased - how often do you see a review that says: "I spendt $600 on this guitar and it really sucks!"? Something of the same holds for research - it is virtually impossible to publish an article that says "I've spent 4 years of my life in the laboratory, but it turns out that my hypotheses were wrong"

So, lets bring out our mistakes everybody!

Own failures? Ah, there are so many ... Maybe the area where I've done most mistakes, but also learned the most over the last years is the total (still ongoing) renovation of a small house in the coutry side - this one for instance:

I've almost managed to stop getting annoyed over own mistakes here - I think they are an inevitable part of the learning process. Just like the pegs Chris. Now you know - and if you don't replace them, there is a chance you will remember too!

lars