New Years Guitar Goals?

The first goal should be to play again... I am not playing so much lately.

If I am able to achieve it, I want to work on the improvisations and also chord substitutions. I want to explore also some modes. And as always to have fun!

Hmm never really set guitar goals per se but this year I've decided to not that it will make much of a difference because I'll probably still end up doing/practicing the same way anyway.

But in the spirit of New Year's resolutions I have set a goal of learning at least 10 solo's to songs I already play or new ones.

I've already started the process with the AC/DC song and I just started Whipping Post so we'll see how far I get.

This process is similar to when I started learning songs it took me forever to get the first oness down but then everyone seemed to get easier and easier. I'm hoping I experinece the same thing with the solo's

Also need to do something about mytone it suxs again since my Jekyl and Hyde pedal crapped out. Looking at the ME-70.

Also need to do something about mytone it suxs again since my Jekyl and Hyde pedal crapped out. Looking at the ME-70.
I wonder if Boss will come out with something new in next week's NAMM show.

Roy I guess we'll have to see although I doubt I'd jump on anything new unless it was priced right. :D

But if nothing else happens, I'd like to finally find a decent tone. I've complained about it for awhile and even though the Jekyl and Hyde pedal was the best sound I found it still wasn't what I was looking for.

You'd think after all these years I'd be able to sit down and just eventually dial in a decent tone but I can't/haven't been able to it and it annoys me.

The distortioon always sounds thin and brittle. I am very hesitant to drop $300 on the ME-70 only to find out I get the same tone.

My instructor swears by his and he's been doing this all his life and both him and his son use it to gig. Maybe I'll have to slug my amp over there one day and have him connect to my amp and see what it sounds like through my guitar.

For every 10 positive reviews I read online there are always one or two that talk about horrible tone and thin sounding distortion and I'm afraid that's what I will end up with.

I'm going to play music I like, rather than music that's straightforward enough to be able to learn quickly.

A :-)

Cnev,
Good luck with that, again.

I was figuring that there might be some lower priced used ones listed on CL if Boss were to announce a new M-FX unit.
Maybe I'll have to slug my amp over there one day and have him connect to my amp and see what it sounds like through my guitar.
That's a pretty good idea. The Boss demo station at the local GC is a good set up, but I pretty much bet that it's not some guitar amp inside. Probably a full range powered speaker. It makes a difference.

I have sort of been cycling my practice, a few weeks on rhythm, and few weeks on learning new lead licks, and at the minute i am on a few weeks of just technique practice. i realise this is probably not the recommended way of practicing but it is something i have fallen into and it works for me - i do seem to feel after 4 or 5 weeks of only concentrating on a specific area i feel a big improvement.

My current goal is to get my picking speed upto 10 notes per second - im currently on 9.1 (compared to 7.5 this time last year) - so i have a long way to go, but hopefully by the end of 2011, i will be there.

After that, when i next decide to have a good few weeks practice on my rhythm, i would like to be able to nail the intro to little wing, and write some of my own "hendrix inspired" rhythms to see if i can apply some of his ideas in my own compositions.

As well as that i would like to actually get round to recording some songs - i have ideas i would like to use, but lack the know how to get a decent quality recording :cry:

Well after doing some searching around I found a website that actually shows how to bias my amp and reading that Fender normally biases there amps on the cold side ( which tends to give a cold, sterile sound) I think I'm going to give it a try and see what happens...besides getting fried in the process.

When I put the new tubes in a few months back I did not bias the amp so maybe that will help a bit. Of course if they are running on the hot side to begin with I would have to bias down a bit and that won't be any help to me.

Alman - Do you have specific exercises you are using to increase your picking speed? Any reason why you felt the need to do this? Is there music that you want to play that requires it?

Alan - Hmm. I've been pretty much the opposite in that I usually only learn songs that I like but it did make exceptions when I was playing with the band. That's kind of good and bad. Early on I might have picked songs that were a bit over my head even for the rhythm parts but now it's usually the other way around.

For me most of the solo's are still challenging that's why I've decided to go back and try to learn them.

cnev, I'm curious to hear what happens with that biasing. I like my current amps and have not messed with any of them except a speaker switch in one. Hmm, I wonder if a speaker might be the trick? Ever investigated them?

alan & cnev. I'm in the middle. I try to learn the songs I like, but have often had to shelf them for long periods of time before I could play them.

almann1979: I'm not a picker, but it amazes me how fast they can do it. I never knew there was a stat for that. But hey, why not, right? If I was to pick anything, it's sound about the speed of chick-flick theme music. (or in other words, slow) I have no idea what 7.5 or 9.1 picks per second sound like. I shall Google or You Tube.

Well we will see the one thing that the website mentioned was that you won't notice a big difference in sound. Fender biases them on the cold side for durability reasons ( the tubes last longer but have a cold, sterile sound) vs biasing on the hot side which burns out the tubes alot faster.

So that's why I am hoping I find the that it is biased on the cold side then I might actually make an improvement in the tone. If I have to dial it back and make it a bit colder I think I'm screwed tone wise anyway.

cnev, i have just paid to have my amp biased - i hope yours sounds well. I might take a leaf out of your book and try to do it myself next time. was it hard?

by cnev » Wed Jan 05, 2011 5:43 pm

Alman - Do you have specific exercises you are using to increase your picking speed? Any reason why you felt the need to do this? Is there music that you want to play that requires it?

To be honest, i dont play any music that requires fast picking, but i feel like it is something i would like to get a grip of, as i would like to be able to play short burst of fast notes in solo's etc when i am playing with the band. Also, at the minute when i play live there are some passages that really stretch me, when they shouldnt as they arent really that speedy - so if i can speed up a bit in practice hopefully when i play live i might feel like i am more within my comfortzone. I do have some exercises i use, but there are just simple picking patterns i made up myself.

alman - Ok I understand now. Actually I remember seeing a video of you playing and you were pretty quick already but I know what you mean.

I find that I usually run into one or two speedier parts in a solo that give me trouble but I sometimes think it's more about the fretting than the picking and I know I'm not as fast as you I've got so into doing the rhythm and short fills I never really practiced it much but this year I want to concentrate more on soloing.

As for the biasing I haven't done it yet but I found a site called the Unofficial Fender Hot Rod Deluxe owner's manual, that has pictures and detailed instructions. Without having to make connections they measure the voltage vs amps. Anyway other than the potential to get fried it's pretty straightforward on what needs to be done.

I'm curious what are they charging over there to do it?