General Gear and Tab Season IV: Can it play barre chords?

[james90]

Ohh so you mean just octaves, but not like...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1f3homF44Q

 

Not that it makes a difference with the right hand. He's still strumming the same way as on the stockholm syndrome verses or psycho solo, but muting strings at certain points with his left hand.

 

That's what I have trouble with. You have to mute some strings the entire time, and others need to be muted only sometimes (if that makes sense)

 

But with the SS verses or psycho solo, you don't have to do anything fancy with your left hand. Only slide up or down.

 

Only advice I can give is to do it slowly at first until you can cleanly play at a louder higher speed consistently.

 

as for the whole strumming hand being in a fist, it might be. Seems like that might put more tension on your wrist. I was a bit like that at first, but found it a bit easier to just let the three other fingers hang freely or whatever

[Fish Luke]

Ohh so you mean just octaves, but not like...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1f3homF44Q

 

Not that it makes a difference with the right hand. He's still strumming the same way as on the stockholm syndrome verses or psycho solo, but muting strings at certain points with his left hand.

 

That's what I have trouble with. You have to mute some strings the entire time, and others need to be muted only sometimes (if that makes sense)

 

But with the SS verses or psycho solo, you don't have to do anything fancy with your left hand. Only slide up or down.

 

Only advice I can give is to do it slowly at first until you can cleanly play at a louder higher speed consistently.

 

as for the whole strumming hand being in a fist, it might be. Seems like that might put more tension on your wrist. I was a bit like that at first, but found it a bit easier to just let the three other fingers hang freely or whatever

 

I find that I have to make a conscious effort to try and make my other 3 fingers fan out and if I don't they begin to curl/retract.

 

When I pick I tend to keep the pick at a neutral angle I think but when I strum, which I can only really down downward at the moment, I tend to angle the pick upwards to decrease the resistance. Then this really messes me up when I need to try and strum back up since the pick is at the wrong angle. I think I often loosen my grip on the pick when strumming so my fingers end up nearer the top of the pick.

 

Should I be trying to encourage myself to strum at a neutral angle as well as a matter of habit?

Edited May 27, 2016 by Fish Luke

[nerd herd]

Yeah anything like Psycho or Stockholm Syndrome etc. Comes up a lot.

 

I think the main thing is that I have trouble doing the strumming alternately but I'm fine at alternate picking on one string. My muting is a bit inconsistent too so sometimes the pick gets caught up or the notes aren't clear.

 

I tend to keep my strumming hand in more of a fist than Matt and a lot of others who are more able to fan their fingers out. Is this part of the problem possibly?

 

Doing it like heyjackk said works for me. Kind of have your wrist pointing away from the guitar and bend your hand back toward it and pick with your wrist, if that makes sense. Can sort of see it in this

Don't need to fan your fingers out really, unless you find it easier.

 

For muting I cover most of the strings with my first finger to mute the ones I don't want (almost like barring them). If it's an octave or whatever on any string higher than the low E I use my middle finger to mute the lower strings.

Edited May 27, 2016 by nerd herd

[james90]

I find that I have to make a conscious effort to try and make my other 3 fingers fan out and if I don't they begin to curl/retract.

 

When I pick I tend to keep the pick at a neutral angle I think but when I strum, which I can only really down downward at the moment, I tend to angle the pick upwards to decrease the resistance. Then this really messes me up when I need to try and strum back up since the pick is at the wrong angle. I think I often loosen my grip on the pick when strumming so my fingers end up nearer the top of the pick.

 

Should I be trying to encourage myself to strum at a neutral angle as well as a matter of habit?

 

Yeah I get what you mean about the angle, but also keep in mind how hard you're actually picking/hitting the strings. I don't think there's a specific angle it has to be at when strumming either way (it's all habit with me anyway), but you'll probably notice a difference when picking individual strings.

[james90]

#tight

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpyr7YaAz5g

[haze015]

#tight

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpyr7YaAz5g

 

Genuinely an improvement on the original.

[Fish Luke]

Doing it like heyjackk said works for me. Kind of have your wrist pointing away from the guitar and bend your hand back toward it and pick with your wrist, if that makes sense. Can sort of see it in this

Don't need to fan your fingers out really, unless you find it easier.

 

For muting I cover most of the strings with my first finger to mute the ones I don't want (almost like barring them). If it's an octave or whatever on any string higher than the low E I use my middle finger to mute the lower strings.

 

Yeah I already picked up on the muting with the middle finger.

 

So you're saying have my wrist less parallel with the strings and more perpendicular towards the sky/away from me? I just found a couple of videos on YouTube which said to hold the pick looser and strum lighter/dig in less and combining all these things I think I made some progress. <Also James covered this before I finished my reply>.

 

I think my pick attack in general is quite hard anyway as I have to have 2 mm action at the last fret on the low E to stop fret buzz. On the high E it's nearer 1.6 mm. The relief is about 0.3 mm at the ninth fret when fretting first and last frets. My set up is the "low" settings mentioned here: http://www.ibanezrules.com/tech/setup/action.htm . Honestly I'd prefer the "standard low" which is 1.6 mm for the E string but I get some buzz especially when bending ie the SMBH bend.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with the guitar or the setup I think it's genuinely my fault. Maybe I should try to really soften up my attack and dig in less or maybe I'm making the buzz a bigger thing it really is. I think this is a bad habit from watching Matt too much since to me it looks like he really attacks his guitar but then again he must be doing something right to be able to tremolo strum or whatever like a maniac.

 

Another thing I noticed is that I'm struggling/straining to reach high up the fret board for example when playing stuff like...

 

G 3 3 3

D X X X

A 1 1 1

 

... I can think of several reasons for this but not sure which one(s) is(are) the problem.

 

1) I snapped my left wrist 10 years ago. Although I'm pretty sure it healed perfectly.

2) I have pretty small hands / fingers. But then again like the wrist thing I should be work to work around this.

3) My strap is set too low. I had it up quite high but it put more strain on my shoulder. So I lowered it to about what I think is average with the bridge directly over my crotch.

4) I'm playing with the neck too horizontal. Perhaps I should even lengthen the strap a bit more?

5) I'm straining my wrist to keep my fingers perpendicular which is causing me to strain my forearm to make it more perpendicular to the neck.

 

With reference to 5 I could try bringing my elbow in towards me bringing my forearm more parallel with the neck. However this collapses my hand a bit against the fretboard so I'm fretting more with the side of my finger especially on the A string, is this bad?

[Cider]

i probably need to learn how to use a metronome and practice slowly.

 

Anyone knows how I could start with that?

[heyjackk]

i probably need to learn how to use a metronome and practice slowly.

 

Anyone knows how I could start with that?

 

Set it to 60bpm and start with 16th notes - /semi quavers if that's how you do it - and just get faster as you get better at it.

[james90]

does sidious911 still post here?

 

quite liking these at the moment. Pretty sure he uses a H9 - sherpa_man would approve

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu1iROC_ZfM

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrFHFrFEQWM

[sidious911]

I'm always hiding in the week here lurking the sweet gear. I'm a big fan of Highly Suspect, their album was fantastic.

[james90]

I'm always hiding in the week here lurking the sweet gear. I'm a big fan of Highly Suspect, their album was fantastic.

 

That's a relief. I thought you pulled a Bs on us and vanished completely.

 

There's a new single out too, but it's a bit different than the album I think.

 

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing them live. I don't think they're playing in NY anytime in the near future though.

 

Also, to the rest of you, I take it Glastonbury tickets are impossible to get at this point?

[Jaicen]

That's a relief. I thought you pulled a Bs on us and vanished completely.

 

There's a new single out too, but it's a bit different than the album I think.

 

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing them live. I don't think they're playing in NY anytime in the near future though.

 

Also, to the rest of you, I take it Glastonbury tickets are impossible to get at this point?

 

Not impossible, but hideously expensive on the secondary market.

Also inadvisable as will be washed out.

[haze015]

Also, to the rest of you, I take it Glastonbury tickets are impossible to get at this point?

 

There are ways to get into Glasto, though might be tighter security these days. Not a wise idea unless you're a local though.

[Fish Luke]

There are ways to get into Glasto, though might be tighter security these days. Not a wise idea unless you're a local though.

 

I read an article somewhere a while ago describing the account of a group of lads who tried/managed to get in by scaling the fence. Was quite funny but sounded pretty risky.

[Jaicen]

Given the current high alert with the potential for terrorism after the Paris shootings, I think you'd be insane to try sneaking into any music festival.

[haze015]

Given the current high alert with the potential for terrorism after the Paris shootings, I think you'd be insane to try sneaking into any music festival.

 

Its a Glasto tradition!

[Cider]

By the way, have you guys seen this?

 

https://reverb.com/ca/news/fender-offset-telecaster-and-american-elite-series-at-the-winter-namm-show-2016

[james90]

so much crunch

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0rV88Ev-og

[YouCantEditSam]

so much crunch

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0rV88Ev-og

 

Did you go for that $80 M&G in the end?

[james90]

I did, but since I'm arriving back from the UK that day, it might not work out too well.

 

Depending on what time it is though, and judging how I wasn't in horrible shape last time, I might still be able to pull it off.

 

edit:

 

Arriving around 2:30pm, so that's cutting it pretty close.

Edited May 30, 2016 by james90

[james90]

I think I recently said that we'd only find out what that white travel guitar is by chance like we did with the wangcaster.

 

Well.....keep that in mind. But I'm not going to say anything just yet, as I don't want the poor thing kidnapped and sent to that inbreeding camp.

 

I'm going in, lads. Hopefully this won't get too ugly.

[Jaicen]

I think I recently said that we'd only find out what that white travel guitar is by chance like we did with the wangcaster.

 

Well.....keep that in mind. But I'm not going to say anything just yet, as I don't want the poor thing kidnapped and sent to that inbreeding camp.

 

I'm going in, lads. Hopefully this won't get too ugly.

 

[james90]

Jaicen, I think I blew out one of the trannies in my fuzz pedal.

 

But assuming it's not actually possible to do that, if I tell you the following, what does it suggest?

 

-incredibly compressed sounding. just unusable for the most part.

-constant background crackling with volume and gain all the way up

-tapping the cable connected to the input makes noise (not a loose connection, but a microphonic component maybe?)

 

I believe this is based on a mosrite fuzz rite. I have no idea what those sound like, but I know what this pedal is meant to sound like. Trust me, I watched the youtube videos and know another male friend with one

[james90]

along with that hot glue incident, I should just become a dentist. I would fit in with those lawyers on TGP after all.

 

 

Took a good 20 minutes to figure out how to fix that. fucking magnets... how do they work?