Electric Guitar

sane

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Yes back in the 90s when I was a poor uni student with crazy dreams of being a luthier. It's probably not the same as a real one but was based on a twin pickup double cut Hamer. The body is real mahogany, maxxing out the 13" plank I bought. Neck is quarter sawn mahogany with a scarf joint and the finger board is real Cites Brazilian rosewood. I swapped a guy something for the fingerboard blank and he sliced it off a huge plank with a cabinet makers panel saw, I shudder to think what the sawdust from the 3mm kerf that went up in smoke as he burned through it would be worth now.
So good
 

tubby74

Likes Bikes and Dirt
15 year old wants to have a go at guitar. he mucked about a bit on his little brothers accoustic, despite it being small and left handed. He's pretty good musically, passed grade 6 on his trumped at 10 and is now producing some decent stuff. Im leaning to wards an accoustic for the pick up and play simplicity. Is that the best way to get him started or go right for an electric/amp package that he's keen on? Any sugges6tions for beginners kit that he wont outgrow too soon?
 

Halo1

Likes Bikes and Dirt
15 year old wants to have a go at guitar. he mucked about a bit on his little brothers accoustic, despite it being small and left handed. He's pretty good musically, passed grade 6 on his trumped at 10 and is now producing some decent stuff. Im leaning to wards an accoustic for the pick up and play simplicity. Is that the best way to get him started or go right for an electric/amp package that he's keen on? Any sugges6tions for beginners kit that he wont outgrow too soon?
Give him what he wants.
For the pick up and play factor I would consider a spark amp or spark mini. I can plug in and have a great sound through my cheap strat guitar and be playing along to a backing track in no time at all via the app. It is way more fun then the acoustic.
That is assuming you already have something to run the app.
There are so many good amp modulators out there but some you spend more time dialing up a tone then playing.
 

Plankosaurus

Spongeplank Dalepantski
15 year old wants to have a go at guitar. he mucked about a bit on his little brothers accoustic, despite it being small and left handed. He's pretty good musically, passed grade 6 on his trumped at 10 and is now producing some decent stuff. Im leaning to wards an accoustic for the pick up and play simplicity. Is that the best way to get him started or go right for an electric/amp package that he's keen on? Any sugges6tions for beginners kit that he wont outgrow too soon?
As a talentless father of talented kids, the one and only bit of advice I can give is get the thing they dig, they'll be more likely use it. Son with his guitars and daughter with her bass both played astronomically more once they got nicer instruments. Motivation is a factor, just like with our bikes. If they can't walk past it without reaching out for it, they'll play and play and play.



Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk
 
When my son was in year 12 and was ordering his year 12 jersey with a nickname he chose "Yngwie". It was a joke that only he and I got.

I assumed they wouldn't accept "Wino Man" or Willie the Pimp" (both FZ songs).
 

Halo1

Likes Bikes and Dirt
And a set up is just getting the strings at the right height and intonation so the neck feels like butter to play with
 

Cyclomaniac

Likes Dirt
A cheap guitar with a good setup is better than an expensive guitar with a bad setup. Even if the guitar is perfectly in tune, a bad setup will make the notes you play on the fretboard out of tune. This makes chords sound wrong. I have noticed this in some cheap guitars I have bought and I think it is to make customers buy the more expensive guitar because it sounds better in the shop and most beginners won't know why.
My advice would be to try lots of guitars in the shop or on the second hand market until your son finds something that feels right, just like bikes you want something that works for you and you will be more motivated to use it.
Also, I just bought a set of Boss Waza Air headphones. These are not cheap but a great alternative to buying and amp and pedals. They are a wireless system that you can plug into the guitar that connects to an app on your phone then to the headphones. The app gives you all the usual effects and some other controls plus you can play songs off your phone to play along with. The best part is that the rest of your houshold doesn't have to hear you fumble through that Metallica solo for the three hundredth time. I honestly think if I had these when I started out I would have clocked up ten times as much practice by now.
 

Spike-X

Grumpy Old Sarah
I'd been wanting one of these for ages, and I finally went ahead and ordered one a couple of weeks ago:

ndd7.jpg


It's an electronic emulation of the old Roland Space Echo tape delay. Ridiculously good for the price. I've only just begun to really explore everything it can do. It has settings to copy and adjust the effects of the wow and flutter of tape, so you can use it to get a chorus-type effect, for instance. Or set the repeat level just past 3 o'clock for some insane self-oscillation.

One feature I really like that sets it apart from other delays I've used is that when you hit the off switch, any existing repeats just fade out naturally, rather than cutting them dead.
 
I'd been wanting one of these for ages, and I finally went ahead and ordered one a couple of weeks ago:

View attachment 394499

It's an electronic emulation of the old Roland Space Echo tape delay. Ridiculously good for the price. I've only just begun to really explore everything it can do. It has settings to copy and adjust the effects of the wow and flutter of tape, so you can use it to get a chorus-type effect, for instance. Or set the repeat level just past 3 o'clock for some insane self-oscillation.

One feature I really like that sets it apart from other delays I've used is that when you hit the off switch, any existing repeats just fade out naturally, rather than cutting them dead.
so it's the Dux Nux ?
 

Lazmo

Old and hopeless
As a talentless father of talented kids, the one and only bit of advice I can give is get the thing they dig, they'll be more likely use it. Son with his guitars and daughter with her bass both played astronomically more once they got nicer instruments. Motivation is a factor, just like with our bikes. If they can't walk past it without reaching out for it, they'll play and play and play.
100%... although I think every guitarist should have a decent acoustic, if you don't last through the initial stage of learning, to keep playing, then it is irrelevant if you started on an acoustic/electric or not. So, if they want an electric, go for it.

If you can, get someone to set up the guitar properly for your son. A high action is no good for young hands.
Also 100%.

Back in the day, I paid a local guru to setup my guitars and it was totally worth it. But about ten years ago, surfing the net I discovered a website that described the process really well, with great examples of various styles of setup, and he used feeler gauges (not a fricken steel ruler) to do the measuring. That was enough for me, as I knew (with feeler gauges) I could accurately repeat the process, and move forward. Nearly all guitars can benefit from some form of setup. It is really like tuning the guitar to the player. A players light touch or heavy handed approach will determine how to setup their guitar.

Setting up a guitar involves measuring and adjusting four things... neck relief (how curved the neck is), nut slot height, saddle/bridge height and intonation. With careful measurement and the right tools, you can often transform a dog into a very playable guitar, and at least marginally improve an already good guitar. While you're at it, a fret polish will be like icing on the cake. I've done all of my guitars and basses, my daughters guitars, their boyfriends guitars and basses, and an old bandmates guitars. All of them were improved after the setup, some more than others. I've got a few backed up to do yet, but have competing priorities.

I think the going rate for a setup is less than a $100, so if you are gonna stick with playing, it's worth it.

This is my handmade cedar over koa from Saigon. I've done three setups on it, over time as it acclimatized to Oz weather. Everybody who plays this guitar is blown away... as it play like an electric with 9's. This one comes to the nursing home with me.

1 Thanh handmade Cedar over Koa.JPG


3 Thanh side and front.JPG
 
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Spike-X

Grumpy Old Sarah
I need to put some work into setup, especially my acoustic and my Jazzmaster. The Les Pauls I've got pretty right, I reckon.
 

sane

Likes Bikes and Dirt
It’s a LTIL but probably more suited to guitar nerds.

I have this thing with my BiL where we sneak a pic of the pedal board when we go to a gig that’s small enough.

From Spy v spy last night, you can just make out the hand written addition to old mate’s OD. Nice touch
43741A87-BB17-49A3-A857-074D9D155417.jpeg
 

safreek

*******
I bought a maton as a first guitar, second hand. Turned out I had no interest in it because I needed to spend time learning to play it. Made a good profit reselling it though
 

Spike-X

Grumpy Old Sarah
Is that an original Klon Centaur next to it, or one of a seemingly endless variety of Klones? (I'm guessing the latter, because what sane person would do a pub gig with a $10,000 pedal on their board?)
 
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