Magnit
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Posts posted by Magnit
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This is the chair I use. It’s actually my home office chair, but with the foot ring it makes a great guitar chair as well.
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I usually play standing up. In my experience it's a lot easier to get a good posture as well as neck angle (~45deg.) that way.
We don't need more reasons to sit down anyways, it's bad for your health.
You'll need a strap though.
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On 5/23/2020 at 4:10 PM, matonanjin said:
Magnit, that Spark does look really interesting. We had a brief conversation about it earlier this year. It seems to have so many tools for a practice amp. I just don't know what else they could have added for an at home practice amp. Autodisplay chords, jam tracks, audio interface, the list goes on. But I think that they have been shipping and I don't see any user reports yet.
Reviews are popping up. I’ve yet see anyone say it’s bad.
My only gripe based on internet browsing is cosmetic. The Yamaha Thr10 II is waaaay prettier. It can be on display in the livingroom and noone would know it’s a guitar amp.
edit: Can’t decide if I’m vain enough to buy a Yamaha or smart enough to get a Spark.
edit: If it's good enough for Philip McKnight, it's good enough for me. Ordered one. Let's see if I get it before August. No internal battery, but those jamming features are too inviting to pass up.
edit: Cancelled the order. I'll hold off the purchase until I see it in local stores.
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Another interesting amp that just recently came to my attention is Positive Grid’s Spark. Apparently it contains additional features for jamming similar to the Trio+ pedal.
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On 5/15/2020 at 5:59 PM, S Bach said:
Also sweetwater and musicians friend has the regular original version at $300 and not $350
Unfortunately, I live in Scandinavia and taxes push the prices upwards.
Even if Sweetwater did deliver to my doorstep, the government would slap a toll tax on it. Thomann would be our equivalence to Sweetwater in Europe and they already include all the taxes in the price (which amounts to SEK 3490). This is also the price I get in my local store so I might as well buy it there.
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7 hours ago, S Bach said:
I have a Yamaha THR10C, its great and I've never heard a bad thing about the amp quality, but can't speak to the quality of the bluetooth sensors. Guess it depends on how important the sensors are to you. It seems to me the technology is available for convince but in terms of how efficient and effective the technology is, I still think it has a long way to go. You could buy the Yamaha THR, the Soft case and a cable that just stays in the soft case. Then if you absolutely hate being tied to the cable even on your porch, you can try out the bluetooth then.
I think the THR in itself will be great. The bluetooth is for playing along with songs. The issue I'm worried about is whether it's worth the extra $300 to be able to run it without wires. The new THR10 v2 comes in two variants. Regular ($350) and Wireless ($450) + optional $150 for a transmitter. The wireless has built in batteries and receiver. To be able to go full wireless I have to pay for the transmitter which according to Amazon is prone to wear out in a year.
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In Europe, Eastman guitars have really gotten popular as Gibson alternatives. From what I've
heard you're getting custom shop quality for around $2500.
https://guitar.com/review/eastman-antique-varnish-sb59v/
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This video really resonates with me and I already have three acoustic, three electric guitars; and a telecaster style guitar from the local luthier on order. I hope it ends here. That will be my seventh guitar in 13 years and I'd really like an ES-335 style guitar as well... 🥵
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On 5/8/2020 at 8:41 PM, Six String said:
I guess it depends on your definition of "portability". For me, the Helix (or a Pod Go), a PA speaker for a monitor and a guitar is way more portable than a heavy tube amp and analog pedal board to take to a jam or gig. At home, my Helix stays planted in my studio and that's where I go to practice. If moving quickly from the family room to the bedroom to the deck is key and you must have bluetooth, then a THR wins.
Yeah, I should've been clearer. This is only for home and mostly low volume use. But I'm a little worried about build quality of the amps I've specified. I've seen an alarming amount of Amazon reviews claiming the wireless sender wears out in a year.
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14 hours ago, Eracer_Team-DougH said:
I tried a carbon fiber guitar in the store once (it was over $2200)
I found it lifeless, I enjoy the vibes from wood.
Ps I'm usually not playing guitar in a canoe
I admit I've never played a carbon fibre acoustic, but how bad can it be.
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9 hours ago, Six String said:
For that cash, I'd strongly recommend checking out the Line 6 Pod Go and a powered PA speaker.
The Pod Go delivers much of the capability and the tone of a Helix for very competitive price compared to entry level tube amps. Its like having a collection of awesome amps/cabs/effects and works for practice, recording and gigging. Its a seriously capable piece of kit.
It sounds good at low volume through a powered PA speaker, studio monitors or even silent playing with headsets and can go to a big PA for gigging. The Helix was a real game changer for me. I haven't bought any gear since going with the Helix, but would have gotten a Pod Go if it was available 2 years ago.
I already have a BOSS GT-1 which I think is the same thing (although lesser) as a Line 6 Pod Go. So a PA would suffice?
I'm not sure about that as portability and wireless are two things not bought to the table by your advice. The amps I'm looking at can run on batteries and require no instrument cable which means I can play on the porch if I want to.
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For the last ten(ish) years I've been playing on a Blackstar HT-5R and even used it for gigging once. It's been great and I have it in our basement. However I'm looking at the Boss Katana Air or Yamaha THR10II Wireless to be able to play around the house more freely. I'm leaning towards the Yamaha as it looks like it could fit in anywhere on the looks side as well as double as bluetooth speaker. But at around $600 (incl. wireless dongle for guitar) it's a bit steep.
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This is the reason I wish I knew about carbon fibre guitars earlier in my journey and how they're unaffected by humidity. I would replace my three wood acoustics with one Emerald X20 (or a Rainsong) in a hearbeat. Now it's too expensive to sell off the guitars and buy a carbon fibre one. They're hard to find on the used market too.
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A late reply and given the wood was cracking, not of much value, but here goes.
Nitro finish is in my opinion an inferior (or superior if it's your thing) finish as it's prone to cracking and wear off while its' alternatives are not. People who buy guitars with nitro finishes either likes the perceived sound of it or the reliced look the guitar gets as it wears off.
It smells nice though.
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As I mentioned in another topic.
"Thinner strings will "oscillate" more as far as I understand so you might need to raise the action if your get fret buzz as a result.
I play a lot of barre chords. Higher gauge strings are my preference as they allow me to set the action lower, making it easier to fret.
The only benefit of thinner strings in my experience is that bends and vibrato get a lot easier on the hand."
So I use 9's on my electrics with a 25.5" inch scale since I'm currently working on my blues chops and bend a lot. 12's on my acoustics.
I have no idea what is does to the tone. It shouldn't matter (as much) on an electric since pickups detects movement in a magnetic field. On an acoustic on the other hand, you are transferring kinetic energy from the strings to the guitar top to get it to oscillate creating the sound. So I see why that might be cause for a difference. However, since 10's are a thing on acoustic, that should be enough or they wouldn't exist, right?
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Thinner strings will "oscillate" more as far as I understand so you might need to raise the action if your get fret buzz as a result.
I play a lot of barre chords. Higher gauge strings are my preference as they allow me to set the action lower, making it easier to fret.
The only benefit of thinner strings in my experience is that bends and vibrato get a lot easier on the hand.
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On 4/21/2020 at 9:16 AM, Nutty 1 said:
@Magnit Congratulations on your successful guitar learning 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Most of us take years to complete the course and many of us have not yet completed it, myself included! I believe Steve Krenz later regretted putting the time frames on.
The course is available to purchase outright on Udemy but they made a separate course for the jam tracks and seem to have hidden it, hopefully that situation will be resolved soon.
Thank you
I'm currently using streamed material from Truefire, books from Fundamental Changes and transcribing songs by ear on Spotify to further my skills.
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On 5/15/2019 at 2:38 PM, Karabo said:
I started this course around almost 3 years ago. I have just been struggling on the same sessions and hopefully this time around I will conquer them. Season 7 - 9 have been my brick wall. Id find myself doing them diligently for a few months and then I just switch off for some reason. When I come back, Im rusty as hell and then I have to start over back to session 7. I could use some encouragement on follwing it through. I really want to be a good guitar player.
Sessions 5-8 took years for me to handle. It's definitely doable. They were the hardest sessions in the course by far for me. In my case I would've been better off to just find a good teacher and have him/her figure out why my progress was so slow.
Anyway, I finally got there and today they're second nature. I currently try to make the 9 and 13-chords second nature or different voicings of 7-chords. There's still stuff to learn. On the good side, progress now is relatively quick. It's like my brain figured out how to persist guitar stuff.
Edit: Didn't see this was a post from last year. Doh!
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I started the course back in 2009 and I recall finishing it around 2015, but then I used a lot of other material in parallel.
I sadly no longer own a DVD-player so I can't revisit the course.
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I've really been enjoying these videos. With the exceptions of (among others) Rick Beato or Adam Neely most Youtubers are bad at hiding they're selling something (making for a lesser video). This on the other hand is more anecdotal and for an amateur like me, really interesting and genuine (so far). He really comes across as a guy who knows what he's doing and still knows his limitations.
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A couple of months ago I returned my Fender Vintera Telecaster and instead splurged on a boutique Sonnemo Classic Twangster. In the coming months I've really upped my practice routine. Gone through Truefire courses in blues and rock to hopefully feel worthy (and good enough) to play such a nice instrument when it finally arrives.
So, yes. I'm making use of my quarantine.
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On 1/1/2020 at 5:28 PM, matonanjin said:
@Magnit, what a great way to bring in the new year, with a new guitar!! Congratulations. They do look like single coils and of course the neck is always going to sound a little more mellow and the bridge a bit more twangy. But from what I have heard that twangy bridge p.u. is especially characteristic of the Tele.
If you want to know exactly what model of pickups you have send an email to Fender customer service with your serial #. They will get back to you, in my experience in just a couple days, with all the details about your guitar.
This neck profile concept just has me thoroughly confused. I've become a real PRS supporter and have always been a huge Santana fan. So it follows that my next guitar should be a PRS signature Santana. Early last year I finally tried a Santana at Chicago Music Exchange. None of the stores here in Omaha carried one. I was shocked and disappointed! The neck on (what I thought would be) my dream guitar felt like a tree trunk. I played it for a very little bit and put it back. Then late last year I was looking at a PRS guitar here locally. While I was there I saw a PRS 594, which has the same neck profile as the Santana. I thought why not try it? It felt good! Different but good. So I am, as I said, thoroughly confused. 🤔
So I don't know if, as we become more experienced, we learn to accommodate different necks. Or, as we become more experienced, our preference changes. Or, if it's "different horses for different courses". I played my PRS hollowbody a couple days ago and it has a very thin neck. It felt great! 🙄
Congratulations again on the new guitar.
Thanks.
I was surprised myself of how good it felt with that much neck in my hand. I doesn't neck dive either. That is otherwise one of my biggest gripes with guitars. I cannot fathom how some players do it with a horisontal guitar angle. Some even play it down below their waist.
Back to the guitar. It inspired me to go through Fundamental Changes' Melodic Rock Soloing in three sittings, back to back. Amazing how that works.
I'm turning 40 this year, been playing since I was 28 or 29. I still don't own a Stratocaster. Maybe I'll treat myself to a hand built one. There's a Swedish guitar builder that makes some awesome guitars for an affordable sum (< $4000). He even winds the pickups himself. Something like this with a tree trunk for a neck maybe?
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On 1/2/2020 at 2:05 AM, V7#5b9 said:
Modal harmony has its peculiarities. In case of the five (variously referred to as) “Greek Modes,” “Church Modes,” or “Jazz Modes”: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, and Locrian, you can’t establish mode defining tonality using harmonic scale (scale of chords) due to problems with the V7 – I progression, and some other harmonic incongruities. In other words, you can harmonize any one of the five modes, but you will find problems with the strongest and tonality defining V7 – I cadence. So, the trick is to combine modal melody with standard major-minor (Ionian-Aeolian) chord progression.
Suppose you use the three principal chords in the key of D major (D, G and A7). The notes that make up those chords are: D E F# G A B C# D. Now suppose you write a melody using only the notes of the Dorian mode: D E F G A B C D. Two of the melody notes, F and C, will clash with the notes of the three principal chords. Those two notes are chromatic – they don’t belong to the key of D major. In order to preserve the Dorian mode feel, it’s important to avoid any instances of F# and C# in the melody.
Furthermore, any modal scale can use any of the 12 chromatic notes as the tonic note. For example, the Dorian mode scale can start and end on the note E, provided you preserve the order of tones and semitones that defines the Dorian mode: tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone, tone. So, if you begin on the note E, the Dorian scale would be E F# G A B C# D E, and you would play the chords of E major: E, A and B7.
On the other hand, just because modal harmony doesn’t work the same way as the major scale one, it doesn’t mean it’s completely useless. In the context of minor scales, the Dorian mode is frequently used as a key-centre scale with its own scale harmony. In the Dorian scale harmony the IV chord gets a dominant seventh quality. In jazz, modal cadences are used as modal reharmonization techniques.
Thank you for that elaborate answer. I find that interval training, ear training and improvisation has been one of the most giving endeavours in my guitar journey. Just discovered @BluzCruz posts above.. A big thanks for that as well. Will look at Desi Serna's books and online course. I don't a DVD-player.
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On 10/24/2019 at 5:08 PM, Triple-o said:
It’s not the Dorian scale notes that make a difference it’s the chords you play them over. Play A Dorian over a Am chord and it will sound Dorian. Playing A Dorian over a G mayor chord will sound exactly t like playing G major scale.
How do you figure out which chords to harmonize a mode with?
I recently started transcribing songs to train my ear to hear intervals, but I haven't unlocked how to figure out which mode is being used. How do you know it's A Aeolian being used and not C Ionian? My only guide is my ears. If the chords and melody shout C Ionian, but my ears tell me the tonic is A, then I go for A Aeolian instead. But that feels like cheating.
Correct position while playing
in Guitar Playing & Technique
Posted · Edited by Magnit
The design encourages a healthier more varied seated position. I wouldn't say it's "comfortable" in the way a leather couch can be. It's to avoid injuries associated with working sitting down year after year. I'm sure there are alternatives in the states as well. My point was that you'll probably want a chair with a "foot rest" if you're going to play guitar sitting down. Either as a part of the chair or just buy a foot rest and put it in on the floor. Or sit down on the floor like Justin Sandercoe does. That works as well as long as your body allows it.