Old Guy

"Shut up and play yer guitar" - Frank Zappa

I was very excited as I unloaded the last few pieces of gear that were in my studio, and could afford to get this little speaker system. I also do a short explanation of why FRFR is a great choice for modelers. Enjoy!

Haha, thanks!! I'm just going to be using Tung Oil for the finish on the back of the body and neck, so no staining that part. I like the look of natural wood and also the slick feel of Tung Oil. Applying the Tung Oil will be the next video!

Got another step done today. Use Wood Grain Filler to make sure the final oiling step doesn't saturate the wood. Check it out!

I definitely second this! Even though I've been playing for 30 years and have had every guitar under the sun at a certain point, none of my current guitars cost me over $800. For me, they play as good or better than guitars I've had and played that were 3 times that price. It's truly a great time to be a guitar player!

I had about an hour to kill waiting to pick up my daughter so I hit the local Guitar Center to noodle around. My goal was to see how I could fair with low cost gear. For real. I rarely have time to do this, so I went for it. I picked up an Ibanez G10, tuned it up and found a used Line 6 Spider Mark IV 75 W amp to plug into and played for about an hour. I was thoroughly impressed. That Ibanez felt great, had a real variety of sounds at the different pick up positions and felt a lot more expensive in my hands than the $200 sticker price. The tone was good, the electronics were solid with no scratchy pots or crackling with pick up changes. The amp was decent sounding and went from sparkling clean to "insane" and the tones were usable. The on board effects sounded okay, and did in fact complement the settings for the amps. I was impressed. Basically, for less than $400, including tax, you can get a really killer beginner/intermediate rig that can actually grow on you. Wish that was the case 30 years ago when I first started, LOL.

That's awesome!! I bought "Hold On" and enjoy it, but one of the things that really irks about many of these blues stars is, they can't seem to translate it to the records they make. Not JB, per se, but Fletcher and Josh for sure. I bought Josh's latest record and kept checking that I bought the right record! It was very R&B with not much guitar at all. I'd love for these guys to release a collaboration live record. Josh is supposed to be releasing a live record soon, but is looking for the right way to distribute it. My favorite recordings of some of these guys is the jams they do at NAMM. They ar incredible!

I found this live jam on YouTube and was completely blown away. I love Fletcher's cool, laid back blues grooving, but Joe Bonamassa's solo break around 4:35 really got me. If you play close attention, this is well beyond the regular pentatonic flair. It is pure Robben Ford. I saw Robben many, many years ago when he was touring for the first Blue Line record, and Joe is harnessing everything there was about Robben's performance back then. Just incredible. Joe's minute or so solo can be broken down into many little sections, and soooo much can be gleaned from his playing. I am in awe. Check it out.

Thanks for the feedback! The Hx Stomp is $600 and an excellent FRFR option, which I will be getting shortly, is the Headrush 108 FRFR. It has an 8 inch speaker and has 2000W behind it. It runs $200. Basically the two together is the cost of a smallish tube amp. I think you are spot on that for those dipping their toe in the modeling realm, the HX Stomp is the best bang for the buck out right now. And yes, the HX Stomp does indeed have snapshots. As you pointed out, it only has one DSP, which limits your blocks to 6, but for my purposes, that's more than enough.

Here's a short YouTube I did with a few clean tones I made. Enjoy!

I think this is a great list. It has something for everyone and those Ibanez guitars are really a great product for their price. I can also say that the PRS SE is hardly a "beginner" only guitar. I have one and it is an amazing guitar all around. Thanks for posting!

Glad you are safe!! Stuff can be replaced. People...not so much. Godspeed on getting everything up and running.

If this doesn't get your toes tapping, nothing will! Starts around 3:20.

Learning music is a different journey for each personal. Sounds like you have put yourself on a rewarding path. Keep up the great work!

Not yet. Sadly, I had a major flood in my house which destroyed my home studio, and the build was down there. It took on a lot of humidity, and I left it alone for a couple of months to let it dry out. Should resume the build soon as I think it survived.

He has some courses on Truefire that are amazing. And not too complex. Seriously great stuff.

Josh Smith is one of my favorite "new school" blues guys. If you enjoy his stuff, check out YouTube, and look up his jams at Winter NAMM 2019. I can watch those over and over, just soaking up his technique and licks. He was also on a live stream on The Music Gear Network yesterday, and I got to interact with him a bit. What an awesome, humble guy. Don't get his last record, "Burn to Grow", though, LOL. It's ummmm, not what I expected at all. Mostly slick R&B and very much unlike his live stuff. He is slated to release a new live record, which, according to some people I know that were there at the recording, is absolutely incredible and his most guitar centric record he ever did. Josh even said on that live stream, that people won't be complaining that he didn't play enough guitar on this record! Here's the live stream if anyone is interested:

New Flying Colors record coming! I'm a HUGE fan. The band is an amazing blend of many stylists and includes Steve Morse on guitar, Dave LaRue on Bass, and Mike Portnoy on drums. Here's a song from their upcoming 3rd studio record, and if you like what you hear, you MUST get their self titled debut.

Thanks for posting this! Andy is THE MAN. I remember reading his stuff in Guitar World a couple of decades ago. Love his YouTube stuff as well. Just an all around awesome person and musician.

It's alive!!

I dig it!!

"Learning guitar" is such a personal journey for everyone. It's hard to give advice in that regard. These days, people are so busy, it's hard to tell someone with a job, and a family, "go out and play with others", or "learn a bunch of songs". The most important thing about learning the guitar is deciding what YOU want to get out of it. When I learned to play almost 30 years ago, I told myself that I wouldn't go into the most famous local music store again until I could play a few blues licks. That exploded my journey into play with some of the best local talent on "jam nights" for a few years. Choose what's important to YOU on your journey. THAT'S how to make sure you keep playing!

Just put this together. Hope you enjoy!

Congrats on performing live!! That is not an easy task. I get that way in front of the camera playing for my YouTube channel. It takes time and lots of practice in front of the camera/people. You'll get there!!

Put together a little digital recording studio. Not ideal, but should work for now. Check it out!