Old Guy

Absolutely this. Something else to check is how the strings sit in the nut. If the nut is pinching the strings, when you bend the strings, it could influence the intonation. When you change strings, I would recommend using graphite dust from a pencil to lubricate the nut. If there is a nut issue, you can gently try to sand the slots by putting very high grit sandpaper around the string with the gauge of that nut slot, or one string gauge higher. If you're not comfortable doing that, I'm sure a good tech could take care of that. That is generally included in a "Pro Set Up".

Awesome!! I would go the Pro Tools route over Ableton. I've heard not so great things about Ableton, especially compared to Pro Tools. Pro Tools is the more advanced version of Garageband. (I'm terribly sorry, but I meant that Logic was the advanced version of Garageband. Sorry for the confusion) Not sure how the Free version compares to the Retail version, but I'm sure there are loads of YouTubes to help you get up and running. Most of all, have fun!!

I love Darrell's channel. He's one of my favorites.

Fantastic!! Texas Shuffles are not easy to get down cleanly. Palm muting those open strings is HARD. Well done, sir. Sounded great!

I did an experiment with the new amp I got and recorded it both DI and USB and hated the sound. It's a Blackstar Ht Club 40 MKII and it sounded very boxy and unnatural. Even though you can do DI with a 2x12 or 4x12 emulator within the amp, it just didn't sound right. Much happier with the mics. I go through a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and it works great. The Focusrite isn't great if you are recording direct into a DAW and using the internal amps and IRs within the DAW. Barely audible latency, but it's there. I'm dying to try the UA interfaces and plugins, but don't have the cash. I'm a HUGE Pete Thorn fan and UA put his Signature Suhr Amp as one of the plug ins. I'd love to have that! Sadly you have to have their hardware to use their plug ins. They aren't native which kinda sucks.

I wrote a blog about Home Recording for the Newbie. I used to record strictly digitally, but now am using and learning more about mic recording. Having a lot of fun with it. I now have an SM57 and an Sennheiser e609 to record my amp, and I love the sound. Here's a link to the blog: https://oldguysguitarblog.com/2018/11/04/home-recording-guitar-for-newbies/

So many missing from this list... Robben Ford, Buddy Guy, Matt Schofield, Oz Noy, Greg Koch, Josh Smith, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi to name a few. Not sure what the criteria was for the vote.

Although you are far ahead of me with the theory and knowledge of scales and such, my question is; what do you find boring about what you are creating? Does it just sound like you are running through the scales when you play? I guess where I'm going with this, is that even though you know the language, perhaps it's forming the phrases that is difficult? There are a couple of ways to break out of that habit of just doing scale sounding runs. First, try to play against an unfamiliar genre of music. Pick some backing tracks that don't conform to what you usually play, map out the chords, and play within those chords on each change. That will force you to break out of routine runs as it will require you to play within each chord and change the pattern on each chord change. Although I've been playing almost thirty years, and never learned any theory at all formally, my goal when I play over any music is to play with the chord changes. It's a challenge that keeps it interesting every time I sit down to do it.

Awesome, thank you!

Thanks!!

Hello there!! I just discovered your YouTube channel last night and was BLOWN away. The mod for the live stream suggested I come over here and here I am!! I'm in Southern New Jersey, and have been playing for almost 30 years. Had a band in college, blah, blah, blah, thought I might try to become a pro musician, but settled on a professional career instead. School, wife, kids, house, work 6 days a week, but am happy. Get to play my guitar a lot more than ever now that the kids are a bit older. I was a purely digital guy for almost a decade (Axe Fx II) but sold everything I had except my #1 Strat, and started from scratch with all analog gear. It's been refreshing to break away from the modeling realm and has really pushed me to play more than tweak. IT got to the point where I was turning knobs on the Axe Fx II more than playing my guitar, and that was making me grumpy, LOL. I also recently started a YouTube channel "Old Guy's Guitar Vlog" and am having a blast with it. Am I allowed to post links to the vids I make? I know some forums frown on doing that, so please let me know if that's allowed here. Thanks again for inviting me to the forum and I can't wait to start watching some of the back log of vids on YouTube!

Here's the thing with the Mustang GT amps. They are modeling amps first and foremost. You won't really get the sound you think you will right out of the box, and sometimes tweaking the GT can get a little daunting. Ultimately, if you have no experience creating presets on a modeling amp of some kind, I discourage people from getting something like the GT. That being said, if something tat can do a lot in a little inexpensive box is what you're looking for, have at it, but expect to spend some time learning the controls and adjusting things so they sound good to you. It is not a plug and play type of situation at all. The biggest thing I see with online reviews of these types of modeling amps is that the reviewer pulls it out of the box, plugs it in, and hates it. Mostly because they aren't willing to dive deep into it to program the sound they are looking for. Or they haven't read the instructions at all, and haven't followed the company guidelines for updating the firmware within the product. With the Fender GT series, the FIRST thing they tell you do is update the firmware, which can be done either reomitely, or via USB, but you need to to do this with a computer or laptop around. Unless you want to download the firmware onto a USB stick and then upload it from there. And expect to have to update that periodically, as modeling amps are a work in progress, and are constantly being upgraded.