KYSLOWFINGERS

Six String, I hope you don't call your blonde vintage to her face LOL

Love it! Seems that DIY/woodworking is a fairly common theme on here.

WOW, thanks for posting matonanjin, the story about reuniting with the guitar is amazing, but maybe the most amazing is that someone would give him a '54 Les Paul for free. He definitely did it justice tho', glad he got it back. The Comes Alive album cover with that guitar is definitely iconic. The cover insert in the new CD case I referenced above actually folds out for the whole picture, I was surprised by that. Thanks again

The intro to DYFLWD is immediately recognizable to most people, although some weren't born then ......, and pretty easy to play. I have a Blackstar IDCore amp, and there is a patch you can download for the song posted by someone, but it's set on Crunch or maybe even Supercrunch, to me it's too distorted. I think Clean Warm and around 40% gain is closer to the sound I hear on the album. OTOH, the "talk-box" pedal effects he uses to make the guitar "talk" are way over my head. If you've never researched that it's pretty wild. He actually has a tube running up to his mouth, and I don't know how to say it, but "accentuates" the sound to the mic.

I looked it up on Amazon, and since I'm a prime member, I can actually stream it free, just had to download the music app. Listening now, learn something new everyday, and free is always good LOL Thanks again!

I will definitely do that! I didn't know that existed. I'm more of an acoustic person anyway. Mason Williams, etc, and through the Mason Williams Pandora station, I recently discovered Tommy Emmanuel, he's unreal. Thank you UncleHammy

I was 10 years old in '76, my brother was 16, and somewhere in '76-'78 he bought the double album. I mean it was sort of requirement back then LOL. I think it's still the top selling live album, maybe. We wore it out, I knew the words to every song. Flash forward to 2018, couple of weeks ago, bought an Alfred Classic Rock songbook. A lot of good songs, with notes and tab. Anyway, Do You Feel Like We Do was in there. I started on the intro and learned it pretty quickly, only a few notes above the first position, and then just up to the 6th fret. If you are up to session 4 in L&MG, you could handle it, and it sounds really good. There's one section between the A and the B part, just three notes that I couldn't/still can't get to sound right. So, I ordered the CD off of eBay (yes, a CD, I'm a dinosaur) LOL It arrived Thursday, my youngest daughter had a soccer tournament in Cincinnati (ironically where I believe Mr. Frampton now resides) this weekend, so on the way up and back I listened, about a 3 hour jaunt for us. What a guitar album! In my youth, and not being a musician, I never appreciated his playing for what it was/is. I remembered every song, aside, noise, etc from the original album, but his playing is awesome. The whole album is great, not just the songs they still occasionally play on classic rock stations. If you have recently started playing, check this album out, it's pretty impressive.

I'm 52 and I totally get it. I never played anything till I was 42. And after sitting at a bluegrass festival, decided to learn 5 string banjo in 2008. Growing up there was a guitar and banjo in the house, tho' no one played. My father hoped one of his 3 sons would pick it up, but it never happened, long story for another time. Like you I, normally play alone and am self taugtht from books, videos, YouTube, the usual. Have several different instruments, can play a tune on most of them. I worked really hard at banjo for years, and I'm not bad, UNTIL I compare myself to a professional or even talented amateurs. But' I've accepted that, finally. I bought L&MG in 2012, I think, worked through 1-4, then let it go. But this year I have rededicated myself to guitar. Redid 1-4 and I'm now on session 5. I do it for myself, and believe it or not, I've come to enjoy the struggles along the way, because there is a sense of accomplishment when they are conquered. I mentioned bluegrass earlier, but my listening runs the gamut, hard rock to classical. I've owned electric guitars for years, but never played them much, other than the occasional blast of Smoke on the Water, when the notion hit me LOL But' before I started back on L&MG, I was working on basic barre chord shapes, and they seem easier on an electric, so been play them recently. Anyway, I've talked enough, not my normal. Hang in there, I'm looking forward to session 10, I think the banjo fingerpicking may be a plus. I think you mentioned in another post about the fingerpicking showing if your chord shapes are weak, I can agree, I recently learned the intro to Lynyrd Skynyrd Simple Man, no barre chords, and easy chords at that C, G, Am, but if they aren't perfect, you can definitely hear it immediately. Stay strong, if you're on session 10, you can play better than 95% of the general population! A+ on the golf analogy too!

BTW, Musician's Friend Stupid Deal of the Day is a pedalboard for $119, regular $199 WOW I like your idea much better. Not sure I would pay those prices if I was a working road musician. It's not a high tech piece of equipment LOL Yours looking good so far.

Rambling Man - Allman Bros on Lynyrd Skynyrd Pandora station at work. Just started working on the intro to Simple Man last night and today during lunch. Two takeaways so far 1) not as difficult as I imagined as far as notes goes, timing is everything, not there yet 2) will let you know how clean your chord shapes are immediately LOL

Good idea on the shim. I took the neck off when I replaced the pickguard and gave everything a good cleaning, so it wouldn't be hard to do. I actually have fret material and tools I bought from Stewmac a few years ago for a banjo neck I was redoing. I still have ALL the material , that was one of the aforementioned DIY jobs that cost more in the long run LOL Don't think I have a rocker tho', and the frets on hand are probably not the right size, but I will look into it. I'm not afraid to try anything once on a cheap instrument.......which again goes back to the cost deal LOL

I'm with you on that. I have a MIK Squier Bullet Strat, that by the serial number is from around '93-'94. I bought it used and the frets in the first position were pretty worn then, 8 or 9 years ago. The neck pickup was shot, so I never used it, couple of weeks ago, I ordered a loaded pickguard and 1/4" cable connector, soldered them in, good as new. The string height is a little high around the 12th and up, but down the neck it plays as good as anything. Might be the shorter scale of the Bullet, I don't know. I've tried adjusting everything to get the strings down, but end up with the dreaded buzz LOL I have less than $120 in it, including the new parts, so it's a keeper. I'd never get that out of it.

Looking forward to the finished product. I'm a big DIY guy. Sometimes ends up costing more in the long run LOL I CAN disassemble and reassemble a banjo in a pinch, and do a decent setup..........

Thanks everyone for the kind responses.

Wanted a battery amp for the porch, patio, etc, so read reviews and thought the Blackstar Fly was good for the price. Found it with the additional speaker and power adapter on Amazon for $90 in the limited edition green, I would've gone for the black, but they didn't offer the combo in black for that price. Decent sounding little amp, wouldn't play the Rose Bowl with it, but for a quiet setting and clean playing it works well. Has effects, and they work well, but not what I bought it for. Bass strings sound a little rough if you turn the gain up enough, but overall sounds better than my little 15 amp Fender Frontman, which hasn't been plugged in for a while. Thought a little cabinet would be nice, had some spare oak, so spent a few hours Saturday throwing it together. Could've made a few of the joints a little cleaner, but it will do the job. When the little amp and speaker sit, the face is slightly angled back, so as picture 4 shows, I routed a groove for the front hard plastic feet to sit in, sorta holds them in place. The back feet are rubber. This made the face sit fairly perpendicular. Anyway, not a bad little amp for the price, the amp alone runs around $60, and runs on 6 AA batteries, if you don't have the power adapter. Fun little project!