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Tim Smith

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  1. Thanks Matt, I have tweaked the truss rod on a few of my guitars. A friend of mine showed me how to sight down the neck. My birthday was Saturday, and my wife was in a "get whatever you want" mood, so we ended up at guitar center and it's a big one compared to the one closer to me. It's the mega guitar center for the area. I really wasn't planning to buy anything but a mic stand. But I always go to the guitars both electric and acoustic to check them out. It was mostly run of the mill chinese guitars, but I did see a mitchel made of mahogany I liked, still low end but had a decent tone and setup. I was playing it but there was some kid in there playing too, and you know how it is for anyone who has ever been to a GC. Then we seen another little glass room no one was in, so I went in there to play the Mitchell. I picked up a Martin X mahogany off the wall in that room and that guitar just sounded dead to me compared to the Mitchell which was significantly less expensive. My standard Martin X has better tone. Then I seen it, a used Taylor. Even used it was a 1500 dollar guitar and I told myself I'm just going to try it. Well nothing else even came close. Never heard body harmonics like that before, like music after the music! Compared to the Mitchell it had a more round tone. I would decribe the Mitchel as harsh in the highs.While the Alvarez sounded pretty good. Nothing like this guitar. I should mention setup was also excellent. Cons- no built in tuner. Output is ok direct. Weaker on my wireless. Ended up buying it and even made a recording with yesterday using an AKG 4043a single guitar mic and my shure KSM 44a for vocals. I took an additional output from the guitar. Here are the results.
  2. I got a price in a little guitar shop I came across in my travels of 65.00 for a setup. It was probably roughly set up at GC, I say probably. Maybe not. I'll give this a try and thanks. This is why I bought my Martin several years ago because it didn't feel too big and it works well for less overt playing. Compared to my other acoustics it doesn't have near the projection, and that seems to be the tradeoff. Smaller body, less projection if playing it unplugged. It's great for light finger picking. I didn't notice how much of a difference it made until I played it and compared it to the Alvarez which is what I would call a small dreadnaught. I have the jumbo Epiphone Masterbuilt. It'is a well made guitar with wonderful tone, but for me it feels HUGE compared to the Martin which has a far smaller body. I don't tend to play it as much even though it's a better guitar. Anything I ever recorded with the Martin lacked umph. I see the Alvarez as a compromise. It's slightly bigger than the Martin, but not as large as the Epiphone. They also put a bevel where your right arm rests which makes it a very comfortable guitar to play. I have pretty much gotten used to it now and don't notice that it's slightly smaller.
  3. I should have bought one when I was looking at them. Nice guitars. Especially the older ones. If you haven't found much use for them that says quite a lot.
  4. It seems everything in one way or another influences us, would you agree? I tend to generalize an experience on a whole lot of people which really isn't being entirely fair. Deep down I know this, yet it's the only experience I have so it influenced me. I have learned I prefer to be out of boxes, but still find myself in them at times. We all grow over time. As a Christian I see lots of boxes constructed by other Christians which are largely unnecessary. And being what I am in this time has challenges as it isn't overall generally well recieved often due to the way many see it. Some genre or individuals will lead me away from the ideal so I mostly avoid them. I have come a long way as I once entertained all music that seemed to be tapping into the magical which is glamourized. It was an interesting novelty, but the connotations of magic imply sleight and that's basically what it is in that context with respect to motive. Not that my side doesn't believe in it. It's all about the motive and the source. The forums here are generally intentionally shallow and that seems to be how forums almost all are now. Since this isn't a philosophy area, I'll get my coat There are other forums I go to for that. No not John's forum either.
  5. I am finding that for the most part it's just a comfort sort of placebo for the fingerings I know . Sometimes I seem to play better not looking. I like to know I can look if I need to look which is probably one of the beginner syndromes. I was trying to play a G/AM7/G/C and then that same run with a D/D7 at the end. The hard thing for me was getting back to the C fast from G. If I played G2 and C2 that's much easier. That's a pretty major fingers shift for me where I'm using my pinkie finger on the E string when playing G. Just muscle memory I guess. I must have played it 50 times last night and still arrived at the C slightly late. The only trick I could come up with was to only play the strings my fingers landed on so the later notes were a few milliseconds behind and sounds like I played it deliberate. I am beginning to feel the C without looking now. It's really a keys song, but I would be dragging a keyboard there for one song. I need to make a decision soon. It's easy to play on keys for me, but I think the guitar gives it more character. My wife must go nuts hearing me go over it again and again. I watched some dude on Youtube playing it on guitar. He was just straight up strumming it. To me it didn't sound as good as the way I'm doing it. It seems most guitar training is just training strummers.
  6. Heavy metal rhythm is pretty easy to play. Solos? That's another thing altogether.
  7. Well I finger pick and sometimes look at my hands which makes that angle very important for me. When I play out I have a stool to put my right foot on so I can play while standing. Maybe similar? It's an easier angle to get those difficult passages for me. When at home I have a similar angle only I'm sitting. Some of that is probably just inexperience in needing the confidence to know where my hands are without looking. On some chords I know, but on others I feel better having the ability to glance at mainly my left hand. For electric guitar too many strings at once amped with distortion is nothing but mud. Don't ask me how I know that @Old Joad Thanks! One thing I know. Unless my health gives out I will NEVER lay down guitar. :)......long story, but I diverted to learn another instrument. This took valuable time away from guitar practice, so I'm back in that grove now. Last night I played the same song on both keyboard and guitar. Guitar was the clear winner for that song in terms ot how it felt playing it in addition to expressiveness. Not in all cases, but in that case guitar won. The power can go out and I still have an instrument I can play. With my keyboards not so. And in front of an audience I much prefer a guitar over a piece of plastic in front of me, but some things I just can't play as well on guitar. I tried tuning down 1/2 step. I think that could work for some things and I appreciate that suggestion. It was especially useful where my vocal range is pushing it. Could be my strings. The guitar seemed to loose some tone whan I did that. Didn't project as well in addition to my high strings being almost too 'twangy'. It made playing easier though overall. I can play F maybe three different ways none very fast and no barr yet. I'll stay at it. Maybe plugged in I won't loose tone down tuning. On this guitar it seemed to dampen the tone unplugged. I got through the fingertip pain. Now I guess I need to develop strength for the barr chords. I'm left handed, but I don't think my left fingers are really any stronger than my right hand fingers. Maybe more dexterity. I don't own a piano, but played one for years elsewhere. I mostly play keys. Those lighter keys are probably not helping me much. Thanks for your comments.
  8. Welcome to the forum @PascalHP !!! I guess you can tell many of us have been here a very long time. It seems you back a few years as well unless you were only teething then. I probably should not be here because I seldom even think about opening Cakewalk any more. The other software forums are boring as watching grass grow. We have interesting characters here and they tolerate each other pretty well. I had not heard about Cakewalk once again being a paid product. We shall see.
  9. I'll admit that part of it threw me for a loop. I am not organized. I realize this is supposed to help, but now I need to go through my 1000's of plug ins and try to make sure I have all of them. Compared to cakewalk and others, I never liked their scan system. Why can you only select a few folders when plug in makers put them all over the place?
  10. Sorry things are not going so well. I remember a few years ago when Cubase updated their license center. That took several direct emails to technical service reps to get it ironed out. 12 beta has been out for a year, so I'm surprised a work around wasn't presented. They have lots of mac users making this a bigger deal.
  11. I loaded Ableton 12 on two computers, both running Windows 10. A desktop running winpro and the other running the home version on a lappy. No issues on either one that I can tell so far. The only differences I noted was my desktop loaded a new C++ version before it loaded everything else. My other computer didn't seem to have done that. The new file setting will take some getting used to. Not sure if it "seen" all of my plugs and instruments at this point.
  12. He probably couldn't play guitar and resorted to something he could squeeze to make noise.
  13. Thanks. I hope I didn't miss anyone. I appreciate all comments. Keep em coming !
  14. Doing this on an electric would of course be a lot easier. Longer fingers? I think you might be thinking of something else. Thanks for your advice. I will give this a go. It probably isn't you, but I'm not understanding some of this. I played a lot in D tuning but it isn't very versatile for all around playing. Some metal bands even tune to C or C#. Then we are getting into baritone territory. Tuning in E sounds interesting if I could work around new chord structures. Right now I play Em on the 2nd fret A and D which is easy peasy. I just changed my strings to 52-11 s coated instead of 12s and that seems to help. I believe the setup is pretty good but maybe could be set a little lower. I say that because I have had guitars with terrible setup and you punch holes in your finger tips with those guitars. This is decent as far as I can tell. I have been using that double finger technique for F chord on the E and B and that seems to work. Being more of a finger picker I can just play only the strings necessary If I barr all but the last string I can play a decent chord minus the lowest string. I am not comfortable with any of that yet though. I am just grabbing the F Chord with the first 4 or 5 strings. I imagine that's all some guitarists ever play, especially if you are multitasking. If I leave off the high E it's some pleasant minor thing going on that fits sometimes. Hmmmm. I could just capo that 1st fret so I don't accidentally play it, but no then I would be a half step higher. That would be a brain game for me. I'm going to try it though, maybe on my old Martin. Thanks! I am playing a Chinese made Alvarez that's a cheaper knock off of the Yairi. Not hand made and not from Japan, but it has some of that dna and a beautiful sound. I did sand the bridge but I don't think I hardly took anything off of it. I was afraid I would go too far, so it.s maybe only a couple of thousanths less. Thought about taking the bridge down some more. Hesitant to play with the nut as it's glued in place and probably hard to change if I goof it up. Most of it is probably just me needing to work up hand strength. On a scale of 1-10 set up is probably an 8 or a 7. Not too many of those around here in my area. There is guitar center, but I'm concerned that would be like giving a jet to a six year old to fly. I hate to say that but they don't exactly exude professionalism around here. I will give it another look though. It isn't a top tier guitar but I don't want inexperienced hands messing with it. It's my little baby, and for what it is, it's very nice. Duly noted. What do you think of GC for guitar setups? Luckily I'm in the callus stages, but yeah I need to look one of those guys up and have it done right. I will sit and noodle on the thing all evening. Like I mentioned, I have had bad set ups and was too naive to know what the problem was thinking all guitarists must have leather fingers and extra muscles in their hands lol. You have huge hands. I always thought that was an advantage. I am more like your teacher was. Lots of advantage there in reaching distant frets IMHO. Like you say, gotta use what we have. One guitarist I know of is missing part of a finger and is world class. At least part of it is the fingers getting the instructions from the brain to do the right things at the right times. I'm not totally there yet. Muscle memory is beginning to get better.Thanks Rain. The important thing is, how does it sound? If it works is it cheating? Not in my book, however to advance my playing I think barrs are in my future. Just seems very different from the way I think. It's going to take some practice to get there for me. Until then I can still play. I totally get health issues. Two of my fingers were numb for awhile because of medication I was taking. Will give that a go. I don't guess I'll break my guitar neck.
  15. I know most of the basic guitar chords. I have been using a few 'cheater' chords to get by. I wasn't blessed with long fingers and since I fingerpick I can generally just play the strings I can fret on chords like F . I had been playing the cheater F which is close to the C chord and really works well. The action on my acoustic is somewhere in the middle. No where near as easy as an electric but not bad either for an acoustic. One of my buds has a Yairi and it frets SO easy. I don't have a Yairi, so I need to play this thing. If I can get to a barred F I can carry that down the neck to other chords. "If". For those who play those barred chords a lot on acoustic guitar, can you give me any tips? Give up guitar? I won't do that. I can get by on that cheat F, but would prefer to learn the barrs.
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