Learning Guitar

electric

I have an American Standard Strat and an Epiphone Les Paul Tribute plus (with Gibson '57 PAF pickups)

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American Standard Strat s)

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Inherit that? Why is that your "starter"? Nice starter. And upgraded pick ups on the other.



I like Justin guitar. Free website and broken down by electric and acoustic. Marty Scwartz is another YouTube guy. He has some older beginner stuff. But he has a paid website he will always try to lead you to. His newer lessons aren't for me. They are more difficult songs and he tears through chord changes too fast. Of course if talking to intermediates now, he should be moving faster.

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Inherit that? Why is that your "starter"? Nice starter. And upgraded pick ups on the other.

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I bought it used about a year ago. Sold my original guitar (MIM Standard Strat) to help offset the cost. The '12 American Standard comes stock with Custom Shop Fat 50s pickups.
Olympic White replica of the one Jimi used at Woodstock.

The Les Paul is their 1960 Tribute Plus model. Black Cherry finish (beautiful guitar)
Comes stock with the PAFs, Mahogany body and hard maple cap (not veneer like most epi).
It's pretty much the top end of Epiphone and about as close as you can get to a full blown Gibson without paying Gibson money. In fact some reviews rate it a little better than the lowest end Gibson LPs.

Like this one:
Black Cherry Les Paul - Sweetwater

Try to play a little every day.

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bought it used about a year ago. Sold my original guitar (MIM Standard Strat) to help offset the cost. The '12 American Standard comes stock with Custom Shop Fat 50s pickups.
Olympic White replica of the one Jimi used at Woodstock.

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You sound like me then. With a bit more scratch. Fixated and shopping on guitars. More time looking for guitars than lessons. I now have an acoustic that I will never be better than and an electric is coming. Agile LP is a couple days away.

Now I need to ONLY search for lessons.

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You sound like me then. With a bit more scratch. Fixated and shopping on guitars.

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deals are out there if you're just patient and wait for the one you want to come up.

first guitar I ever bought was actually a cheap arse squier strat. black on black with white pickup covers and knobs and a maple fret board.
bought it more for it's appearance to have on a stand on display than anything else.

traded it on a Candle Apple Red MIM Standard Strat i found at Blowout pricing at a small mom and pop music store. Cost me the squier plus a little under $200 for the MIM.

While reading about it, I realized that the right guitars not only hold their values, but can actually increase over the years.

so i knew I wanted an American Strat.
what I didn't know for sure was exactly which one I wanted. I absolutely wanted the identical color scheme to Jimi's Woodstock Strat though.

Found this American Standard at Guitar Center in Lafayette for $750. Sold my MIM for $300. I still consider it a steal since I've yet to find one that cheap any where else. and the color i wanted. And in theory with 2012 being the first year they put the Custom Shop Fat 50s, it may one day be more valuable than it was new.

I taught myself to play using books and later YouTube videos so it can be done. I learned more music theory early on which will help tremendously if you ever decide to play another instrument.

Learn a few open chord shapes and practice switching between them. It will be hell at first because you will have to manually place each finger but it gets better over time. Everyone who ever learned a stringed instrument went through this process.

Realize that at one point in his life even Jimmy Page couldn't play a basic open G major chord.

Keep adding to your chord repertoire. Learn new strumming patterns and picking techniques like finger picking, palm muting, arpeggios, etc.

At some point you'll want to switch from playing rhythm to lead.

Learn scales (and later modes) and practice slurs (hammer ons, pulloffs, bends, slides, etc)

It's easy to get stuck in a rut of only playing what you're good at but one doesn't improve that way. For years I've sucked at pinky hammer ons so I avoided them which just exacerbates the problem.

The key to mastering something is to always be learning and to focus on your weaknesses.

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Agile LP is a couple days away.

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I have an Agile al-3010se. It's a really nice guitar. The finish is flawless. I thought I may want to switch the pickups, but I actually like their tone.

Enjoy

this is my American Standard when i was checking it out at Guitar Center.
Acting like i knew what i was doing, but really just fretting strings down the neck to make sure it played and sounded right (to my completely untrained ears).