Help/Support ► for the guitar players

[Siren]

Hi! I've had a guitar for...three? years, and I've been playing on-and-off since then. The problem the past year has been while I've been really wanting to play, first the cord that came with the guitar (lol Starcaster by Fender set) shit out, and then (due to lack of replacements and mis-treatment) one of the strings snapped.

So I'm looking for some new strings (preferably relatively cheap ones) and a new cord. Eventually I'll be looking for a new amp, but I don't have the money for it yet. And if anyone can find a decent cord to connect it to my Macbook, that would be awesome, as the main thing I'm going to be doing is playing through/recording with/learning with GarageBand (with a friend).

So, what equipment do you recommend/use?

 

[Unabomber]

of course fender amps are usually a good call too.

what type of guitar do you have btw? and what kind of pickups does it have?

 

[Siren]

I have a Starcaster by Fender. Not sure whatever type of pickups it has.

 

[Eric]

this all the way

also if you're looking for a cheap cord/recording program to get started, I suggest buying stealth plug. got mine for $80 and I love it. If you just want the cord however I'm sure you can find them at guitar center, not really sure what kind to recommend though :x

and yeah fender and marshall is where it's at. Line 6 is pretty good too or a raven ( think that's what it's called)

 

[Vayne Mechanics]

If you're planning on setting up a home recording studio, then I highly suggest buying something along the lines of the Line6 pod series. You can either set it directly into your PC and monitor via headphones (this way you can play at night and not wake anyone up) or monitor it through an amp. I have the podx3 right now and while I'm not the best guitarist, I can say that the copious amount of tones available to you is insane. I record via USB and so far, I haven't encountered any problems whatsoever, so I highly recommend the pod series or any piece of hardware similar to it.



Example of someone using the line6 podxt. While you don't get the same feeling as using a live tube amp, it sounds exactly like what a recorded tube amp would sound like.

There are some disadvantages though, such as no foot switches or pedals unless you buy the really bulky "Live" versions of the pods or an external line6 footboard. If most of the songs you plan on playing/recording don't really require you to switch between clean/distorted, then it's great and you can p.much look over this problem.

 

[Siren]

shit's expensive. right now I'm getting a $10 cord, a $20 USB cord, and I got some $5 strings:

pretty much right now I'm going pretty bare-bones and then after the holidays I'll start saving for all the cool shit you guys suggest

 

[Siren]

So I was looking around a little bit more, and watched the GarageBand videos again, and had seen mention of Apogee GiO. I went over to the site, looked around, etc. and I've found what appear to be two awesome products:

I'll be grabbing this one first, because it's cheaper and what I genuinely need as I plan on (attempting) doing some vocals as well. But, when I have more discretionary money (i.e. after buying a TV, PS3, the ONE, etc.) this one seems pretty badass as well:

 

[Eric]

that looks pretty cool actually

right now I depend on my $525 boss gt-10 pedal for all my effects. I just need a good amp and better recording program :x

 

[bond of flames]

great strings
me and my friends use these

 

[Bukkake Sensei]

You really can't go wrong with Ernie Ball. Personally, I'm more partial to D'Addario.

 

[Siren]

I keep putting off re-stringing the guitar because I've never done it before and I'm afraid I'm going to break something :/

Planning on waiting until I can at least get a cord for the damn thing, and, ya know, HEAR what I'm playing.

 

[Eric]

^I was the same way



this video saved my life

 

[Dogenzaka]

while this thread is filled with guitar players....

I have a question.

I can play some general chords on guitars, and maybe some bar chords (which sound ugly and painful)

But how do you people come up with those unique, fancy chord combinations and the ones that are beyond the main ones? By working with scales? How does that work?

/musically retarded

 

[stephaknee]

I learned this in my Music Theory class in HS for piano, some concept applies for the guitar: How to Make Guitar Chords

 

[Bukkake Sensei]

But how do you people come up with those unique, fancy chord combinations and the ones that are beyond the main ones? By working with scales? How does that work?

Yup. That's exactly how it's done. It's all based on scales and formulas.

If you want to make a major chord, just take the first, third and fifth notes of a scale and play them.

If you want to make a minor chord, just take the first, third and fifth notes of a minor scale and play them.

If you want to make an augmented chord, just make a major chord and then raise the fifth note by a half step.

If you want to make a diminished chord, just make a minor chord and then lower the fifth note by a half step.

If you want to make a major seventh chord, you just make a major chord and add the seventh note from the scale it's based on.

If you want to make a minor seventh chord, just make a minor chord and add the seventh note from the scale it's based on, but lower that seventh note by half a step.

And there are probably fifty more types that I'm not covering, but those are some of the basics. It takes awhile to get used to, but once you've memorized a handful of patterns and shapes it's reeeeally easy.

 

[Vayne Mechanics]

If you want to make a major chord, just take the first, third and fifth notes of a scale and play them.

An alternative way of thinking about this is taking the major chord and flattening the major third. It's the same thing because the major third becomes the minor third but it's just an easier way to see this.

Also while not mentioned (for good reason), power chords are the root and the perfect fifth of a major scale.

Some other chords are Sus chords. To make a Sus2 chord, you replace the third with the second and to make a Sus4, you replace the third with the fourth.

I just need a good amp and better recording program :x

Like I said before, if you're not playing live gigs and just doing home studio recording for now, something similar to the Line6 pod series is an amazing investment (I see you have the boos gt-10). If you have a decent soundcard, then you can just output the sound from the gt-10 to the soundcard and let's you easily jam with your favourite tracks with much more ease. And for recording, I suggest using REAPER. It's small and so far I haven't found any recording latency with it.

 

[Theart]

I used to play the guitar, but I gave up a while back. But now I'm thinking of bouncing back and making it work this time.

As for strings, I was always partial to D'Addario myself. ^_^ I have a ESP LTD EC-100QM. A fine guitar, cheap, but I like it a lot. xD

It's my dream however, to one day own one of these babies...

Gotta love Paul Reed Smith Guitars... <3

 

[Eric]

Like I said before, if you're not playing live gigs and just doing home studio recording for now, something similar to the Line6 pod series is an amazing investment (I see you have the boos gt-10). If you have a decent soundcard, then you can just output the sound from the gt-10 to the soundcard and let's you easily jam with your favourite tracks with much more ease. And for recording, I suggest using REAPER. It's small and so far I haven't found any recording latency with it.

I'm a little confused on how to output the sound straight from my gt to my sound card :x

do I have to use it through some program or will it just show up as a device?

REAPER already looks ten times better then what I have now lol so I guess I'll look into investing in that.

 

[Vayne Mechanics]

You know the headphone jack for your Boss GT-10? Instead of actually plugging in headphones there, you use a male-male cord going from the headphone jack to the microphone jack into your sound card. It should be able to instantly playback whatever you're playing in real time, so you can monitor through your PC instead of through an amp. For recording, this is actually a lot better than monitoring through your amp since you're hearing exactly what the PC is recording. If you're monitoring through some kind of amp, then the sound will be slightly different.

There's a dozen different kinds of setups you can do, but I personally love this one. The downside to this kind of setup is that you don't feel what you're playing. It's a totally different experience. If you're home alone and you wanna just jam out as loud as you can, monitoring via amp is better.

 

[Eric]

I see, I'll try that out then ;D

I always wondered how to get that recording type sound.