When I was a kid in junior high playing the guitar was my big passion. I started playing in the 8th grade and in the 9th grade I spent most of the money I got for my confirmation on a guitar. I would play for hours on end each and every day. But, as with most things from our youth it started slowly fading away as I got older. Over the years I played less and less until a few years ago when I for some reason just stopped.
I've had my three guitars on display around the apartment all this time. I've barely touched any of them since moving in with my girlfriend, to her big annoyance. She recently gave me an ultimatum. Either I start using the guitars or we stow them away to make room for other stuff. I both understood and agreed with her to be honest. My choice did however fall on keeping them around and start using them.
So I stowed away one of the three that I never use anyways and kept the other two up. I moved my main guitar closer to my desk so that it's easier to pick it up and just play. I went down into the basement and I dug up my old Line 6 UX1 Audio Interface and I set up a very convenient configuration to easily just pick it up and play.
My trusty Ibanez
My guitars
My main guitar I bought back in 2008/09. It's an Ibanez RGT6EX that's just amazing to play on. It has a thin but solid neck and EMG pickups that does the job perfectly. I remember trying out pretty much every single guitar they had in the store. They had some ESP and Gibson models that was just amazing guitars to play on but way out of my price range at the time. This one cost me around $1100.
Being nothing but a metal head at that time the black and horned design really spoke to me. It wasn't quite an Explorer which was the dream at the time but it was the second best thing. I also really digged the SG models, inspired by Angus Young of course, but I didn't really like the feel of it when playing one. The choice fell on the Ibanez, and I don't regret it one bit.
My other guitar that I use a fair bit is an acoustic Morgan. It has steel strings and a nice thin neck. I have tiny baby fingers so I need my necks small. I didn't invest big money in this one was I knew it would only be a side guitar. I use it every now and then when I feel like playing something acoustic but most of the time I'm blasting that dark and heavy sound on my Ibanez.
My dusty Morgan
My third guitar is one I bought on a whim. Someone had put up a Jackson Mark Morton Dominion Signature online for around $200. I knew straight away that it wouldn't be the real deal but I thought it was a really cool guitar. And I love Lamb of God. I decided to get it knowing well that the quality wouldn't be the best. It could maybe be a fun project to try and fix it up if it wasn't all that good.
It sucked. It was horrible to play on. Strings were to low on the frets and one of the pickups didn't work. I got some pickups a friend had lying around and I knew a guy at the guitar store who took it in and looked at the neck for free. When it came back it sounded really good but it wasn't good to play at. At least not for me with my baby fingers. I only really pulled it out every now and then but it was a nice decoration, haha. Should just sell it now that it's been stowed away.
CMCGuitars (Don't have a picture of my own)
My setup
I'm using a Line 6 POD Studio UX1 when I play. I also have a Roland Cube 80 AMP but since I've never lived alone I've rarely used it as to not annoy people. The Line 6 has a bigger range of amps and sounds anyways. I use POD Farm alongside it which is pretty awesome. It has a big range of amps and other gear to create some awesome sounds. It also comes with loads of presets for easy use.
I think this software is really awesome. You can tailor your own sound and change everything by the click of a few buttons if you want to. You can control all the knobs that a real life amb and cabinet has, including a wide range of pedals, gaters and other snacksy stuff. That, and it doesn't bother my girlfriend to all hell. I can play day and night without bothering a soul.
Screenshots from POD Farm
Since my Ibanez has been gathering dust for a while I decided to do some maintenance on it. I re-stringed it first. Putting on some Beefy Slinkies from Ernie Ball. Gotta get that low and dark sound just right. I mostly jam on my own and really love that low sound of Gojira and Mastodon. I haven't used strings this thick before but I really like them. They're groovy.
As it is now I can just pick up my guitar, load up the POD Farm software, turn the knob on my guitar and turn the input knob on the Line 6 Device. I've laid up the cables so that they're of sight but always connected. It's nothing but a 10 second procedure if I want to do some jamming right now. Lazy as I am I need a low threshold to pick it up and play if I'm gonna keep at it.
I've told my self that no matter what I will play at least 10 minutes every day. I've done that for a week now and I always end up playing for at least 30 minutes or more.
Rock on folks! I just discovered this community last week and I've been lurking for a bit. You'll se me around.
Aah that first one looks pretty cool! I think I'd like the sound of the second, acoustic one better though. Although... nothing wrong with a good guitar in metal songs...
Super awesome you're playing again! I never really learned to play the guitar. My brother had one and took a couple of lessons but then quit, so I got to try a little. Was a little hard with longer nails though ;-)
I did play the flute for many, many years! Haven't for ages and to be honest, I'm a little sad that back in those days, I blindly followed my friends who wanted to play the flute. I would have gone for violin otherwise.
The thing is with the software I'm using the Ibanez can sound any way I want. I often play using the clean sound as well.
I can see the guitar being hard with long nails. Many guitarists keep long nails on their strumming hand and short on the other hand.
I've never played a flute but they sound nice! I played the keyboard for a little while. I still know the basics of it. Violins are awesome. String instruments sound so nice. Especially the cello
Keep at it. I always lacked the discipline to really learn an instrument. 50 now is it too late???
I say go for it if it's something you want to do and you have an instrument in mind. It's quite rewarding and soothing to be able to play in my opinion.
Learning to play harmonica is not soothing for those around you lol
Bagpipes would be better.
Learn how to play the guitar is one of my pending subjects on life he he. I liked so much your Morgan guitar, it looks cool. Keep practicing and maybe some day you can upload some audio or video of yours here on Hive :) .
Good post, mate.
Regards.
Maybe one day. I have some recording software that came with the audio interface. Thanks Paul (I'm assuming your name is Paul)! Hope you get to play the guitar one day
Hi pusen,
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Good to hear you are back into it. I do fancy an Ibanez some day, but it's hard to justify having more guitars for playing at home. I have a Cube 80 too, but it has not been used in a while as I have my pedal board with amp models plugged into my interface.
How are the fingers doing? It takes a while for them to toughen up.
Rock on!
!PIZZA
The audio interfaces are just so practical.
My fingers are stiff and slow as all hell. I have no chance at playing the technical stuff I did before. Strumming hand is suffering a bit to. I'm easing into it though.
Thanks for the pizza!
I don't have modelling on the computer. As I use Linux there are less options, but there are some out there. My Zoom G3X sounds okay to me and I can just twiddle knobs to find sounds.
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It's so cool you're playing the guitar again! I'm a musician too and I kept with the music as my main career, I've met a lot of people that for some reason or another had left the music behind, is really sad but I understand them. But watching someone coming back to the music makes so happy! Keep on it!
Cheers! I wish I had stayed the course and never stopped. My fingers are so slow now I really need to re-train them. I have zero chance at playing the technical stuff I did before.
I checked out your Queen-cover. That was awesome. You looked a little like Freddie Mercury from a certain angle, haha