Archive for the ‘Electric Guitars’ Category
When it comes to special occasions like birthdays, graduations, Easter, Christmas and others do you have trouble finding that perfect gift? Did you ever think about giving someone an electric guitar? How about giving someone a complete electric guitar package.
How about, if they already play guitar? The perfect gift might be one of the many guitar accessories that are available. You might want to think about a guitar related gift for their room. Even the most avid guitarist wouldn’t say no to a rug in their room with guitars all over it, or a guitar lamp made from a real guitar.
If you don’t want to spend that much look around for one of the great leather or polyester guitar straps that are available.
Have you ever been driving in your car or truck when a song came on the radio that you never heard before? As soon as you get home you start looking for the song, when you find it you find it had an outstanding bass guitar line that was invisible on the radio, you start to ask yourself why.
How about those songs you hear over and over on the radio that you just don’t like. As with the first example you find the songs done live by what ever band it is, and you hear electric guitar licks you never heard on the radio, and are now a big fan of that particular band.
That has happened quite a bit to me, one such band for me is The Doobie Brothers. There music has been on the radio for decades and to me it was alright, but nothing great. If you have never heard The Doobies try it. Electric guitars are used for most of their songs, featuring great guitar solos, along with some snappy rhythm guitar work, and if you are an acoustic guitar lover listen to “Snake Man” a song which the play entirely with acoustic guitars along with a steel guitar.
As I’ve gotten older, I have gone through phases of infatuation with just about every genre of rock music. When I first started listening to music in my early teens, I listened to hard rock and heavy metal—the stereotypical style for the inevitable stages of adolescent angst. I then moved on to “more mellow” music: grunge. This led to a stint with classic rock, and, after going to college, I adapted a formulaic affinity for indie. With the exception of the heavy metal, I still listen to all of the genres periodically.
Watching my brother’s music tastes evolve has been quite amusing, as I’ve seen him go through an almost identical transformation. Recently he has branched out from heavy metal into grunge and the sounds of the custom guitars from the classic rock era. Although I dislike pigeonholing anyone, I am fairly confident that he will begin to appreciate the counterculture of indie music sometime soon.
Just a few simple steps can keep your electric guitar looking new and playing new. The same thing applies if you purchased an acoustic guitar, or a bass guitar.
From the time you made your purchase you should have picked up some guitar polish and some soft rages, or maybe you purchased an electric guitar package that has guitar polish and special rags in it. These two guitar accessories when used often can preserve the finish on your guitar, cleaning the strings can result in making them last longer also.
You should get into the habit of keeping your hands clean when playing your guitar along with wiping the guitar and strings down after every use. The oil given off by your fingertips can be one of the biggest reasons your strings would have to be changed often.
With the right playing habits and just a few simple steps mentioned above there is no reason your electric guitar can’t have an outstanding appearance like it did when it was new.
If you have started playing guitar and have just purchased your first electric guitar with great difficulty because of the many types and styles of guitar, your not alone. The selection is so hard because of the great finishes, and features each guitar has to offer.
The guitar use choose is also very hard to narrow down when you take into consideration there are acoustic guitars, as well as electric guitars, with many different styles in each catagory. Alot of times after you have made your decision you have second thoughts, should I have picked up that other guitar instead of the one I purchased?
As a first time guitar buyer you might be surprised to know that other guitarists like yourself own quite a few guitars. It’s not uncommon for someone to own 4 or 6 guitars. There guitar collection might include an LP style, Telecaster, Stratocaster, they might even own 1 or 2 bass guitars, not to mention a few acoustic guitars.
When you started your musical career you bought yourself a cheap electric guitar, or a cheap acoustic guitar. After much practice you have now progressed to where you are now an intermediate to good guitar player and are ready for the next step.
The first question you ask yourself is, “should I spend alot of money and get myself a really good electric guitar”, my answer is not necessarily. If you are one of the fortunate people who have thousands of dollars to spend, then I say be my guest and go buy one of the great guitars that are manufactured by one of the big names in the industry. If you fall in the majority of people that don’t have alot of extra money to burn there are alternatives.
Whether you interest is in electric guitars, acoustic guitars, or bass guitars, you get what you pay for. As I stated before when you started you picked up a cheap electric guitar because you weren’t sure if you were going to stay with it but now are ready to move on. Depending upon how cheap a guitar you bought, if it was at the low end you can step up to a much better knock-off guitar, again you get what you pay for, the more money you spend the better the finish, pick-ups and other things might be. If you already purchased one of the higher end knock-offs you can consider gutting it in favor of better pick-ups from Fender or Gibson and improving its sound.
Most people at some time in their life has gone to, or knows someone who has gone to a live concert. Concerts are held in big auditoriums, major league stadiums, and theaters around the world.
I grew up in New York City in the 50’s and 60’s where the biggest event by far was The Beatles playing at the home of the New York Mets, Shea Stadium in 1965. The Ed Sullivan Theater, a 12oo seat theater located on Broadway between 54rd and 54th streets in Manhattan was also the first place The Beatles ever played in the United States. Unprecedented at the time The Beatles played on three consecutive Sunday’s in February 1964.
The Beatles first appearance was on February 9th, this alone was the defining moment in pop culture, it also marks the beginning of the British Invasion. For me and other teens my age it was our introduction to the world of music and electric guitars.
When I was growing up, my friends and I would spend hours in the garage emulating our favorite rock bands. We didn’t always have the best instruments—usually just discount electric guitars from the local pawn shop—but we certainly played with gusto. When we first started out, I’m slightly embarrassed to say that we were into the hair metal band craze of the 80’s.
Thankfully that fad was killed and cooler heads prevailed. Not that I am a huge Metallica fan, but I certainly appreciate the silver bullet that they dealt to hair metal. Reminiscing on those days playing with my friends, I often wonder what the music we put out sounded like. I’m sure that we didn’t sound nearly as good as we thought we did, but that wasn’t really the point.
Everyone has a particular band they really like. Listening to them from one song to another you often hear the electric guitars like you have never heard them and wondered how they got that sound.
There are many factors or guitar accessories that give them the sound they achieve. Quality cables are often overlooked as something that can give you better sound, bad cables can distort the sound by driving the mids up at the same time driving the the highs down.
There are many different pedals that can have an influence on the sound you are hearing. Fuzz, wah-wah, volume, tone, are just a few pedals, there multi function pedals, tremolo pedals the list goes on.
As yo advance in your music career you might want to try a few of these to enhance your sound.
I have bee playing bass guitar for 45 years, some of it has been on stage but most of it has been just for me. I took lessons when I was in Junior High School which was followed by being a member of several bands.
In my 20’s I had to give up playing bass professionally in lieu of a full time job, it was a difficult thing to do. Although I gave up playing in bands I still played for me, if I heard a song on the radio I was interested in I would learn it and play it.
I now play for the enjoyment of it, it’s relaxing and it’s fun. For anyone reading this blog your never too old to learn, whether it’s an acoustic guitar or you pick yourself up an electric guitar package, do it for yourself you’ll be glad you did.