If you had your time again?

[Chordite]

One for the older guys. Guitar wise, what would you have done different?

Such as

Persevered more (or less) with your band?

Gone for jazz or folk instead of rock?

Spent too much time perfecting and not enough gigging?

Learned more covers or started writing more of your own?

 

For me I think I should have learned more theory, scales, and dropped bands instead of trying to make incompatible musicians work (just because they had the 'right' instruments to be band shaped didn't make them musically compatible), also wish I had forced myself learn to use a pick when I swapped from classical to electric

[jtr654]

I would have kept more old guitars. Taken the jobs for national acts that I was offered even when it wasn't what I wanted and to have networked more.

[DeepEnd]

In college I had a choice of Art History or Music Theory for "Fine Arts" credit and I picked Art History; if I had it to do again I'd pick Music Theory. I would've never bought my Alvarez 5020; it was my first decent acoustic but it was a small bodied guitar. I would've bought a dreadnought instead. For that matter, I would've never bought my 12-string. I would've started writing songs earlier if possible; I didn't start until 2003 when I was already 50. I would've never bought my Strat; I wasted years trying to bond with it.

[onelife]

I would not have been in such a hurry to "upgrade" my Fender amps.

 

On my way to getting the sought after Twin Reverb that I saw in the Beatles "Let It Be" movie, I sold two BF Vibrolux Reberb Amps (one with JBLs) and a SF Deluxe Reverb.

[AlamoJoe]

I'd have stuck with playing Bass, not gotten her pregnant, and gone to Computer programming school instead of HVAC/R school. Oh and I'd have never sold that old Fender Musicmaster.

[Temple of Light]

Guitar wise? Not much, except maybe a few different pickup combinations, which is still a work in progress, a half dozen

Seymour Duncan and my collection will be completed to my artistic and technical standards, which are ridiculously, meticulously outrageously high. Every one of my guitars fit me like a glove, and they all get a lot of love. Jazz, Blues, Fusion, Metal, Rock, POP, Contemporary Acousticeltic, all the sounds I cherish are in my possession. I can honestly say I've bought my last guitar.

Sweet Sixteen plus a world class bass for my face.

But I have not my secured my last amp or pedal.

Spirit wise or Wisdom wise if you will?

I'd have learned how to live a cleaner, more humble life sooner that it has taken me to become this comfortable in my own skin.

I'd a had a we bit more tolerance and respect for the opposite sex as well as my own, at an earlier age, as well as

a measure more respect for the elders of our race, blasting us into space, lying to our face and lacking in grace.

I hold in disgusted contempt the so called leaders of our current and previous generations, who by and large have sold out humanitarian progress, Spiritual ideals and constructs, and ethicality to an unprecedented level, most notably in a manufactured political environment at the expense of truth and justice for any, let alone all.

Business wise the reality is strikingly similar, with no real accountability or regard for financial stability or predictability.

The playing field has never been less level, and technological change is not the only cause to blame.

Layers upon layers and generations worth of secrecy, old boy networking, corruption, collusion and political favoritism

have created something akin to a hell on earth for far too many, and a relative paradise for a small minority, who are more educated, more motivated and less inhibited with traits like, honesty, fair play, tolerance and compassion for their fellow beings.

The collectivised decisions at the highest levels of power and influence throughout our planet have been consistently made in an environment of calculated risk, purposeful deceit, hidden financial interest and paid for information.

Which does bode well for the expansion of distrust, dysfunction, destruction and disaster, but does nothing to foster

the enduring human attributes of goodwill, understanding, real disclosure, love of truth and freedom, and accountablity to justice administered in an impartial unbiased and non predudiced manner across all walks of life and practices of businesses,

global affairs and foreign policy.

In a word fascism,

or otherwise put, surely you haven't smelled the chemtrails on the wall?

[Steve2112]

I would have kept more old guitars. Taken the jobs for national acts that I was offered even when it wasn't what I wanted and to have networked more.

 

Which national acts offered you jobs?

[Steve2112]

Guitar wise? Not much, except maybe a few different pickup combinations, which is still a work in progress, a half dozen

Seymour Duncan and my collection will be completed to my artistic and technical standards, which are ridiculously, meticulously outrageously high. Every one of my guitars fit me like a glove, and they all get a lot of love. Jazz, Blues, Fusion, Metal, Rock, POP, Contemporary Acousticeltic, all the sounds I cherish are in my possession. I can honestly say I've bought my last guitar.

Sweet Sixteen plus a world class bass for my face.

But I have not my secured my last amp or pedal.

Spirit wise or Wisdom wise if you will?

I'd have learned how to live a cleaner, more humble life sooner that it has taken me to become this comfortable in my own skin.

I'd a had a we bit more tolerance and respect for the opposite sex as well as my own, at an earlier age, as well as

a measure more respect for the elders of our race, blasting us into space, lying to our face and lacking in grace.

I hold in disgusted contempt the so called leaders of our current and previous generations, who by and large have sold out humanitarian progress, Spiritual ideals and constructs, and ethicality to an unprecedented level, most notably in a manufactured political environment at the expense of truth and justice for any, let alone all.

Business wise the reality is strikingly similar, with no real accountability or regard for financial stability or predictability.

The playing field has never been less level, and technological change is not the only cause to blame.

Layers upon layers and generations worth of secrecy, old boy networking, corruption, collusion and political favoritism

have created something akin to a hell on earth for far too many, and a relative paradise for a small minority, who are more educated, more motivated and less inhibited with traits like, honesty, fair play, tolerance and compassion for their fellow beings.

The collectivised decisions at the highest levels of power and influence throughout our planet have been consistently made in an environment of calculated risk, purposeful deceit, hidden financial interest and paid for information.

Which does bode well for the expansion of distrust, dysfunction, destruction and disaster, but does nothing to foster

the enduring human attributes of goodwill, understanding, real disclosure, love of truth and freedom, and accountablity to justice administered in an impartial unbiased and non predudiced manner across all walks of life and and practices of businesses,

global affairs and foreign policy.

 

WTF?

[Steve2112]

My wish was beyond my control.....that I could have continued lessons with Dan Faehnle. He moved away and I never did find someone who could teach and inspire me in the way he did,.

 

Tim Pierce's online lessons are as close I can get- I just found him.

 

Maybe I should have no regrets because things are as they are....and I shouldn't lament the past- just learn from it. One can never really know the results of their alternate history/future . Maybe what you have now is exactly the best outcome for you.

[Freeman Keller]

I just turned 70, have been fooling around with guitars since I was 20. I wouldn't change a thing

 

Then

 

 

Now

 

 

Same guitar, same me

[Temple of Light]

 

WTF?

 

How many names do I have to drop before the clueless get one?

 

[billybilly]

Started younger, the brain is a sponge when your really young. I started at 23 (now 48), no complaints regardless.

[wankdeplank]

Most of my regrets have to do with trusting the wrong people, mainly my parents and siblings. My father was the meanest, most underhanded bully I've ever encountered and I've seen a few (family moved every two years when I was a kid). I made the mistake of defending my mother once when he was washing her face with a dirty dishes wash rag (before automatic dishwashers). I don't really know when it started exactly, I mean he threw me across the room into a TV set (five years old) because my little sister fell off the couch while jumping on it and he just assumed I had something to do with it (I didn't). Anyway, he sold my Princeton Reverb Amp and Teisco Strat out from under me when I was away at college saying it went towards my education (I was working part-time and had a small scholarship) - never asked me or anything. I'm absolutely positive if I was ever in a band at that stage, he'd have found a way to sabotage it just like he did with any serious relationship I made the mistake of sharing with them. Biggest A-hole ever.

 

Started playing again when I was in my late forties to take my mind off what they've (he's) done to me. Don't have any regrets about that.

[onelife]

 

Same guitar, same me

 

It looks like you finally cut off the extra bits at the end of your guitar strings.

[Chordite]

Sympathies, mine was the same, even as an adult the sound of "domestic violence" still pushes those buttons, you never get fully clear of it.

Regarding 'sabotage', I remember coming home from college where I was doing well and saying to mom, "I see dads having a bonfire"

She said "Yes, he's burning your encyclopedias "

[gardo]

What would I do different ? A lot more appreciation for those old time players who may not have known the latest songs but really understood the guitar.and the fundamentals of music..

[billybilly]

Wow, tough one. Clearly, you've transcended his behavior, well done!

[Mr Temporary]

Focused more on writing and recording. Also should have questioned the need to have a high vocal range, which I don't.

[badpenguin]

Uhhhh, wha?

[badpenguin]

Other than the obvious, keeping a lot of the "old" guitars... *bangs head on the computer table...."Why did I sell that 65 SG for 200...????" Bad penguin bad bad penguin....*... I think I would have switched over to guitar earlier than I did. Otherwise, not a lot would be changed. I enjoyed my musical life, I did what I wanted and paid rent doing it, and had a LOT of fun doing it. (Ok, most of that fun, I don't remember.... oooh, shiny thing....)

[WRGKMC]

Life is a chain of good and bad decisions. We learn from the bad ones in hopes we don't make the same bad decisions again. Pain of a poor decision and pleasure from a good one are two sides of the same coin. You cant have one without the other. There is also no way of knowing whether a good choice has any permanent change. Its only good till the next decision you make. For all we know fixing one bad decision could have lead to irreparable disaster at another time, kind of an alteration to the time line we've seen in so many Si Fi movies.

 

In all' I'm pleased with where I'm at. I am not the guy sitting around wishing for the good old days and regretting mistakes I've made. I'm always looking forward even when it isn't as bright as I'd like it to be. I have made and will likely make bad decisions again. Hopefully the good ones I've made will outweigh the bad if there ever is a judgment day. I think there will be more musicians on that side of the fence. So many of us give away the talent we have to make others happy with little or no compensation to all that hard work and hardship involved producing that art.

 

If anything I wish I had saved a copy of some of the early original recordings I did. When a good friend and fellow musician died in a car accident on the way home from a gig in Asbury Park, I gave the master copies of the songs we wrote together to his wife and family. There again, It may have reduced my passion for writing new ones, so again, I have no regrets.

 

The energy of a bad decisions reversed to work for us instead of against us is what drives most people to seek good things in life.

 

Without that drive we are condemned to living a nameless faceless life of mediocrity where nothing good or bad ever happens to us. We just pass through life like a ghost with no impact on anyone around us. I say be proud of both the good and bad decisions.

 

Be proud of the fact you faced adversity and overcame it. You can now be a mentor for others before they make the same bad decisions you did, and if they do make them you can help to guide them through it. That's one of the main reasons things music is all about in the long run after all. You hear it in the lyrics and we surely have enough role models overcome by bad decisions to learn by.

[MDMachiavelli]

Completely get rid of my ego.

[wankdeplank]

Thx fellas, trust me that's just scratching the surface on my end, probably same for you I imagine (Chordite). I was always the honest nurturing one (oldest) so I was an easy target. He had some Svengali hold over the others to do his bidding against me. Being a good Christian, it was always forgive and forget on my end until I realized what was happening and the cycle I was caught up in. The only thing that finally worked was telling relatives and cutting them all off.

[onelife]

Completely get rid of my ego.

 

It's never too late.

[wankdeplank]

Yeah, I notice the locks are shorter all around. Lookin good Freeman.