gp2112

Good story. Wait until the other colleges get in on the game though. When my girls were playing volleyball there were some exceptional 8th and 9th grade players who "committed" to schools at that age, but due to the rules their "commitment" was merely verbal and not set in stone. My oldest went to school with a girl who "committed" to Azusa-Pacific as a freshman. By the time she was a senior most of the big DI schools were looking at her. She signed with Hawaii. At least he knows that if he works hard in school he has a college education waiting for him.

This is what I thought. I am sure a writer could comb the files and find something that infringes on his/her copyrights.

Cahunega classical guitar. Got it for Christmas in 1977. My older bro and I were taking a guitar class at our Junior High school. Fat, wide fretboard, very high action and I could not bar it effectively at all with my 7th-grader hands. It eventually turned me off of playing for 30 years. My next "first" was an Epi PR-4 acoustic my ex bought me for Xmas after I started playing again. I love that thing (but not because of who it came from). My first electric came after the Epi and it is a Behringer strat copy. I got it for 40 bucks and it is not the greatest but I still have it. I never play it anymore, it just fills out my limited inventory.

I am not a performing musician but I feel your pain. My ex, thinking she was doing me a favor, bought me a Mustang II amp. I found I fiddled with it more than I liked. I found a Boss Katana and tried it. I loved the sound it made just when I plugged in and started playing. Then I realized it was a modeling amp. I liked it so much I bought it. Now, when I turn in on the first thing I do is turn the modeling knobs up and then all the way down. This turns off any modeling from those controls. I then set reverb if I want and the only knobs I mess with are the "cabs": Clean, distortion, lead, Brown, and one other I never use. Then I just use adjust the gain, volume and tone to what I want for the song or music I am playing. When I do fiddle it is usually only to change cabs and with the volume and gain. This may not work for you, but I have found my answer to your dilemma. My other amp is a twin-reverb digital clone (with a spring reverb). Not many settings to mess up on that one.

Actually, there are a couple of songs I play in which it is easier and faster to do the G in the manner you describe as opposed to the "real" way to do it. Usually when the G is in between a very fast progression. I don't do it all the time but it does have its place.

I am a self-taught bedroom player with no music background or training. You guys talking about phrasing, eighths, and all that other stuff just flies over my head at about 10,000 feet. Because I am so stunted I can play a good number of songs but I cannot, for the life of me, do lead very well, if at all. So...What I am doing is concentrating on learning how to get through scales with some semblance of competence. For years I never understood the Root Notes and could not grasp what I read or others told me. When I would watch another do a lead riff I would wonder how they could go from one part of the fretboard to the other and make it sound so natural. Last week, while driving home, I thought of something: "Maybe the root notes are the locations you can go to and get a different sound but one that will not clash with the sound you are trying to achieve...?" Later, I grabbed my guitar and started going through the "A" blues scale. I then tried to prove or disprove my thought from earlier in the day and it seemed to work, so I am building on that. I may have it wrong but it seems to be working for me. My GF said the noodling I was doing sounded pretty good. The problem with music is it is so much like math and I have always had difficulties grasping math in the manner in which it is taught. I have always had to do "Stupid Math" work-arounds to get where I need to be. It worked very well for me as a medic and having to do drug dosage problems. Perhaps I need to develop work-arounds for being able to grasp guitar playing too.

Not much of a Tele or relic'd fan but I would love to have that guitar. Nice job!

There are a few choices out there in that price range so the advise of madjack is something to seriously consider. I would also consider a multitude of amps and not get focused on just one or two.

How much are you looking to pay? I have an Epi Les Paul Special with soapbars. It was real cheap and it was my go-to until the bridge PU went out. I just gotta fix it. The soapbars are "real" EPI soapbars and I have always felt that they sounded fantastic. Of course, my preferences ( I do not gig so I do not really like spending a lot on my instruments) may differ and what I find good you may find intolerable. It is not a carved body and only has one tone and volume control, yet if you wanna go cheap it is one avenue you can look into.