gp2112

Unfortunately, that is the best answer. I am quite sure there are many, many guitarists that can take my $129.00 Epi Les Paul Special sound like a million bucks but will gladly pay far more for a guitar just because they can.

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.

Uh...What does a compressor do in this case? I really do not know.

I figured. I remembered some of the Radio Communications class I took in '84. I knew that KCAL had a repeater in Fawnskin or Arrowhead. Even so, there were areas of Apple Valley in which I did not get a good signal at all. The Victorville station was OTH by the time I got to the east side of Lucerne. Growing up in the LA metro area made it hard to believe that I could not get a signal anywhere I went. Then I remembered that FM does not go through earth and rock very well, and the tallest mountains in the area did not have repeaters for many of the LA stations while Mount Wilson was nearly OTH up there. One could tell the higher watt LA stations just by reception. KLOS was spotty in AV but you could get KIIS FM nearly everywhere you went in the Victor Valley.

You could not get KCAL in the Morongo Basin area. When I worked for Morongo Basin Ambulance, driving in from Apple Valley, I would lose it just east of Lucerne Valley while on 247, and if I came up from the valley (like when I was doing my medic internship at Colton Fire) I would lose it as I drove up the Morongo Grade, south of Morongo Valley. Hell, even the local Victorville rock station (pretty crappy) lost signal east of Lucerne. I cannot remember what station I listened to while in the Morongo Basin but it was a local station and mostly played grunge, Pop-Grunge (like Nickelback, Smashmouth and Sugar Ray), Nu-Metal and some classic rock. That was when I first heard that Chumbawamba song: "Tubthumping". That station played the poop out of that song. I think I was also able to get one of the stations that were out of Barstow...The one that was on multiple frequencies and you would hop from one to the other depending on your location. I think it was KXXZ (95.9), KHDR (96.9) and one other. You used to be able to see the signs along the 15 to Vegas and the 40 to Laughlin.

While I do not know what your metric is for middle-aged dude, I graduated high school in the early '80's. I also grew up in Los Angeles where there were two competing AOR rock stations: KLOS and KMET. KMET played stuff KLOS would not touch, or were played less in the rotation. If one wished to listed to Rush beyond Spirit of the Radio, Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, etc... one would listed to KMET. In the mid-to-late 80's, when heavy metal was getting a lot of attention, but prior to the hair bands taking over, KNAC, out of Long Beach, went from a New-Wave format to heavy metal. They played a lot of the Rush catalog beyond the obligatory songs. You could also catch a lot of their music when Bob Coburn was on (Both KLOS and KLSX) or Jim Ladd (KLOS and KMET; he came to KLOS after KMET changed format). Their songs also got a lot of airplay beginning in the mid-90's when KLOS went to a Classic Rock format. At the same time KLSX came into existence and they also played a lot of the Rush catalog. Their was another station out of LA in the early 90's (Pirate Radio) that chased the hair metal wave but played a lot of AOR later at night. I used to listed to them while driving home to Apple Valley from work in Riverside. San Bernardino also has a station: KCAL, who until the late 00's was an AOR station. When I moved to Apple Valley in 90 they were the only AOR station I could reliably get up there. They played a lot of the Rush catalog beyond Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures.

Facelift Dirt Alice in Chains Unplugged (Believe it or not, my fav band of all time). Alice in Chains Badmotorfinger Superunknown Down on the Upside Soundgarden Phenomenon Force it No Heavy Petting Lights Out Obsession All albums contributed to my all-time favorite concert playlist found on the album: Strangers in the NIght U.....F.....O!!!!!

While I wholeheartedly agree, I must say that their run started with Caress of Steel, and followed by: 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres and through Signals (Which Subdivisions was on). That seven year period was their greatest era and all of those albums got serious airplay.

This would be nice. I had a membership at LA Fitness, swam on my off days and ran 3.3 miles for PT at work. Unfortunately my back started acting up and I stopped both. Now that my back is better and my core is stronger I am thinking about joining again so I can swim. No better exercise...as long as you don't drown. Early in 2017 I bought a Traynor 40W Twin Reverb. It is solid state with a real spring reverb. Gain is ok, and I can get some crunch but it did not sound as good as my Fender Mustang (which I loaned to my son). A few weeks ago I bought a Jet Driver. Now the gain is fine but I really have to roll off the volume on my guitar if I go clean. The first time I switched without rolling off the volume my ears bled. The good thing was that it got my soon to be ex really mad as she hates me playing guitar, especially if she can hear it. Now I am trying to decide if I should add to my guitar gear or my gaming rig. My soon to be ex hates both so I am excited at the possibilities for the new year.

Congrats on your NGD t_e_l_e. Freeman, nicely done. As one who appreciates (vicariously) the work and patience that goes into making guitars, I salute you.

How does it sound? Sticker or not I wanna know if it sounds good. I can get over the sticker if it plays.

I bought the Satin Cherry with P-90's. While I am merely a bedroom player I have played a number of more expensive guitars and I would put mine up with them in terms of ease of play. Agreed that the tuners need replacing but the neck is like butter and the guitar is just so easy to play. Granted I play through a Mustang 1 so the amp may be taking up some of the slack but... I love mine. I am playing it so much the satin has worn down on parts of the neck and where my arm rests when I play. It is now shiny. I bought mine when you got yours. Less than 100 bucks and I am in love with it.

Someone needs to "learn" that artiste in the basics of realistic relicing. Looks like he took a belt sander to it and closed his eyes while sanding.

I bought an Epi LP special, with P90's. It only cost me 120 bucks and I love it. It was set up perfectly (for me) and is a joy to play. I play it through a Fender Mustang I and I can get every sound I want out of it. I chose it over another, more expensive, Epi LP and do not regret it one bit. I could go on for days about how great this guitar is for me. My acoustic is also a cheap Epi. Once I got it set up it became a great guitar to play too.

Is he really one of the greatest guitarist of our generation? I prefer not to listen to country, grew up listening to the rock gods, so I don't know.

When I started playing i used the bridge almost exclusively. Why? turns out that the switch on my HSS was bad and I was getting crap tones out of the neck and neck/middle combo. I changed the switch and found myself using the neck and middle more. The next thing I found got me away from the bridge even more (it was a serendipitous mistake): When I first got my electric my brother told me to turn the volume and tone up to 10 and leave them there. The more I played the less I liked the real bright sound I was making. I play mostly rhythm and I did not want a bright sound. A few months ago I was testing a guitar I was interested in. I plugged it into a Mustang I (my amp at home) put it on a setting I used and the sound I had always wanted came out. I was amazed that just a different guitar could "find" that sound! Then I noticed the tone knob was at about 2 instead of 10. I turned it up to 10 and heard that too-bright sound I did not like. At home I turned the tone knob down on my old guitar and presto! I now ride the tone knob when I play and use the bridge even less than before, even for some leads. I still bought the guitar.

Me wanna see build!