Key Tips For Beginners

So you've decided to fight the good fight, you've picked up a bass or a guitar, you're on the road to becoming the next Steve Vai. But you don't know where to begin, well i've got you covered.

For a beginner I would highly recommend that you find yourself a local teacher who can show you the ropes, face to face. This isn't feasible for everyone, I know, and for whatever reason not everyone will be able to utilise a local teacher. But do not despair as there are a great many online resources for learning to play, my personal favorite is Justin Guitar because it's incredibly comprehensive and, most importantly, free. 

The way you learn isn't the be all and end all of developing your guitar skills, ultimately your ability to become an amazing guitarist or bass player is entirely down to your drive and determination. I remember when I first started playing I felt pretty down on myself, people that started when I started quickly became better than me and I thought that I lacked the 'talent'. 

Talent is obviously important, not many of the worlds most famous instrumentalists are lacking talent. What you've gotta' remember though is the most important aspect to developing your skills is pure, bloody-minded determination. What I started to realise was that my peers, regardless of how talented they were, were putting in the hours. They were playing every minute of free time they had, I was lazy.

When you first start playing you'll find that you're playing all the time anyway, if you genuinely want to continue to improve then you need to carry that on indefinitely. I obviously can't deny that some people learn quicker than others, don't let that demoralise you. Guitar and bass playing are skills that you can acquire, not something that you have to be born with.

And remember, if your fingers are in agony you're probably doing something right (I'm sorry to say that i'm not even kidding). Talent can be acquired if you're determined enough. You want to be able to shred? Be determined, put in the hours and you will be rewarded. 

If you are thinking of learning to play, you can't go wrong with a Squier Bullet Stratocaster and a Marshall MG10 10 watt combo.

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News Of The Week

Each Sunday i'll post snippets of the week in guitar and bass news.

• So it looks like Guitar Hero will be back on the shelves of video game stores again at some point in the near future. (I spoke about that here)
• Gene Simmons reckons Rock n' Roll is dead, The Telegraph disagrees suggesting 5 British bands that might revive the genre.
•  A craigslist listing for a guitar sale has done the rounds online for being genuinely hilarious, you can see that here.
• A lizard plays a leaf like a guitar... article here complete with bad puns.
• A cool little feature piece on the journey of the electric guitar over here. 

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Girl, 15, Smashes Eruption

So i've just seen this video of a 15 year old girl (she's literally younger than my first guitar) absolutely destroy Eruption from Van Halen. She goes by 'Tina S' and is incredibly technically gifted, it's good to see younger generations not only picking up the guitar but also being awesome at it. I can't deny my jealousy though, totally unfair that she's better than i'll ever be already. At least she ain't playing the damned 'bleep-bloop' music, like the rest of her peers.

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How To: Set Up Your Guitar For Drop Tunings

If you're anything like me then you've probably experimented with drop tunings, only to realise you're not quite cool enough to pull off being in a metalcore band. 

Since you're all probably significantly cooler people than me, i'm gonna' impart some wisdom regarding drop tunings. We've all been there, trying out that new hip song (maybe just out of morbid curiosity?) and realising you've got to drop your tunings to like... 'drop y' or something. So you put on a brave face, whip out your chromatic tuner (I like the Korg CA-1 as it's about the best bang for your buck), then grimace as your poor 09 guage slinkies rattle the fretboard and sound like wet mud. Well get ready for wisdom as over the next 3 steps i'll show you how to achieve that 'thicker than thick' drop C or even B used by so many modern metal bands. 

Step 1)

The first and possibly most important step is to select the right strings for a drop tuning. If your going to drop C then it's important to have thicker gauge strings such as these 12 gauge 'Not Even Slinky' strings from Ernie Ball, these are my personal favorites for this gauge. Thicker strings do not need to be as high tension as regular gauge strings, so they allow you to hit those lower tunings without sacrificing the tightness of the string. If you're really wanting to straddle the border between a guitar and a bass with a drop B then you should look at getting some baritone strings like these baritone slinkies from Ernie Ball or maybe an even lower gauge (hell, why not just slap on some bass strings and show those metalcore kids some real thud). Some people like to mix and match on strings, preferring lighter gauge strings for the 6th, 5th and 4th strings so it's easier to bend notes. 

Step 2)

After fitting a heavier gauge of strings you'll probably find that you need to adjust your bridge height to accommodate them. As the strings are thicker now you may find you need to raise your string action (blasphemy, I know) just a little to avoid fret buzz. If you have a tune-o-matic or 'gibson style' bridge there is a great tutorial for bridge adjustment here. For 'Fender style' bridges you'll need to adjust the individual saddles using a small 0.05 'hex key' (We calls em' allen keys here in the UK). For floyd rose style bridges use the guide here. 

Step 3) 

You may find you'll need to adjust the neck itself via the truss rod as your guitar is now under different tension due to thicker strings. If you're in any way unsure regarding adjusting neck action via the truss rod then please, please, for the love of Hendrix, take it to someone who does. However if you're feeling brave then follow this guide. As i've said you should only adjust the neck if you're absolutely confident that you can do it, too many guitars have met their ends via over or under-tightening of the truss rod (it will literally snap the neck if you're not careful).

So there you have it, your axe is sharpened and ready to hit those brutal low notes and you can blast out powerful palm muted power chords in those relentless rhythms. Now go, chug those insane breakdowns to your hearts content, brave women and men of modern metal. 


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1000 Followers Competition!

So now that the twitter profile has reached 1000 followers i'll be running a little competition. The winner of the competition will get their mits on this goodie-bag worth £60/ $90:

To enter the competition you will simply need to follow the account and retweet the following tweet:

Competition to win a £60/ $90 guitar goodie-bag! Retweet and follow to enter! Details here: http://t.co/oMYKjJ3V6R

— Guitar & Bass (@PluckStrumPick) February 26, 2015

I'll draw a winner at random from those who have retweeted and followed the account. I will draw the winner on March 15th 2015. I will only be able to draw a winner from Europe or North America. So if you're not either in Europe or North America you can NOT enter the contest, sorry for the inconvenience. Once i've drawn a winner at random I will follow and DM that person for postage details. You only need to retweet one of the tweets to enter. Thanks for following and good luck!


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Guitar Hero To Make A Comeback?

So it looks like Guitar Hero is making it's return. I can certainly reminisce on many an evening challenging friends as well as slobbing it up in boxer shorts trying to beat my high-score. Full report from The Guardian here. 

"Gaming news site Kotaku reports that Activision could announce a new title at the giant E3 games convention in Los Angeles in June. 

Launched in 2005 and originally developed by music specialist Harmonix, the Guitar Hero series became a major entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 25m copies and kickstarting a huge industry trend for audio gaming."

I'm not sure it can ever recapture former glory, there is probably a good reason sales declined. I'm still fairly certain i'll be buying a copy though, because being good at plastic guitar is super easy compared to being a legitimately good guitarist. So i'm fairly certain  I'll be bedroom rockin' once again when this is released. 

You can buy Guitar Hero 6: Warriors Of Rock here.


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Domire One Handed Use Capo

I've had a Domire Quick Change capo for a while now, before this I had a hand tightened capo that used a screw and I was loath to use it at times because of the inconvenience. The Quick Change capo is great to use as it's a spring loaded mechanism that you can apply to your guitar's fretboard using only one hand if you wanted, snazzy. It's super easy to use and applies even pressure across each string, an issue i've had with previous budget capos. Uneven pressure can cause the tuning to sound a little bit off. It comes in a great range of colours but i'm a boring fart and plumped for black. The only issue I really have with the capo is that the paint job is a little bit sketchy, i've not got any chips yet but it does seem like a few drops on hard flooring would scuff the paint. However for the price its hard to complain, it's a sturdy little capo and it's so convenient that I wonder why I even bothered with those screw in capos. 

Click here if you'd like to buy one.

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Wood: Does It Matter?

A hot topic for many of us, but does the substance that we stick strings and pickups on really matter? 

I'm going to avoid controversy and say yes... and no. The materials we use to build guitars with are obviously important, you're unlikely to see a functioning guitar made from mashed potatoes (although I would definitely like to see you try and make one).  A guitar needs to be made from reasonably rigid materials, too much flex and your tunings will be weird and I don't think a bent fretboard is ideal. But is the difference between mahogany and maple really that noticeable? Lets 'av a look.

Assume we're talking about an electric instrument that is amplified, a purist might argue that the type of wood is one part of the long ingredients list for the recipe for 'tone' and that it is a key aspect. They're right in that it will affect the tone of the instrument but the amount it can affect tone is in question. In a blind test of a maple bodied guitar of the same construction as a mahogany bodied guitar I would defy anyone to consistently pick which guitar is which. The differences in tone would be almost negligible, in my opinion. Where this logic gets contentious is when it comes to acoustic instruments (more on these later).  

Where I feel the type of wood matters is the bearing it has on the weight and aesthetic of a guitar. There are very few things as visually pleasing as a book-matched, flamed or quilted maple top on an electric guitar. There are also few things as annoying as a guitar that would be better suited to a weightlifter because it's constructed entirely with dense woods,. whilst a guitar that is too light could have a negative impact on the feeling of quality. 

Acoustic instruments have a more solid argument for the 'tone' that can be imbued by wood. An acoustic guitar amplifies itself using a hollow chamber under the strings, this means the vibrations of sound have to reverberate through this chamber. The character of the wood, especially the density of the wood, will have an impact on the reverberant quality of the chamber. A denser wood like maple will allow the reverberations to 'bounce' of the walls of the chamber more easily and would probably create a 'brighter' tone than a less dense open grained wood. In the case of acoustic guitars the wood has a direct impact on the type of sound produced.

What the f**k do I know anyway?! I'm still gonna' get that mahogany bodied LP and brag to literally all of my mates about how the tone is that much beefier because of it.

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