The Guitar Thread

The Lounge General Discussion
#3208

I put up some new shelves for records and music books in the living room this weekend, and started thinking I wouldn’t mind a little portable device for jamming on guitar with headphones outside of the “studio”, and suddenly remembered that I haven’t been using the amp sims on the SP-404mkii. Absolutely perfect for what I was after.

I think any guitar player that is a fan of lofi effects should get one of these. It’s got its quirks but is such a fun device, and the amp models sound much better than they should, especially when combined with the other effects. It’s also a lot of fun to hammer out little drum beats to play over. Anyway, just a PSA for the guitar community. :wink: :sun_with_face:

Edit:

In particular, someone pointed me to the video in the SP thread about how similar the 303 sim on the MKII is to the GoodHertz Vulf Compressor 303 sim (loads of Vulf Compressor videos for guitar on YouTube, sounds excellent). The Tape Sim effect on the MKII is also excellent, and I really like the Warm Saturator effect. If Chase Bliss threw those in a pedal, I bet it would sell like hotcakes. :pancakes:

Edit 2:

You can easily get guitar tones like this from it. BTW, my favorite new album of 2024, even bought a copy on vinyl, so good.

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#3209

Speaking of portable, I ordered the Boss Katana Go.

The Boss Waza Air looks easier for portability, but I don’t think the price is fun for a little practice device. The Katana Go for a bit over $100 is more than I like to spend on a practice tool, but it could be fun.

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#3210

I got a katana go on Friday and am really happy with it. For what I wanted (straightforward, small, use for practice), it’s perfect and sounds really good.

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#3211

nice choice, I did have a 00-15m sometime ago. Perfect porch guitar very light and comfortable. Recently i was looking for a new hog acoustic. I tried a used 000-15 special which was a limited run with spruce top. I liked it but the condition was not so great. I did buy a new Gibson J-35 30s faded model which I absolutly love now. Very dry and woody tone nice rounded neck profile and the shorter Gibson scale is very easy to play. Maybe i post some pictures if i get around it. Hope you will enjoy your Martin aswell.

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#3212

That’s exactly what I’m looking forward to! How’s the reverb on it?

Anything you don’t like? Of course, considering it’s a practice tool, but anything negative stand out, that you didn’t know about before purchasing?

#3213

Nothing really as I watched a couple of reviews and had a good idea of what to expect from it. All I wanted was some decent patches like a katana that I could quickly plug and play with my own headphones and it does that and more.

I actually like the stage feel feature. Not the greatest reverb ever of course, but it does a good job and does sound quite good.

I had a look at the software using my phone which was confusing at first because there is a different app for each product (air, katana, go etc). I have tone central on my Mac for my mkii head, and this is generally the same affair. Fewer options but still more than enough. Same sound/ridiculous amount of effects etc for what it is.

I’ve just been using the built in presets. And the tuner which is such a convenient extra to have.

One thing that surprised me was the built quality, which was better than I expected based on how it looks in videos.

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#3214

Some Roland GS-500 guitar/synth controller sightings:

Steve Hackett using for an ambient-ish intro before putting it down and picking up a super Strat type guitar:

Jeff Baxter playing it with the Doobies - really stands out after the guitar duet when he activates the GR-500 infinite sustain

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#3215

a-ha! doing some guitar maintance today, discovered a a little screw with “14R” on it inside of my parkwood hybrid. Seems to be an attenuator for the piezo pickup~ played around with it and got the piezo to be at a similar volume to the electric pickups :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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#3216

Finally used the Katana GO today and its great!

The sound quality is much better than I expected. Compared to the Positive Grid Spark, this sounds much better.

I do wish the Katana Air wasn’t so expensive because that would be more enjoyable to play without the wires, but I’d never pay that much just to practice.

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#3217

Well done!

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#3218

I just ordered a Katana:Go as well to replace my Fender Mustang Micro. It‘s not like I really need either, but sometimes it‘s nice to play on the sofa or somewhere outside with that simple form factor and a set of decent headphones. Figured the Go will give me what I most miss on the Micro - which is control over the signal chain.

Let‘s see how it goes, should be here by next week the latest.

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#3219

Interesting, I see it has Bass amps as well! I may have to look into this a bit more. Would be great to have one device for both!

#3220

I got one and started a little thread if your interested- its very good…

Boss Katana Go -Guitar/Bass headphone amp - The Lounge / Other Gear - Elektronauts

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#3221
#3222

A new gear day for me recently! All the pedals here and the amp, picked up locally for a deal

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Its been really great to have a tube amp again :slight_smile: and a delay / looper to practice with. All the pedals are the FX loop.

I’m really loving the Supro sounds with the Strat ~ here’s the first recording I made from this last week, using the preamp out (noise is a ground loop issue)

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#3223

Ive recently ended up with a lot of time on my hands and sat down to learn theory from scratch.

My biggest issue initially is what order to learn things however I think im now kind of on track and have a range of courses to pick and choose topics from. I find one course can be easier to follow / understand then another but on another topic vice versa.

Ive noticed many courses briefly touch on the Major Scale eg show one pattern but on the Minor / Major Penta go through all 5 patterns. Clearly the Major Scale is fundamental for Western music theory but is it fair to say learning all 5 patterns worth it if likely to use Pentatonic instead?

Also with the Major scale I have already come across a little conflict of 3 note scale pattern vs 2 note scale pattern (which I believe is more linked to CAGE system if learning this also).

Any thoughts on this appreciated.

On another note - I left University over 25 years ago and this is the first time ive properly studied since. Ive clearly lost braincells as feel so forgetful at times :joy:

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#3224

Always love your soulful playing, well done once again!

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#3225

NGD: Vintera II Mustang

Price was about $880 at time of purchase. I’m not the best person to evaluate setup jobs, but the action, setup, neck, short scale, etc. combine for a pretty comfortable playing experience. With a radius of 7.25" this fingerboard is the roundest I’ve played, but I didn’t notice any obvious impact on my playing, other than the slightly higher action to be expected compared to that of my Strandberg which has a 20" radius.

After watching this review, I was looking forward to playing with pickups set out of phase, and I was not disappointed. I’m loving this sound for funky playing

The racing stripes appear to be painted in - they’re not decals or anything, and cannot be felt by one’s hands. Tremolo is fun to play with without any obvious tuning issues. I’ll get an Allen key for it at some point, to tighten it just a tad.

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#3226

You’ve got music theory and then you’ve got systems to conceptualise and organise the fretboard (often in standard tuning).

When you speak of patterns and positions, that’s more the latter than the former.

When it comes to music theory proper, my recommendation would be to learn about scales, the physics of a note/pitch and eg its octave (what happens with a sounds frequency when you pitch it up one octave etc?) — from there learn about intervals (the distances between two notes and how those distances affect sound & feeling). From there look at how scales are constructed with intervals (eg Major scale / minor scale etc etc). From there you could progress to chord theory.

When it comes to organising the fretboard, me personally I don’t recommend the CAGED System. I feel it brings quick results at first but ultimately serves as a crutch to never properly learn the fretboard and gain freedom across it…but YMMV.

I also prefer 3-note per string systems, because you have a chance to build some consistency for the fretting AND the picking hand across all six strings. But the stretches between notes in a scale are bigger so at first it might seem the harder way.

Ultimately you should learn to “see” the fretboard in different ways so that you can leverage the best organising model for the thing you want to play.

I quite like Frank Vignola’s “Modern Guitar Course” (I think it’s called) on Truefire and the principles shared in the book “Advancing Guitarist” by Mick Goddrick. The latter suggests starting on one string only and learning to play different scales on that single string and make music with that (eg play along to a backing track). Once you know the string well with mind and muscle, move on to the next string and so on.

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#3227

Thanks for the reply and recommendations - I will take a look.

The course I am following at the moment goes something like this (copied and pasted first half chapters) and I guess it is a blend of like you say theory and systems but it presumes you know all the basics eg not teaching you how to finger / strum a regular chord

1 Musical Alphabet
2 Music Staff (basicalls)
3 Knowing the Fretboard
4 The Major Scale
5 Rhythm Basics
6 Triplets, Swing, and Advanced Tuplets
7 Meter and Time Signature
8 Audiation and Melody
9 Key Signatures and Enharmonics
10 Scale Degrees
11 Triads
12 Movable Chords *
13 Diatonic Major Chords + Roman Numerals
14 Writing Progressions in Major
15 Soloing with the Pentatonic Major Scale
16 Suspended Chords
17 The Minor Scale + Diatonic Chords
18 Writing Progressions in Minor
19 Soloing with the Pentatonic Minor Scale
20 Ear Training Intervals and Chords

I have learnt a fair bit about the fretboard notes / octaves and major scale after a few days and kind wish I did this 15 years ago rather then just follow tabulature.

PS - this kind of kickstarted last month after trying to learn piano.

Noted what you say about the 3 note system

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