The Guitar Thread

3-note major scale patterns are great for economy picking, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. That was the only way i practiced the major scale for a while.

Later I put in some work on practicing the 5 major scale patterns found in CAGED, as well as the 5 pentatonic patterns that are part of those 5 major scale patterns. I eventually found there is no need to practice C major pentatonic and A minor pentatonic scales separately as they are actually the same scale. It’s nice to save time.

I feel like I’ve gotten more mileage out of the 5 pentatonic patterns than the CAGED major scale patterns when it comes to improvising. Part of it is because I’ve embraced blues and R&B vocabulary and there’s no avoiding the pentatonic if you want those flavors.

However you really do want to be able to identify where the scale degrees are - eg. the 3rd, the 7th, etc. - if you want to advance in your music theory. That’s where learning the major scale patterns can help.

One lesson that I picked up at Pickup Music that is nice for bridging between CAGED and 3-note scale patterns is the 3-2 pentatonic pattern - it’s based on the observation that as you play the pentatonic scale you can alternate between 3 notes and 2 notes as you go up strings - and same of course when go down. It’s a quick and easy way to get used to moving up and down the neck as you play the pentatonic and lends itself very nicely to the kind of double-stop licks you may have heard in blues, R&B, rock, etc. I see other websites/YT videos also teach the 3-2 pattern.

One long term goal is to learn where all the major scale notes are on the fretboard. CAGED is a popular way to get there. Reading music is another powerful method, but less popular because not many guitarists like to read music. I get it - when I started reading music, it was a real chore to see the note on the sheet music, then hunt for it on the fretboard, then move on to the next note, hunt for THAT note, etc. In any case, the more note locations you learn on the fretboard, the less latency between pitches you hear in your head and playing them on the guitar.

That all said, I really like this app for drilling the notes of the fretboard

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Did anyone already mention that a new version of simplifier is coming out (presumably soon)?

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Are these any good? Their website is so hyperbolic that it makes me suspicious… :slight_smile:

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as far as I know kegeratorz is really happy with his and I’ve heard some unassociated mirrored opinions about the second version as well. It’s possible they threw it down a flight of stairs for this incarnation but my assumption is that it’s an improvement on an already decent product. Not cheap though.

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I have the OG and it’s pretty good. My only gripe is its low output. Will eventually get a Dream 65 but in the meantime the Simplifier does the job!

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low in headphones or low in general?

Headphones are good, DI and main outs are on the low side. Only an issue if recording in to line input like OT. Ultimately used the headphones for recording with no issues!

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It looks like the mk2 added “power amp drive” so I don’t know if that’s a completely different circuit, maybe it addresses the low DI output.

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Good chance! I know I wasn’t alone with that complaint! Built in reverb is cool too!

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Not my first recording, but the first mp3 I ever created.

It’s just a PRS EG-1 (my first good electric guitar)
into a SansAmp Tri A.C. Pedal into DAW,
maybe a EHX Flanger was involved.

It was a test back then (editing some guitar noodles in DAW)
but listening back today I really like that track,
so I thought I share it here

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The new SP404 update makes it a lot more friendly for guitar and bass players. Figured I’d drop some vids here for people not following the device (especially since the SP thread has like 10,000 posts). Feel free to join us in the SP thread if you are interested. As Nonjuror mentions in that first video, the compressor is something that would be great if it existed in pedal form.

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Man, I had a PRS EG but I think it might have been an EG-2, probably around 1995ish? It was that awful metallic blue that was PRS’s take on lake placid and I always thought it looked so weird having black headstock and black pick up covers on a white pickguard with a blue guitar but it sounded great, and I really liked that guitar. Great neck and rosewood fretboard, I really like PRS with dots instead of birds as well.

I somehow ended up trading it for my second jazzmaster which was a refinished 1962 burgundy mist (the kind of trade you could only make in 1996-1997 at the height of the PRS popularity boom) and then I later traded that jazzmaster for a different high end PRS which in retrospect was a huge mistake because if I had kept it, today’s prices would see it at probably fucking 15k if you go by Reverb.

This is a nice recording though, sounds like it’s a little wet, did you add some reverb to it?

Im out!

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I concur! :wink:

J/k come along. Happy to have you. :slight_smile:

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Hah, I traded the PRS for a Jazzmaster too.
EG-1 had one singlecoil in the middle position,
EG-2 had two singlecoils. Mine was all black.
Very high quality and versatile guitar, but I didn´t like
the geometry of it that much and the case was heavy as hell.
I think those guitars were the cheapest versions back then,
before PRS went the factory route.
Didn´t know about todays reverb prices, people are crazy.
Sold mine for 700 bucks (I am crazy)
I´ve put reverb on the recording in a DAW (can´t remember
which one, had Logic, Pro Tools and Live back then)

I definitely had an eg 2 then. I don’t know what the eg sells for on reverb now but I have, at this point, window shopped plenty of vintage jazzmasters to know what people are asking for a nice 62 with a pro body refin. It was indeed the least costly PRS (at the time) and that damn case was ungodly heavy. I had a Mesa mkIII right around then which also happened to be unrealistically heavy as well.

I’m surprised I didn’t dislocate both shoulders carrying those two around but youth is quite a resilient thing, I guess.

Much of the knowledge that Adrian drops here is still useful today

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i hope it’s ok if i ask a question here regarding a delay pedal.
I own a Boss DD-8 Digital Delay Pedal (great pedal!!)
Can someone tell me if it is possible to use the pedal

A as a send effect (wet only)
and
B as a stereo effect at the same time?

according to the manual only input B and output A should be used (so that it can be used as send effect, output A is wet, output B dry)
This setting then only provides a mono delay via output A, right?
Or is there another hidden feature that I haven’t discovered yet?

Thanks for any help!

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For A I think you just whack up the effect level to max (100% wet). I have a DD7 which I haven’t used in a bit but from memory that should do the trick

In regards outputs A and B I think they just act as left and right channels. So if you want to use stereo full wet just plug into inputs A and B, out of outputs A and B, whack effect level to full and you should be good.

I think the above is correct but like I say would need to dig out the DD7 to be sure

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Or dont forget to experiment taking one of the outputs straight back into the other input, it’s mono but you can have double delay and that’s always good…

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