i toured for year and years with a tube screamer a dm3 and a tuning pedal into a variety of decent tube amps - always had a great sound and vibe - nowadays its a rat into a frontline analog delay into a jazz chorus, i think the crispyness of the rat helps with my hearing these days and i cannot be dealing with tube amps hissing and crackling anymore plus its all bedroom volume no touring anymore - except touring the cheese shops of northern france
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Hello guitar people! Iām seriously thinking about getting a guitarā¦ Iāve been mainly using grooveboxes for the last four years or so and Iām really happy with what Iāve achieved over the time without any prior experience. But the one thing that bugs me to this day is that I canāt really āplayā an instrument. While the piano (or any midi controller) is technically easy to pick up, I never came to a point where Iām able to jam along to something. Now Iām thinking that a guitar might be easier to deal with if I learn a few chord shapes and just go with the flowā¦
Any ideas on this? Or will I just buy another instrument that needs a ton of memorization before I can do anything at all?
PS: Thought about getting the Ibanez S521-MOL because it seems to be pretty comfortableā¦
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If practical, Iād definitely recommend trying different guitar shapes, makes and models in store. Different body shapes, neck shapes and sizes, etc, will all determine whether a guitar will feel comfortable to you. The more comfortable it is, the more youāre likely to play it.
Another tip - be prepared to invest in a setup. Many stores offer this service in-house. Whilst some guitars come out of the box and feel great, others can benefit from having string height lowered, frets smoothed and levelled, nut adjusted, new strings fitted, etc. This all feeds into making the instrument easier for you to play.
Not played the guitar youāve mentioned but have owned other Ibanez guitars and they were good value for money.
G
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All instruments need practice. Whether or not committing to playing guitar is easier (in whichever way) for you is, of course, a personal thing as instrument choices are very much a āgo with your gut feelingā type of thing after all.
Is it easier to play guitar than piano or keyboard instruments in general, probably not. Just different.
To add to this, make sure you also like how the instrument looks. Itās much easier especially at the start to want to play something you like the sound, feel and look of. Even if the āother optionā is better tech spec wise, itās more important to go with the option you personally like more.
It is hard to buy an outright bad guitar in this day and age.
Aaaand as the last thing as a tiny counter-point to this, donāt think too much about the technical parts when starting out. You can adjust plenty of things yourself without any prior knowledge or tools. Once youāve been playing for a while, youāll understand what you want to change and when. At the start it is always better to get to playing and learning with as little technical friction as possible.
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This goes for almost everything in life! It all comes down to the commitment.
I agree! I picked up a monoprice bass for $140 shipped and itās awesome out of the box.
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After 20 years of music tech I went on the same journey 3 years ago.
The mistake I made was thinking I could buy and sell guitars and amps as I had always done with synths and drum machines. Not so Iāve found. Itās easy to tell if the Octatrack is for you or the second hand Pro2 is in good condition. As a novice I found it hard to judge good guitar gear from average or bad and I have surfed through four guitars and six amps before getting it right. Iāve lost a ton of money on these trades.
Good Guitar and amp combos were like witchcraft to me. My advice , tread carefully unless you have deep pockets or are happy to live with whatever you buy.
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Important to differentiate between a bad guitar and a badly setup guitar / guitar lacking a little final QC. Hence mentioning that, in some instances, a relatively inexpensive setup can transform a guitars playability. Many of us that started out on acoustics decades ago, for example, can vouch for having strings almost an inch high from the fretboard, rough fret ends, poorly cut nut, etc
Donāt overlook a setup as it can seriously transform even the most expensive guitars. As has been mentioned, sometimes they just play great straight out of the box and no setup is needed initially.
G
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Get a Bass.
Play it like you never took lessons and youāll be happy forever.
Choice of Bass is easy. P Bass or jazz Bass.
Cheap and excellent = Yamaha passive range.
Expensive and good = too many to mention.
If you still want to sound like a guitar hero just add a RAT or DS2
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How much memorization will be required for you to play guitar depends on what you want to play.
There are quite a few rock/pop stars who have spent entire careers playing guitar with simple chord shapes and simple technique. Some great rhythm guitar parts donāt even have a chord - just one note at a time played with great groove.
Loftier goals on the guitar will require commensurate effort to achieve the desired results.
Piano is more of a PITA in that a major chord is a different shape in each different key. Iām enjoying learning and practicing piano chord shapes in different keys but I also realize not everybody is willing to spare the time and effort.
I also like playing on my Push 3 which has movable chord shapes like guitar. It has its own pros and cons compared to playing guitar or piano.
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Yes get a guitar because the only other answer is no, donāt get a guitar and you are not a person that is going to shuffle off this mortal coil without having and playing the guitar. So stop stalling.
Yes, also get a bass. Yes, get one you like looking at so it looks cool on the wall for the times you arenāt playing. You canāt be a guitar hero without a guitar.
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My main goal here is being able to freely explore some chord progressions for my music and maybe play the occasional song.
Yep, and because I donāt actually play the piano, it is very hard to get into that exploring mode to find some inspiration for a melody or some chordsā¦ I mean, I could use the piano roll in a DAWā¦ Which works but I really donāt enjoy doing the rest on a computer and I kind of hate dragging small things on a screen 
I actually had a small interlude with a bass guitar a couple of years ago. I really didnāt enjoy it but I also bought a really ugly one in a store because it was rather cheap and it was supposed to be a good ābeginner bassā. I learned a ton about sound and music after that though and now Iād buy a beautiful piece of gear!
The chord shapes that I learned to start playing guitar:
5 open-string major chord shapes - C, A, G, E, D
5 open-string minor chord chapes
3 movable 6th-string root barre chord shapes (major, minor, dominant)
3 movable 5th-string root barre chord shapes (major, minor, dominant)
16 shapes to learn, which can be used for a lot of rock, pop, and folk music - excluding alternate tunings.
I guess to a beginner that sounds like a lot. However, youāll be surprised how quickly you memorize them once you get into the habit of playing guitar. My very first guitar teacher was a college roommate who happened to be a Beatles fan. I memorized all of the above shapes quickly because he had me playing Beatles songs. Ok āDo You Want To Know A Secretā has an augmented chord in there but it wasnāt that awful to learn to be honest.
I gradually added the chord shapes that are used for jazz and neo-soul later. You wonāt believe it but these juicier shapes became more useful to me after I learned the shell chord shapes - which are shapes with only 3 notes - the 3 most essential notes for identifying a particular chordā¦ and then using those shapes to play rhythm guitar for jazz standards.
Also, there are barre chord shapes for those juicier chords which are easy to memorize - players favor them for that reason. Technically any of the open-string CAGED shapes can be movable up the fretboard but the barre shapes are the easiest to move around. Barre chords also form a user-friendly platform for the hammer-ons and pulloffs characteristic of R&B and Hendrix-influenced rock (Hendrix himself influenced by R&B)
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The classic beginner boon, being able to soak up information like a sponge. āI canāt do thisā on day 1 turns into āOh okay thatās not that badā on day 3.
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That Ibanez looks nice.
You have already had some great advice in this thread. I donāt have much to add but definitely try and go into a good music shop that has a heap of guitars you can try.
For an electric, that doesnāt mean you have to plug them all into an amp or anything, but just handle as many as you can to try and see what feels the most comfortable for neck shape and balance.
It also might be an idea to grab a dirt cheap nylon string acoustic. The cheap ones can be really playable and gentler on your fingers learning some chords etc. A few weeks with one of those might help your electric guitar purchasing decisions.
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How to get the Who Are You sound. Then they do some further exploration.
Iāve started my (acoustic) guitar journey seven weeks ago for the same reasons. I did play some piano as a kid, but no real prior instrument experience (except for a Handpan)
I also wanted to learn how to improvise using some basic chord shapes, and want to learn how to write my own chord progressions (and full songs eventually).
Although the first 4 weeks were much harder for me than piano (especially because my hands/fingers are pretty uncoordinated and inflexible), i can now easily play most open chords and even a barre chord without too much hassle.
I used simply guitar and simple improvisation (playing simple arpeggios with the chords I know) and did this for 20-30 minutes per day (3/4 days a week) on a Taylor gs mini (I chose a mini because I loved the tone and it was much easier for me to play than a full size for now)
Imho, this is a very enjoyable way to learn to play a traditional instrument and if I can do it (with my clumsiness and two young kids) I think anybody can 
So go for it!
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wow
Thanks, I actually already did! But I didnāt go with an electric guitar to keep things easily accessible and to prevent me from the many possible rabbit hole surrounding amps, compressors and all the other effects Ended up with a Yamaha F370 and if I like it, Iāll get an electric later on.
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I really like this small APXT2 !
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