hello friends,
i've been playing guitar for 30+ years, mainly acoustic. i'm in a band and we play lots of dead songs. i keep dabbling with my electric and it's driving me crazy. i need some help. anyone out there want to try to help me?
everything is pretty much fine when i play acoustic. when i play electric i have a multitude of problems. I'm sure I could fix most of them with a bottomless bank account but I don't have one of those. i'm on LOW budget. my problems are:
--TONE. I can't get a clean tone. I want to play with zero/low distortion. I have a fender sidekick amp. it sounds fine at low volume but when I play live i have to turn it up and then the distortion comes in. I have figured out if I keep the gain and presence down to zero, volume on 1, and only use the master volume I can minimize the distortion, but once I hit level 3 on the master, the distortion starts to creep in. I just want a clean tone. I'm thinking next I will try to just keep the master at 2 and just put a mic on the amp and run it thru the PA. I've been reading about amps and at some point i will maybe buy a better amp but it seems like i need to spend $1000 in order to expect anything better (last article I read suggested a used Mesa Boogie II reissue, a friend said just get a fender Blues Jr but I don't see a lot of dead/jerry players using those). I just want clean tone and to be able to play loud and keep it clean. I don't need a ton of effects. I have an envelope filter and a delay and that's all i need right now.
-- guitar won't stay in tune. i like my guitar. when I have the volume down on the amp it has a nice tone. it's an Electra, it was made in the 70s. this is it:
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electra/x120.php
the biggest problem (besides the above mentioned tone which I think is mainly the amp) is that it is always going out of tune. I have to tune it between every song. and sometimes I swear I tune it up, and it is in tune at open but when I press a fret, it is out of tune when fretted. like just pressing the string down tightens the string too much causes it to go out of tune. I'm going to do a thorough analysis -- tune it up and then check every fret of every string to see what the heck is going on. a few years ago i thought maybe the tuners were losing it so I put new tuners on there. but it's still happening. I just played a gig last weekend and I was constantly tuning the guitar and when I listened to the recording i had to turn it off because I could hear it being out of tune and I nearly pulled my hair out. I've been reading about tuning problems and i'm learning that there are a bunch of potential problems. if the nut is too high, then pressing the string down can tighten the tension more than desired and cause it to be out of tune. and/or i need to lubricate the nut. the intonation could need adjustment.
I have brought the guitar in a couple of times over the years and the guy is always like, "wow this is a cool guitar." partly because it
has two very cool slots in the back for effect modules. and they always discourage me from getting a different guitar. i'm on a low budget anyway and would probably look at a squire strat or something like that if I was going to get a new guitar.... I actually bought an epiphone SG knockoff a couple years ago but I am still trying to get my old guitar to work for me. when i bring it in for a basic setup, it usually seems a little better for a while but not prefect and then i'm back with the same tuning problems again a while later. I have another theory lately that the guitar needs to sit and adjust to changes in temp and humidity. like if I take it out of the basement and drive to a show, that is bad because the guitar needs to sit in the new environment and adjust for a while, otherwise it will be adjusting while I play (going out of tune). I think ultimately all of these things could be contributing. which makes me think sometimes, maybe this is just an old guitar and I should try using my Epi SG more and give up on it. either way, I would like to learn more and be able to diagnose and fix these types of things on my own and not have to bring it in every 6 months for a temporary fix that costs another $100.
I could go on... but in a nutshell, i am on a very low budget and I would like to clean up my tone (reduce distortion) and get my guitar to stay in tune better. I'm not looking for bells and whistles, if i can just get a clean tone and a guitar that stays in tune without spending thousands of dollars, I think I can take it from there. is that too much to ask?
am i on the right track to keep the amp volume low and put a mic on it? am i asking for the impossible and I should give up until I have thousands of dollars to spend?
any thoughts or advice are appreciated.
thanks
gary in vermont
(http://fogmusic.net or facebook.com/thefogvt )
i've been playing guitar for 30+ years, mainly acoustic. i'm in a band and we play lots of dead songs. i keep dabbling with my electric and it's driving me crazy. i need some help. anyone out there want to try to help me?
everything is pretty much fine when i play acoustic. when i play electric i have a multitude of problems. I'm sure I could fix most of them with a bottomless bank account but I don't have one of those. i'm on LOW budget. my problems are:
--TONE. I can't get a clean tone. I want to play with zero/low distortion. I have a fender sidekick amp. it sounds fine at low volume but when I play live i have to turn it up and then the distortion comes in. I have figured out if I keep the gain and presence down to zero, volume on 1, and only use the master volume I can minimize the distortion, but once I hit level 3 on the master, the distortion starts to creep in. I just want a clean tone. I'm thinking next I will try to just keep the master at 2 and just put a mic on the amp and run it thru the PA. I've been reading about amps and at some point i will maybe buy a better amp but it seems like i need to spend $1000 in order to expect anything better (last article I read suggested a used Mesa Boogie II reissue, a friend said just get a fender Blues Jr but I don't see a lot of dead/jerry players using those). I just want clean tone and to be able to play loud and keep it clean. I don't need a ton of effects. I have an envelope filter and a delay and that's all i need right now.
-- guitar won't stay in tune. i like my guitar. when I have the volume down on the amp it has a nice tone. it's an Electra, it was made in the 70s. this is it:
http://www.rivercityamps.com/electra/x120.php
the biggest problem (besides the above mentioned tone which I think is mainly the amp) is that it is always going out of tune. I have to tune it between every song. and sometimes I swear I tune it up, and it is in tune at open but when I press a fret, it is out of tune when fretted. like just pressing the string down tightens the string too much causes it to go out of tune. I'm going to do a thorough analysis -- tune it up and then check every fret of every string to see what the heck is going on. a few years ago i thought maybe the tuners were losing it so I put new tuners on there. but it's still happening. I just played a gig last weekend and I was constantly tuning the guitar and when I listened to the recording i had to turn it off because I could hear it being out of tune and I nearly pulled my hair out. I've been reading about tuning problems and i'm learning that there are a bunch of potential problems. if the nut is too high, then pressing the string down can tighten the tension more than desired and cause it to be out of tune. and/or i need to lubricate the nut. the intonation could need adjustment.
I have brought the guitar in a couple of times over the years and the guy is always like, "wow this is a cool guitar." partly because it
has two very cool slots in the back for effect modules. and they always discourage me from getting a different guitar. i'm on a low budget anyway and would probably look at a squire strat or something like that if I was going to get a new guitar.... I actually bought an epiphone SG knockoff a couple years ago but I am still trying to get my old guitar to work for me. when i bring it in for a basic setup, it usually seems a little better for a while but not prefect and then i'm back with the same tuning problems again a while later. I have another theory lately that the guitar needs to sit and adjust to changes in temp and humidity. like if I take it out of the basement and drive to a show, that is bad because the guitar needs to sit in the new environment and adjust for a while, otherwise it will be adjusting while I play (going out of tune). I think ultimately all of these things could be contributing. which makes me think sometimes, maybe this is just an old guitar and I should try using my Epi SG more and give up on it. either way, I would like to learn more and be able to diagnose and fix these types of things on my own and not have to bring it in every 6 months for a temporary fix that costs another $100.
I could go on... but in a nutshell, i am on a very low budget and I would like to clean up my tone (reduce distortion) and get my guitar to stay in tune better. I'm not looking for bells and whistles, if i can just get a clean tone and a guitar that stays in tune without spending thousands of dollars, I think I can take it from there. is that too much to ask?
am i on the right track to keep the amp volume low and put a mic on it? am i asking for the impossible and I should give up until I have thousands of dollars to spend?
any thoughts or advice are appreciated.
thanks
gary in vermont
(http://fogmusic.net or facebook.com/thefogvt )