What did you learn from the one week challenge?

Kerry Brown

Kerry Brown

Ambassador of the Great Northern Bar Jams
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I learned that a very inexpensive one pickup guitar can do almost any genre you want. I don’t need to be afraid of heavier strings. Will I sell off my other guitars? No I won’t. I have new respect for the Epi Jr and imagine it will get more play but today I played most of my guitars. I missed them all, especially the Tokai bass. I’m not much of a bass player, mostly root/fifth but it makes a huge difference to a recording. I really missed my acoustic guitars.
 
Kerry Brown said:
I learned that a very inexpensive one pickup guitar can do almost any genre you want. I don’t need to be afraid of heavier strings. Will I sell off my other guitars? No I won’t. I have new respect for the Epi Jr and imagine it will get more play but today I played most of my guitars. I missed them all, especially the Tokai bass. I’m not much of a bass player, mostly root/fifth but it makes a huge difference to a recording. I really missed my acoustic guitars.
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I got pretty much the same thing. I really got to know my Harley Benton Jr, and how to get the best out of it. I now know exactly how that guitar fits into my world, and what it can do. I could gig with that guitar and nothing else if I wanted to.

I also now know that by manipulating the volume and tone knobs, a P-90 in the bridge is what I want to use if I have to alternate between acoustic guitar parts, and dirty electric parts in the same song, in a live setting.
 
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Kerry I read a lot of your posts and enjoy seeing you on. That part about you missing your acoustics reminds me of how I need to get mine out and plug it in and tune it up. Having noodled my way into the Stones tune Play with Fire on my new Washburn, I would like to practice it some on my Acoustic.

PS, As an addendum, I learned how much I miss hearing all the old more acoustic sounding Rolling Stones tunes I haven't listened to in so long,

Now I know this part is not acoustic, but I love the simple and yet captivating solos in Time Waits For No One,

 
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Ebidis said:
I also now know that by manipulating the volume and tone knobs, a P-90 in the bridge is what I want to use if I have to alternate between acoustic guitar parts, and dirty electric parts in the same song, in a live setting.
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I used to play out with a P90 SG. It was very versatile but depending on the venue the 60 cycle hum was bothersome. Once on a break I left the guitar leaned up against my amp. I was outside when I heard the feedback and ran back in to hit the standby on the amp. I found in some venues I had to stand on one spot facing one direction to beat the noise. I’d like to try a P90 live again through my LR Baggs Venue Di. I think with the notch filter and the adjustable eq it would be much quieter.
 
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chilipeppermaniac said:
Kerry I read a lot of your posts and enjoy seeing you on. That part about you missing your acoustics reminds me of how I need to get mine out and plug it in and tune it up. Having noodled my way into the Stones tune Play with Fire on my new Washburn, I would like to practice it some on my Acoustic.
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Just got my acoustic out tonight too and did some songs. Figured out timing on one song that’s been messing with me. Made some notes on my tabs sheet. Changed a chord to what I felt sounded better.‘Twas a good evening on the guitar.
 
I learned that I really like a hollowbody slightly cranked up to get a nice dirty, harnessed feedback sound! It made me go back and enjoy the cheap pawnshop prize that was hotrodded into quite a raucous, easy playing machine. Id honestly be content using it primarily anymore, well at least until i get bored and go grab another and act the same way with lol
 
I think I had mentioned earlier when this started that I kind of routinely perform this exercise anyway. I keep a guitar, amp and pedalboard in my home workspace and I often will put a guitar on the stand and leave just that one there for 1, 2, even 3 weeks at a time. What I've learned from it is that every guitar is unique and requires different tools and techniques to get the most out of them. Subtle differences, yes, but enough to underscore why I own more than one guitar. And perhaps most importantly I learned that different guitars make me approach and play them differently and I will stumble into different ideas with different axes: this week's test subject is my SG Standard and all week long I have been using fuzz and playing Stoner Rock. If it had been a different guitar on the stand then what I played would have been very different.
 
gball said:
I think I had mentioned earlier when this started that I kind of routinely perform this exercise anyway. I keep a guitar, amp and pedalboard in my home workspace and I often will put a guitar on the stand and leave just that one there for 1, 2, even 3 weeks at a time. What I've learned from it is that every guitar is unique and requires different tools and techniques to get the most out of them. Subtle differences, yes, but enough to underscore why I own more than one guitar. And perhaps most importantly I learned that different guitars make me approach and play them differently and I will stumble into different ideas with different axes: this week's test subject is my SG Standard and all week long I have been using fuzz and playing Stoner Rock. If it had been a different guitar on the stand then what I played would have been very different.
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Hmmm...that’s interesting.

What i pick up doesn't seem to influence what I play to any degree. If I grab an acoustic, I'm playing metal irregardless...LOL

The only thing I can say is that it is easier to bend the strings on my 24.75" scale guitars than it is on my 25.5" models, so for really intricate solo work (with lots of bends) i will generally use one of my Les Paul-style guitars. This is especially true for unison bends and bending strings while leaving other plucked strings unbent.

In the studio, I tend to favor 24.75" scale guitars for the reduced stting tension and feel.

For a live performance, I will always choose one of my Floyd Rose equipped guitars for their tuning stability.

Other than that, I don't switch about very much...
 
Robert Herndon said:
Hmmm...that’s interesting.

What i pick up doesn't seem to influence what I play to any degree. If I grab an acoustic, I'm playing metal irregardless...LOL

The only thing I can say is that it is easier to bend the strings on my 24.75" scale guitars than it is on my 25.5" models, so for really intricate solo work (with lots of bends) i will generally use one of my Les Paul-style guitars. This is especially true for unison bends and bending strings while leaving other plucked strings unbent.

In the studio, I tend to favor 24.75" scale guitars for the reduced stting tension and feel.

For a live performance, I will always choose one of my Floyd Rose equipped guitars for their tuning stability.

Other than that, I don't switch about very much...
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The two biggest ergonomic factors that I have found that change how I play are how far the neck is inset into the body (and therefore how far the "reach" and how compact the guitar feels) and the shape of the neck. Not the thickness of the neck, but the profile. I've found that that really impacts how I grip the neck, and how much pressure I use, and therefore it effects how I bend strings.
 
gball said:
The two biggest ergonomic factors that I have found that change how I play are how far the neck is inset into the body (and therefore how far the "reach" and how compact the guitar feels) and the shape of the neck. Not the thickness of the neck, but the profile. I've found that that really impacts how I grip the neck, and how much pressure I use, and therefore it effects how I bend strings.
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There is a big difference in feel from an SG to a Les Paul, mostly because of the way the neck is joined. Going from one to the other it takes a while before your hand automatically goes to the right fret. The SG feels like a longer reach to the same fret.
 
Kerry Brown said:
There is a big difference in feel from an SG to a Les Paul, mostly because of the way the neck is joined. Going from one to the other it takes a while before your hand automatically goes to the right fret. The SG feels like a longer reach to the same fret.
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I'll tell ya, that's why I think when I play the SGs I literally play different music than I do with my Les Pauls.
 
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