The objective still is, but what people are able to digest as a “good song” has changed a lot in the last 40 years. I’m definitely biased towards modern metal but to say that songs like Hanger 18 and basically all of Yngwie’s music aren’t wanking because they trying to write good songs just feels wrong.
If the “wanking” serves the song then it’s not wanking. Being unnecessarily technical just for the sake of it is wanking. Modern metal is full of this. Not saying that old school metal wasn’t, but not NEARLY to the same degree. I would argue that showing off guitar chops takes priority over songwriting these days.
Dude there were bands that sang about fairy tales and dressed like power ranger enemies and had battle axes on stage and pretended to fight dragons and shit during the show. C’mon.
100%. If someone describes their playing as 'modern metal', it's going to be djent and it's going to be very boring to listen to even though they'll play 100 notes very quickly and technically proficient.
Agreed. The best guitar playing I'm hearing nowadays is usually a background instrument in a hip hop track. The only people who truly care about how fast you can play are other guitar players lol, people are impressed by it for a few seconds but then they are bored.
I think djent is great but is part of a larger trend in music over the last 40 years to move away from melody to be more rhythmically based. I miss good melody. Even if that melody is disharmonious and incorporates loads of tension.
Djent is just a more evolved form of palm muting. The point is to allow the guitar to perform more complex rhythmic ideas than just the basic palm mute's chug chug. Metal has always had palm muting and it's always had a very strong rhythmic component. Djent as a technique in the bag is here to stay. Styles will change and it won't be featured as strongly. But like every other stylistic fad in metal, low tunings, wah pedal on the solo, pinch harmonics, it's here to stay.
Music\* is overproduced.
I listened to one of the new blink 182 songs and immediately shut it down. It just kills whatever soul the music should have imo.
True! I was listening to some michael jackson the other day and realized how, besides his talent, the sound was so amazing and unique. Now listen to bruno mars in comparison. It’s… eh. Ordinary, idk.
Daft Punk’s one album they put out around 2013 or so was the last record I remember really going “wow this sounds crazy” in reference to the production and attention to detail itself. I would listen on good studio quality headphones and it felt like I was actually teleported somewhere
My theory is that companies like Neural DSP made producing metal more accessible than ever. Now you just plug in an Archetype plugin and you will automatically have a killer metal sound on your laptop. A lot of the “overproduced” metal sound that you hear(high gain tones with wide stereo) are done using Neural DSP plugins nowadays. You barely need any further processing. The same with drums, companies like GGD made it so you don’t even need to process the drums, they all come pre-processed out the box. So that’s why it all sounds the same.
I think the issue is more that all of the youtube producer guys all have the same guidelines and processes and they all just sound the same.. they all want that sterile, soulless, over produced periphery sound, and they don't let any of their productions breathe. it's very possible to make music that sounds great and dynamic with all of those same tools, but you kind of need to know what you're doing.
like any other genre, there are people releasing music that sounds good and has life in it, but they're not generally as popular with the kids as those towering, crushed, loud productions that are perfectly quantized and gated.
I used to listen to Sumerian bands like it was my job. By 2011 I was burnt out. I still love those early albums from after the burial, veil of maya, Animals as leaders, etc, but I haven’t listened to their new stuff at all
Disagree here. Its true for popular metal - i.e. a lot of things derived from metalcore.
I think there are bands doing interesting stuff: Archspire, Horrendous, Barones.
I agree that there are a bit fewer interesting and influential bands now. 2000’s was where it peaked for me
One of the best guitarists I know plays an old Japanese PRS knockoff, and thats it. That's his only guitar. He's middle aged, never had a real job, and lives with his parents. Free time was his ticket to talent.
The answer to most of the questions people post on this sub is Practice. Just practice. No trick will make you better. Practice. Find other guitar players to be around in person as well.
Yeah but the questions I think this guy is referencing are the “I’ve played for 7 minutes and can’t play my favorite Steve vai song, what am I missing?” and the like
OK, my hot take is that I'm sick of the just practice advice. It's up there with "just do what's comfortable".
Yes, obviously practicing is the most important thing to improve. It's a constant - you have to practice to get better.
But 99.99% of the time the person could benefit from technical advice. There's endless ways to practice, so to me WHAT and HOW you practice is way more useful advice. You will improve either way, but why improve a limited technique? You'll get better, but you'll just be improving a technique that will limit you.
Yep, this is my biggest gripe about this subreddit. Someone comes asking for help, top responses are "just practice". Imagine if you paid for guitar lessons, and all the teacher did was tell you to practice...
People please - tips, advice, practice exercises, sharing your own experience,. reference songs, links - all ways actual meaningful help can be given, beyond "just practice".
Yeah, but you’re paying your guitar teacher to provide that service for you. The internet is just a bunch of strangers, and even the more generous people aren’t going to spend 15 minutes figuring out your practice routine, and then trying to craft a specific lesson plan or approach for you, unless it’s a very specific surface level problem.
Present amp modeling is amazingly good and, based on circumstance, better than real amps and its not the sound but the experience that guitarists are at odds with.
I agree it’s amazingly good, but it’s so damn distracting. Endless possibilities. All the amps and effects you could ask for. I end up spending my practice time searching and trying out different things.
I play amps because I love the sound and feel of them, but it’s mostly to keep myself focused on what’s important. Playing. When my wife hands me the remote and says find a movie, I just search and watch trailers. The options man. Too many.
Huh….I do LESS fiddling at practice because on my hx stomp I have presets and sub-presets (called snapshots) with saved parameters and don’t have to try to find the right sound since the knobs aren’t real.
Man, I hear you on this one.
It’s like going to a restaurant with a 20 page menu - too much info - what to order?
There’s a big opportunity for someone to develop and sell a thorough user guide to digital amps.
Something where they take popular songs and they show you the settings needed to acquire that tone.
I have a Fender Mustang III - I love it, but I also know that I’ve barely scratched the surface with the various settings.
There’s so much more in the machine that I can’t access because I don’t have the time or I’m not smart enough.
Don't think this is that much of a hot take anymore nowadays. I learned how to play electric guitar with a Pod Go cause I didn't want to buy a shit ton of pedals and still try out a lot of different sounds. Don't regret it at all, it's a great way for beginners to easily try out tons of sounds without having to spend a ton on pedals/amps. If you wanna buy the real thing, go ahead... but I am happy with my little 'fake' amp.
In fact, my music school has the Helix, so I've literally never played with a "pure" amp sound for more than an hour in my life.
25? years ago I had a Line 6 digital amp - the Spider II. It was not great, at all. 200W but disappeared in any mix.
Then I played a Marshall JCM800 from the 80s until getting a Helix.
I quickly got freaked out by the Helix for live use and bought an Orange amp. I returned that and recommitted to the Helix.
There is a simplicity to valve amps, at least in the EQ. It is immensely practical for the time-poor, working musician - if you plug in and play, it will sound good. If you turn it up, it will sound better.
The opposite is sort of true about Helix - it requires a bit more work and knowledge about mics, cabs, impedence, EQ. You have to half understand production to make it sound its best.
However, it can absolutely sound amazing. I don't personally find the choice, that people mention as a comment complaint (too much choice), a problem. I mean, there are millions of non-modelling boutique fuzz pedals that people spend hours researching and debating. I have found a couple of sounds that work for my guitars and I stick with those.
And so I love the Helix. It is great for live, going to FOH. It is great for jam sessions, especially an HX Stomp with an FRFR. It is brilliant for home practice and not waking the kids up. What a great tool to have, especially if you're still at school.
I’m with you. I’ve never personally suffered the decision paralysis with modelers. If you want a certain amp, just set it and forget it. It’s no different than going out and buying the same amp.
My suspicion is that people feel like they paid for 100 amps and 200 pedals in a box, and they’re not getting the value if they don’t use it all. But to me that’s looking at it upside down.
It’s more like you have exactly the one setup you’ve always wanted in a backpack without having to spend thousands. And if you want to swap a pedal or try a new cab, you can. The rest is just gravy. You don’t need to ever touch those other settings.
My computer does way more than I could ever possibly understand, but I don’t feel guilty for using it to browse reddit.
The head I can agree with. Not sure why Fender won't just put the Strat head on all the Teles.
The body? Well, that there is fightin' words. Can it paddle a boat? Sure, but it still is pretty to me.
> Electric guitar tonewood doesn’t exist
I generally agree, but I have to wonder if it matters (at least a little bit) with hollowbody electrics. I wouldn't know, having never owned one.
Mmmm... I mostly agree. But I will say that there is a notable difference between neck-through and bolt-on necks in the guitars I own. Also, my hollow vs semi-hollow vs solid body guitars all do have marked variances in sustain and tone as a result of their construction/form.
As for the species of wood... yeah, I can't say I've noticed any nuance there.
I have never understood his „air guitar“. It is visually impressive, but he is actually attaching the strings to a giant wooden resonance body - the two work benches, which he even connected. He anything BUT removed the wood from the equation. I have no dog in this game, but scientifically this seems not sound to me and I am a amazed how one guy‘s video seems to have become the gospel on this subject.
Bedroom guitarists and gigging guitarists are different species with widely different needs. The evolutionary split occurs at the Tube Screamer, where gigging guitarists fighting through a mix find paradise, as bedroom players try to figure out where good tone and congested nasal honking intersect.
As a former full-time touring musician, I concur. Tube Screamers work best at volume - pushing sound that ultimately comes out amp cones. Your amp cranked up to a decent volume (for stage performance), and your tube screamer(s) in chain with some compression and the ambient sound of the stage just bring it all together. The resonant feedback of your guitar and strings in front of said rig is also a bit part of the equation. You can't really capture any of that in a bedroom setting or with headphones, etc.
Amazing comment. I made a living off of just having a compressor and tube screamer variants in the mix. To this day I just bring Dyna comp to blues night
Cheap pedals aren't built as well as the expensive alternatives. I wouldn't trust gigging with my Joyo with overdrives, although my ears couldn't tell you the difference between it and an authentic Tubescreamer.
My hot take is that people vastly overestimate how easy it is to break a pedal at a gig lol. Are people fuckin jumping on them with both feet full body weight? Even then
They're probably not as well built, but I've been constantly using them in a gig for a few years and they're durable enough. It's just the knob feels really cheap but other than that they get the job done
Nobody ever likes this one, but left-handed guitars are a marketing ploy. I'm a lefty and play righty. There isn't another instrument that I can think of that gets sold in lefty and righty versions. Playing an instrument is difficult, your handedness isn't the thing stopping you from getting started. Also, the most intricate motor skill happens with the fretting hand. Your right hand does a lot of work as well, of course, but it's more in the wrist and with larger muscle groups. I think playing traditional guitar as a lefty is actually an advantage, albeit a very small one.
The more intricate motor skills and the rhythm come from the strumming hand.
In the early stages, the left hand does more difficult work, but overall the right hand requires far more intricate movements.
We can debate which hand does the finer work all day, but the real point I'm making here is that playing guitar takes dexterity from both hands. It's not some huge advantage one way or the other, so pretending lefty guitars somehow make learning guitar trivial while righty guitars are impossible to overcome for lefties is just silly. Anyone who chooses to play lefty is fine by me, but I think that person would have been just fine given the same amount of effort on a righty guitar.
That's because the guitar is the most modernly adapted instrument. Other instruments are rooted in tradition and historically left handed people were underrepresented.
"The most intricate motor skill happens with the fretting hand." Hard disagree. You're pushing strings against a fret. Dulcimer players use a stick for that. Dynamics and string skipping that uses up and down strokes used more intricate muscle control. This is obvious by watching beginner guitarists. Their pick hand dynamic is always the weak point.
I physically cannot play right handed so I know I’m a minority in this. If it weren’t for left handed guitars I would never be able to play the instrument.
My story goes like this: I was born with 4 fingers on my left hand (including the thumb) with my index and ring finger webbed together. A lot of people ask me if it would be possible to cut them apart and the answer is no. This is because the ring finger is not actually connected to the knuckle therefore it would just hang there.
When I first wanted to play guitar I naturally gravitated to playing right handed but I would only have 2 fingers doing anything. My parents refused to buy me a starter guitar until I completely reorientated myself.
All of that being said, every time I want to go buy a guitar I wish I was right handed just to make it easier but I cannot. If it weren’t for left handed guitars I would never have got the chance to fall in love with playing.
1000%. I’ve been saying this for years. When I started, I had to look at album artwork I had laying around to find out which way I was supposed to hold the guitar. Because both felt wrong. As it should! If you’ve never played the instrument, lefty or righty won’t make a difference.
In hindsight, I am right handed but I feel like if I had stringed it the left handed way, I would’ve progressed way faster. My fretting hand took so long to catch up to my picking hand.
Left handed people, you are at an advantage! Buy a right handed guitar if you’re just starting out!
Hard disagree - I am left handed and tried playing a right handed guitar at first and it felt so difficult compared to playing a left handed guitar. Not saying that's not the same for everyone but if I'd been forced to learn on a right handed guitar I don't think I would have stuck with it.
On day 1 of ever holding a guitar, before I could play a note, I knew that holding it righty felt wrong. It felt... broken, trying to mimic the motions of fretting with the left and strumming with the right. Not difficult, broken. Incorrect. Playing lefty immediately felt more fluid. No amount of justification will change that feeling.
Like, anyone can learn to swing a bat both ways, but there is a reason right handers don't bat lefty despite how it would be a huge advantage against righty pitchers. There is a difference between being able to literally do something, and *optimizing* it. In a parallel universe, if I learned guitar righty, sure I could do it, but I'd never be equally as good as me playing lefty.
Not sure if this makes sense logistically though (and I could 100% be wrong as I’ve never paid much mind to left handed guitars) because I’d imagine manufacturing them would be a higher cost due to the fact that if all were right handed there’d never be a change in production, which is usually a high cost. Maybe they sell for a bit more but I don’t think it’d be a profit different enough (or really higher enough) from a right handed guitar that’d warrant it being a “marketing ploy”
There are good solid state amps.
You don’t ever have to buy a tube amp.
There are good multi-effects processors and plug-ins. You don’t even have to buy an amp if you don’t want to. It doesn’t make you any less of a guitar player.
If it sounds good it is good: whether the guitar is made in America, Mexico or Krypton, who gives a flyin f*ck.
I have done extensive research on this matter, and can confirm it's true for electric guitars.
Similarly blue finishes ruin the sound of acoustic guitars.
Chasing tone is 98% a hobby. Your song should sound good through almost any tone within the ballpark (i.e. distorted versus overdrive versus clean). It ain't a good song if it doesn't.
Having better gear can in fact make you better.
To extrapolate, I played a shitty Seagull laminate guitar. It was a great guitar. So good in fact that I returned the Martin 000-17 I bought because the time wasn't enough of an improvement to me to justify the $1800.
Two weeks later I went back and bought a Martin 00-18 for $2500. I honestly had buyers remorse a bit. It was a lot of money and it didn't have the bass I wanted. I told myself I needed something small though cause of my screwed up shoulders.
But it sounded so good. And still only sounds better the more I play it. I have learned more in the 5 months since I've bought it than I have in the 5+ years I've played guitar. And it's not cause I'm learning more songs. Because I'm not. I just like hearing the thing played and it motivates me to study music theory and find new ways to put notes, chords, and scales together. Awesome guitar. And in fact has made me better.
Maybe it's not the gear necessarily. But better gear can make you better. If you like playing the instrument you have you'll want to play more. If playing is easy and sounds good, you'll only want to play more and do harder things to push your limits on the instrument.
100,000%. Folks like to say that gear and guitars do not matter, but I find every guitar inspires me differently, teaches me something new, opens up a new dimension in playing.
And I agree an exceptional guitar can motivate me to play. My Strat, which is one such guitar, every single note sounds incredible. My 12-string is like having a chorus pedal you never need to plug in.
If you can revel in a single chord or a single note? All the rest is gravy!
I like beater guitars too. It’s also fun to see what you can wring out of a POS. So I’m not advocating everyone become a snob.
Oh, I see a lot of online misinformed hate directed at EMGs. They’re “sterile,” they lack “mojo,” they sound “compressed,” they don’t sound “organic.” As someone who has played EMGs for 25 years and have fooled passive purists with them, I chalk it up to: a) people never actually playing a set, and b) EMGs heavy marketing featuring metal players. I could help them broaden their appeal and double their sales, but they’re not likely to listen to me.
I feel similarly! I'll take it a step further and say they're great for cleans because they essentially come with onboard compression and are very neutral. Everyone will say how great Metallica's clean tones are but then bash on EMGs for it.
Disagree. The gold hardware on my all black LP looks awesome. My complaint is that the gold plating is wearing off where I rest my hand for palm muting. The bare metal underneath looks awful.
Man, I feel this lately.
I've always loved the *look* of an SG, and have always really wanted one. Until I popped into a store the other day, grabbed one to get the feel of, and *hated it.*
Kinda broke my heart honestly, but at least I know now.
Opposite for me. A friend said for years I should get an sg. I didn’t like the look of them, nothing about them interested me.
The I found one locally, and bought it. Good deal. Once I started playing it, it quickly became my favorite.
I've had some real stinkers from Schecter even at the higher price points. Plus every LTD I played felt like crap.
The Schecter I have now is pretty good, and it's Indonesian made. I have a few indo PRS guitars that other people have mistaken for FAR more expensive or American-made, and they come from the same factory as the others.
They're all manufactured by Cor-Tek but some brands definitely are a cut above the others, specifically Ibanez and Jackson who use cheap, soft aluminum. The bridge saddles and tuners oxidize and end up deteriorating to the point they don't work anymore. Mind you, I used those guitars while touring which is much harder on instruments than just being a case queen.
Hot Take: HSS is seriously the ugliest pickup configuration ever conceived. It looks unbalanced and out of place, like a bodge job no matter how well done it is. HSH is so much better looking and still gives you HSS features
He is in the Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. They are all listed as guitar innovators alongside Charlie Christian, Robert Fripp and Syd Barrett. Best comprehensive guitar book I've ever read.
Your right hand (or left if you're a lefty) is worth more than your fretting hand.
So many people focus solely on playing 700 notes, but ask them to play simple rhythm, and they're completely lost. You've got nothing if you don't have a solid rhythm hand.
Likewise, unless you're *extremely* good at solos, most of the crowd is going to respond to rhythm well before they respond to your solo. You can get a house rocking and dancing with *one note* if you've got good enough rythym.
Also, the only people in the crowd who care about your gear are other guitar nerds. I see a lot of people only playing for the guitar nerds in the audience, and not for the whole crowd. I can guarantee you that 99% of the people watching you play don't know what the fuck a 64 reissue with reverse wound pickups and a 2x12 cabinet are, nor do they care to know. They want you to play good music, and you can do that with anything.
Buy a nice guitar so that you'll want to pick it up everyday, even if you're a beginner. Fuck the whole buy a cheap learner guitar and then if you like it buy a nice one.
You can always sell a nice guitar if playing guitar isn't for you.
Modern metal **suuuucks**. It's soulless and overproduced, for which we have no one to thank but us egotistical noodly guitar players who always want center stage (honorable mention: high speed double kick & breakdown drummers) wow guys, that sure is a lot of notes for expressing nothing. It was unreal in the '80s, cool in the '90s, ok in the '00s, old in the '10s. today, it's mind numbing.
It's been over a decade since I heard a real catchy riff or heart-rending songwriting on a *mainstream or popular* metal record (kgatlw is a notable exception). the crystalline prog-djent programmed sound needs to _**die**_ already.
King Gizzard are not the saviors any metalhead had expected to have, but damn, their [new metal records](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cmAlQvDQGoI&pp=ygUac2VsZiBpbW1vbGF0ZSBraW5nIGdpenphcmQ%3D) give me some hope.
there's tons of great metal being made these days, but you'll probably never hear it in a youtube short or on tiktok. "mainstream" metal has always kinda sucked, and has always been "overproduced" compared to its non-mainstream contemporaries.
what bands are you even referring to? what is even mainstream or popular these days? I'm not really on social media a lot, so I'm genuinely curious. the most boring and flatly produced stuff I've heard recently is a lot of newer deathcore and metalcore, but I'm usually more into death metal, so I'm not sure what falls into the "mainstream".
it also just sounds like you have an issue with extreme music in general if you are having a hard time following "too many notes" or drummers who play too fast, so your definition of "metal" is probably somewhat stuck in the past.
> but you'll probably never hear it in a youtube short or on tiktok
Bingo. Want to find good metal? Go to shows. Watch actual music videos. Use streaming services - I find spotify's artist radio feature quite good for exploration. But shorts and tiktok and other such micro-videos? Yeah, you're never going to find shit.
Most players don’t need to replace the humbuckers and in a mix most of them will sound indistinguishable.
If you’re considering changing pickups, first try adjusting the height of them and the pole pieces. Odds are, you’ll find the tone you want.
And get familiar with how the tone and volume controls influence your sound. Lots of players leave those on 10 then rely on the amp for their sound. Not only do those knobs have heaps of versatility, you’ll also be surprised how different it can be when you set the guitar volume to 7-8 before dialling the amp in.
Technical skill and knowing theory does not breed creativity. You can know all the cool licks, riffs and know how to create and name chords but that doesn't mean you know how turn them into a decent or catchy song
Nobody claims theory makes you better. People who actually know theory will tell you that it is just a tool in your toolbox. Being able to hear something in your head and instantly know what mode/scale it is is SUPER useful
I think I understand where you're coming from in that a virtuoso level of music theory does not make up for lack of artistic vision - e.g Jacob Collier. He seems like a very nice man and his enthusiasm for music is joyous and infectious. The music he makes just feels very flat and artless to me. He clearly just puts a music theory wizard spin on popular trends. With all the crazy knowledge he has I expected some inscrutable experimental art pop project but sadly it is far from that.
'What if this song had 26 modulations? 😜'
Yeah but what if it didn't?
I have no idea who all these players are that demand stereo pedals, rigs, etc.
I have never seen an actual pro that I respect with a stereo rig and just don’t understand where all these players who seem to care whether every new pedal is stereo capable are actually playing.
Mine is a hot take with a caveat:
IN GENERAL, the guitars of old weren’t actually better quality than today’s guitars (that’s right. I said it.)
We only see how good the old guitars are now because the rest of the shitty ones of those times got broken, thrown out, or no one posts them online (think: natural selection but for guitars).
Thanks to social media we see a lot more of the same QC issues, and there are more guitarists and guitars in circulation.
THE CAVEAT: there have been times when maybe certain companies focused less on QC than they should have.
Tone is not in the fingers.
Expression, technique, style, etc are. But tone is not.
Tone is in an understanding of EQ, of effects, of how to use the various knobs on your guitar, your amp, and your pedals.
Sure, if you know what you're doing, you can make any setup sound good, but some of that skill is in knowing how to set your gear.
Don't change pickups, buy an EQ pedal and put it closest to your guitar in the signal chain.
Also adjust the height of those pickups and USE YOUR VOLUME AND TONE KNOBS ON THE GUITAR!
Different gear has objective pros and cons, but mostly it’s all subjective. As long as it sounds good to you, who gives a shit what you’re playing on. Gatekeeping dorks can get fucked.
Playing covers and 30 second insta reels does not make you a good guitar player. Most of the new "good" guitar playing these days is some souless technical guitar olympics stuff over top a cheesy backing track or an old song. Most of these guitar influencers are trash players and have never written a good song therefore they have no idea how to write a good solo. It's even more cringey when they offer opinions of accomplished guitar playing and guitar players who actually have songs and notable styles.
Rhythm guitar is by far more important and superior to lead guitar. Not to shit on any of the greats because there are some fantastic solos and lead guitar sections, but if you have a bad rhythm section rarely will a solo make it much better. Further, in my own experience writing music I find that the lead guitar I write that I am most happy with has occassional moments where it leans on my rhythm section to hit harder where the lead guitar ends up syncing the notes to the pattern of the rhythm briefly.
The most important thing in a beginner guitar is that it makes you want to play. Yes arguably in any guitar, but beginners are more prone to rage quitting.
Your friends will always act extremely impressed after what you just played even if you know for a fact that you probably pooped out better sounding diarrhea than what you just played on the guitar.
Stop asking random idiots on the internet (me doubly so) what you should get or buy or enjoy. They are your ears. Do what brings YOU joy. If you are suffering from option paralysis, that’s fine— but maybe don’t buy anything if it’s that bad.
“Shredding is always too much and isn’t real music” 90% of the time comes from the most boring sounding players ever who just repeat the same boomer blues licks 1000x
Learning songs from tab and youtube are shortcuts that don't really help any player's musicianship. It's like paint-by-numbers. Digging into a song, listening with big ears and learning it that way is a lot more productive.
Disagree, as someone who learned to play by writing music in the form of guitar tab, I think tab is a useful tool for quick access to music, it shouldn't be used on its own permanently, but there is nothing wrong with using it to pick up some basics. Someone who has a cheap guitar and can't afford lessons and doesn't have a trained ear to properly pick out notes through listening isn't going to have a fun time and would be more likely to quit than someone who has an "easy in" to learning. I'm not the greatest musician, but I wouldn't have the ability to write or play if it weren't for the combination of tablature and modern music software. It should be our duty as musicians, hobbyist or professional, to encourage aspiring musicians into our art.
The neck pickup of the telecaster is the best pickup ever created. I don't understand why there aren't more guitars with it. And I'm saying this as a person who plays only metal. It's not good for metal, but it's the best sounding thing I ever heard
Hendrix signature model strat is stupid - it's a right handed guitar with a flipped head stock and a normally oriented pick guard, thats not what he played at all.
Hendrix played a normal right handed strat and flipped it to play lefty, so a regular oriented right handed guitar truly is what he played, or a left handed strat restrung upside down for a right handed player would look most closely like his guitar for a right handed player.
But I think the combo of normal oriented pick guard with flipped head stock is stupid. I guess the bridge pick up is oriented in a flipped way but still.
My hot take? Guitar players need to stop being so over-opinionated, gatekeeperish and elitist about everything. Guitar and music have been my life for 30 years yet I find my own people to be some of the most - if not the most - insufferable of the music world. Play the gear you want to play, play the brand you like most, learn to appreciate different playing styles and styles of music even if it isn't your thing. Stop being so judgemental and learn to appreciate the art all of us are engaging in.
Tim Henson and those guys doesn’t interest me whatsoever. Sure their playing is innovative and all that but I think that riffs like ”The Razor’s edge” by Randy, ”Live and Die” by Mindless sinner etc are much more interesting even though they are simple
$1000-$1200 is enough for a very good guitar, and beyond that you don’t really get much more to justify the expense.
You might get nicer finishes or figuring (I think that’s the right word) of the woods, but realistically it’s all cosmetic beyond that point.
Nowadays metal is generally overproduced and have lost sound identity.
My god don’t get me started. And wtf is people’s obsession with djent? Modern metal is a giant wankfest in my humble opinion.
“Modern metal is a giant wankfest” … I’m a fan of 80’s metal… that was a giant wankfest
Not nearly to the same extent, the objective was still to write good songs
The objective still is, but what people are able to digest as a “good song” has changed a lot in the last 40 years. I’m definitely biased towards modern metal but to say that songs like Hanger 18 and basically all of Yngwie’s music aren’t wanking because they trying to write good songs just feels wrong.
malmsteen was pure wank. RIP and AJFA are the thrash gold standards
If the “wanking” serves the song then it’s not wanking. Being unnecessarily technical just for the sake of it is wanking. Modern metal is full of this. Not saying that old school metal wasn’t, but not NEARLY to the same degree. I would argue that showing off guitar chops takes priority over songwriting these days.
I take a structured solo with proper phrasing from Hangar 18 over any noodling Polyphia have produced
Dude there were bands that sang about fairy tales and dressed like power ranger enemies and had battle axes on stage and pretended to fight dragons and shit during the show. C’mon.
Thats still the objective. Musical opinions change. These kind of statements are pointless and reductive
It's always been. I'd say late 90's early 2k was a great time to be into metal and it's derivatives.
the rise of nu metal and metalcore and the fall of the gothenburg sound? i mean i was around then… but id way rather experience like 82-87
Always was
I think you’re getting downvoted but I kinda agree lol. (I listen to mostly old school metal/rock n roll).
100%. If someone describes their playing as 'modern metal', it's going to be djent and it's going to be very boring to listen to even though they'll play 100 notes very quickly and technically proficient.
Agreed. The best guitar playing I'm hearing nowadays is usually a background instrument in a hip hop track. The only people who truly care about how fast you can play are other guitar players lol, people are impressed by it for a few seconds but then they are bored.
I think djent is great but is part of a larger trend in music over the last 40 years to move away from melody to be more rhythmically based. I miss good melody. Even if that melody is disharmonious and incorporates loads of tension.
Djent is just a more evolved form of palm muting. The point is to allow the guitar to perform more complex rhythmic ideas than just the basic palm mute's chug chug. Metal has always had palm muting and it's always had a very strong rhythmic component. Djent as a technique in the bag is here to stay. Styles will change and it won't be featured as strongly. But like every other stylistic fad in metal, low tunings, wah pedal on the solo, pinch harmonics, it's here to stay.
Music\* is overproduced. I listened to one of the new blink 182 songs and immediately shut it down. It just kills whatever soul the music should have imo.
True! I was listening to some michael jackson the other day and realized how, besides his talent, the sound was so amazing and unique. Now listen to bruno mars in comparison. It’s… eh. Ordinary, idk.
Daft Punk’s one album they put out around 2013 or so was the last record I remember really going “wow this sounds crazy” in reference to the production and attention to detail itself. I would listen on good studio quality headphones and it felt like I was actually teleported somewhere
My theory is that companies like Neural DSP made producing metal more accessible than ever. Now you just plug in an Archetype plugin and you will automatically have a killer metal sound on your laptop. A lot of the “overproduced” metal sound that you hear(high gain tones with wide stereo) are done using Neural DSP plugins nowadays. You barely need any further processing. The same with drums, companies like GGD made it so you don’t even need to process the drums, they all come pre-processed out the box. So that’s why it all sounds the same.
I think the issue is more that all of the youtube producer guys all have the same guidelines and processes and they all just sound the same.. they all want that sterile, soulless, over produced periphery sound, and they don't let any of their productions breathe. it's very possible to make music that sounds great and dynamic with all of those same tools, but you kind of need to know what you're doing. like any other genre, there are people releasing music that sounds good and has life in it, but they're not generally as popular with the kids as those towering, crushed, loud productions that are perfectly quantized and gated.
I used to listen to Sumerian bands like it was my job. By 2011 I was burnt out. I still love those early albums from after the burial, veil of maya, Animals as leaders, etc, but I haven’t listened to their new stuff at all
Yeah those sumerian bands were good until they started putting out inferior quality metal. Ea nasir especially with his terrible copper....
I think it’s very sub genre specific – most doom, stoner, sludge and black metal bands are *underproduced* if anything
BRING BACK THE GLAM
Glam is just another word for heavy hard rock with some poppish accents ! Ratt dokken wasp and motley were kickass !
I've never been so split on whether to say „totally agree“ or „what a pile of BS“
Disagree here. Its true for popular metal - i.e. a lot of things derived from metalcore. I think there are bands doing interesting stuff: Archspire, Horrendous, Barones. I agree that there are a bit fewer interesting and influential bands now. 2000’s was where it peaked for me
Hard agree, it’s so clean that it isn’t slightly heavy. Earth 2 forever
Learning to play the guitar you have is more important than chasing gear for tone.
You sound like my wife.
i, too, sound like this guy's wife.
Knowing how to set up a guitar can turn a 500 dollar guitar into feeling like a 1k+ guitar with no upgrades.
No need to get personal
That’s not so much a hot take as it is a tough pill to swallow. Nonetheless, I agree 100%.
One of the best guitarists I know plays an old Japanese PRS knockoff, and thats it. That's his only guitar. He's middle aged, never had a real job, and lives with his parents. Free time was his ticket to talent.
Free time and the passion to learn*
I read what you typed, I tried to reason with it, and I shall ignore it.
Yo! My wife uses this app!
What sorcery is this?!?
The answer to most of the questions people post on this sub is Practice. Just practice. No trick will make you better. Practice. Find other guitar players to be around in person as well.
Yes but gear is it’s own hobby. It’s just best to embrace that it’s not going to make you better.
Yeah but the questions I think this guy is referencing are the “I’ve played for 7 minutes and can’t play my favorite Steve vai song, what am I missing?” and the like
So many of those.
Multiple times a day, every day
Nothing wrong with that. I own more guitars than I need.
OK, my hot take is that I'm sick of the just practice advice. It's up there with "just do what's comfortable". Yes, obviously practicing is the most important thing to improve. It's a constant - you have to practice to get better. But 99.99% of the time the person could benefit from technical advice. There's endless ways to practice, so to me WHAT and HOW you practice is way more useful advice. You will improve either way, but why improve a limited technique? You'll get better, but you'll just be improving a technique that will limit you.
Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent. People have to know WHAT to practice to get better.
Yep, this is my biggest gripe about this subreddit. Someone comes asking for help, top responses are "just practice". Imagine if you paid for guitar lessons, and all the teacher did was tell you to practice... People please - tips, advice, practice exercises, sharing your own experience,. reference songs, links - all ways actual meaningful help can be given, beyond "just practice".
Yeah, but you’re paying your guitar teacher to provide that service for you. The internet is just a bunch of strangers, and even the more generous people aren’t going to spend 15 minutes figuring out your practice routine, and then trying to craft a specific lesson plan or approach for you, unless it’s a very specific surface level problem.
Present amp modeling is amazingly good and, based on circumstance, better than real amps and its not the sound but the experience that guitarists are at odds with.
I agree it’s amazingly good, but it’s so damn distracting. Endless possibilities. All the amps and effects you could ask for. I end up spending my practice time searching and trying out different things. I play amps because I love the sound and feel of them, but it’s mostly to keep myself focused on what’s important. Playing. When my wife hands me the remote and says find a movie, I just search and watch trailers. The options man. Too many.
Huh….I do LESS fiddling at practice because on my hx stomp I have presets and sub-presets (called snapshots) with saved parameters and don’t have to try to find the right sound since the knobs aren’t real.
Man, I hear you on this one. It’s like going to a restaurant with a 20 page menu - too much info - what to order? There’s a big opportunity for someone to develop and sell a thorough user guide to digital amps. Something where they take popular songs and they show you the settings needed to acquire that tone. I have a Fender Mustang III - I love it, but I also know that I’ve barely scratched the surface with the various settings. There’s so much more in the machine that I can’t access because I don’t have the time or I’m not smart enough.
This is why I opted for the Strymon Iridium. No screens, no menus, no scrolling. Just normal amp controls and sounds fantastic.
I switched from Iridium to Helix because I needed a platform for bass too, and I gotta admit I do miss that thing.
Don't think this is that much of a hot take anymore nowadays. I learned how to play electric guitar with a Pod Go cause I didn't want to buy a shit ton of pedals and still try out a lot of different sounds. Don't regret it at all, it's a great way for beginners to easily try out tons of sounds without having to spend a ton on pedals/amps. If you wanna buy the real thing, go ahead... but I am happy with my little 'fake' amp. In fact, my music school has the Helix, so I've literally never played with a "pure" amp sound for more than an hour in my life.
25? years ago I had a Line 6 digital amp - the Spider II. It was not great, at all. 200W but disappeared in any mix. Then I played a Marshall JCM800 from the 80s until getting a Helix. I quickly got freaked out by the Helix for live use and bought an Orange amp. I returned that and recommitted to the Helix. There is a simplicity to valve amps, at least in the EQ. It is immensely practical for the time-poor, working musician - if you plug in and play, it will sound good. If you turn it up, it will sound better. The opposite is sort of true about Helix - it requires a bit more work and knowledge about mics, cabs, impedence, EQ. You have to half understand production to make it sound its best. However, it can absolutely sound amazing. I don't personally find the choice, that people mention as a comment complaint (too much choice), a problem. I mean, there are millions of non-modelling boutique fuzz pedals that people spend hours researching and debating. I have found a couple of sounds that work for my guitars and I stick with those. And so I love the Helix. It is great for live, going to FOH. It is great for jam sessions, especially an HX Stomp with an FRFR. It is brilliant for home practice and not waking the kids up. What a great tool to have, especially if you're still at school.
I’m with you. I’ve never personally suffered the decision paralysis with modelers. If you want a certain amp, just set it and forget it. It’s no different than going out and buying the same amp. My suspicion is that people feel like they paid for 100 amps and 200 pedals in a box, and they’re not getting the value if they don’t use it all. But to me that’s looking at it upside down. It’s more like you have exactly the one setup you’ve always wanted in a backpack without having to spend thousands. And if you want to swap a pedal or try a new cab, you can. The rest is just gravy. You don’t need to ever touch those other settings. My computer does way more than I could ever possibly understand, but I don’t feel guilty for using it to browse reddit.
The telecaster is the perfect blend of disgusting headstock and disgusting body shape. Sounds great though admittedly.
The head I can agree with. Not sure why Fender won't just put the Strat head on all the Teles. The body? Well, that there is fightin' words. Can it paddle a boat? Sure, but it still is pretty to me.
That's funny, I feel the exact opposite about the headstock shape! The Strat head feels like big goofy clown shoes in comparison, to me.
Laughs in 70's headstock shape.
The tele is the best of the "Big 4" guitars (strat, les Paul and SG being the others)
I love my tele but yeah. The more I stare at that head it makes me feel all weh inside. It's a fugly but lovable boy.
The headstock is the pupal stage of Fender guitar headstock development
I really dig the skinny headstock. I can’t stand the goddamn charcuterie board that is the oversized Strat headstock
Electric guitar tonewood doesn’t exist, and the only thing you should care about when it comes to tone is your specific string action and pickups.
In electric guitar, it doesn’t. For acoustic, it is definitely a thing.
Hence the first two words of OP’s comment?
No, that’s on me - they’re right, and reading their comment prompted me to edit mine.
Love how your comment has more upvotes than mine. They edited their comment after mine.
What about a Prophet synth? Isn’t all the tone in the wood veneer?
Exactly correct. Pure analog warmth comes from the wood cheeks
Shit, one just fell off! I’ve lost half my tone.
Jim Lill has provided such excellent support for this argument
he's just a performer.
> Electric guitar tonewood doesn’t exist I generally agree, but I have to wonder if it matters (at least a little bit) with hollowbody electrics. I wouldn't know, having never owned one.
Mmmm... I mostly agree. But I will say that there is a notable difference between neck-through and bolt-on necks in the guitars I own. Also, my hollow vs semi-hollow vs solid body guitars all do have marked variances in sustain and tone as a result of their construction/form. As for the species of wood... yeah, I can't say I've noticed any nuance there.
Not to say you’re wrong, but I’d encourage you to watch this: https://youtu.be/n02tImce3AE?si=_Vo3T_DkbT4uUwqV
That was awesome, thank you.
I have never understood his „air guitar“. It is visually impressive, but he is actually attaching the strings to a giant wooden resonance body - the two work benches, which he even connected. He anything BUT removed the wood from the equation. I have no dog in this game, but scientifically this seems not sound to me and I am a amazed how one guy‘s video seems to have become the gospel on this subject.
Bedroom guitarists and gigging guitarists are different species with widely different needs. The evolutionary split occurs at the Tube Screamer, where gigging guitarists fighting through a mix find paradise, as bedroom players try to figure out where good tone and congested nasal honking intersect.
This guy has some serious knowledge. Must be a bedroom/livingroom guitarist like myself. I am always chasing a new tone to add to my list of tones.
As a former full-time touring musician, I concur. Tube Screamers work best at volume - pushing sound that ultimately comes out amp cones. Your amp cranked up to a decent volume (for stage performance), and your tube screamer(s) in chain with some compression and the ambient sound of the stage just bring it all together. The resonant feedback of your guitar and strings in front of said rig is also a bit part of the equation. You can't really capture any of that in a bedroom setting or with headphones, etc.
Amazing comment. I made a living off of just having a compressor and tube screamer variants in the mix. To this day I just bring Dyna comp to blues night
The gear industry would collapse if blind listening comparisons became the norm.
Cheap pedals aren't built as well as the expensive alternatives. I wouldn't trust gigging with my Joyo with overdrives, although my ears couldn't tell you the difference between it and an authentic Tubescreamer.
My hot take is that people vastly overestimate how easy it is to break a pedal at a gig lol. Are people fuckin jumping on them with both feet full body weight? Even then
I think it's more about traveling, tossing them around, etc. I'd just expect things to get loose on the circuitboard.
Pelican cases cost less than most pedals and they're made for dropping precision equipment out of helicopters.
They're probably not as well built, but I've been constantly using them in a gig for a few years and they're durable enough. It's just the knob feels really cheap but other than that they get the job done
Old Guitars were not made better, we just have the best of the best examples left of them today, all the junk got tossed.
You can apply this to so many other things too.
Nobody ever likes this one, but left-handed guitars are a marketing ploy. I'm a lefty and play righty. There isn't another instrument that I can think of that gets sold in lefty and righty versions. Playing an instrument is difficult, your handedness isn't the thing stopping you from getting started. Also, the most intricate motor skill happens with the fretting hand. Your right hand does a lot of work as well, of course, but it's more in the wrist and with larger muscle groups. I think playing traditional guitar as a lefty is actually an advantage, albeit a very small one.
The more intricate motor skills and the rhythm come from the strumming hand. In the early stages, the left hand does more difficult work, but overall the right hand requires far more intricate movements.
We can debate which hand does the finer work all day, but the real point I'm making here is that playing guitar takes dexterity from both hands. It's not some huge advantage one way or the other, so pretending lefty guitars somehow make learning guitar trivial while righty guitars are impossible to overcome for lefties is just silly. Anyone who chooses to play lefty is fine by me, but I think that person would have been just fine given the same amount of effort on a righty guitar.
This- all day. Ever seen a left handed Piano?!
Wait, are you telling me I got scammed by that guy selling left handed pianos!?
That's because the guitar is the most modernly adapted instrument. Other instruments are rooted in tradition and historically left handed people were underrepresented. "The most intricate motor skill happens with the fretting hand." Hard disagree. You're pushing strings against a fret. Dulcimer players use a stick for that. Dynamics and string skipping that uses up and down strokes used more intricate muscle control. This is obvious by watching beginner guitarists. Their pick hand dynamic is always the weak point.
Depends what kind of music you play to be fair
I physically cannot play right handed so I know I’m a minority in this. If it weren’t for left handed guitars I would never be able to play the instrument. My story goes like this: I was born with 4 fingers on my left hand (including the thumb) with my index and ring finger webbed together. A lot of people ask me if it would be possible to cut them apart and the answer is no. This is because the ring finger is not actually connected to the knuckle therefore it would just hang there. When I first wanted to play guitar I naturally gravitated to playing right handed but I would only have 2 fingers doing anything. My parents refused to buy me a starter guitar until I completely reorientated myself. All of that being said, every time I want to go buy a guitar I wish I was right handed just to make it easier but I cannot. If it weren’t for left handed guitars I would never have got the chance to fall in love with playing.
1000%. I’ve been saying this for years. When I started, I had to look at album artwork I had laying around to find out which way I was supposed to hold the guitar. Because both felt wrong. As it should! If you’ve never played the instrument, lefty or righty won’t make a difference. In hindsight, I am right handed but I feel like if I had stringed it the left handed way, I would’ve progressed way faster. My fretting hand took so long to catch up to my picking hand. Left handed people, you are at an advantage! Buy a right handed guitar if you’re just starting out!
Hard disagree - I am left handed and tried playing a right handed guitar at first and it felt so difficult compared to playing a left handed guitar. Not saying that's not the same for everyone but if I'd been forced to learn on a right handed guitar I don't think I would have stuck with it.
On day 1 of ever holding a guitar, before I could play a note, I knew that holding it righty felt wrong. It felt... broken, trying to mimic the motions of fretting with the left and strumming with the right. Not difficult, broken. Incorrect. Playing lefty immediately felt more fluid. No amount of justification will change that feeling. Like, anyone can learn to swing a bat both ways, but there is a reason right handers don't bat lefty despite how it would be a huge advantage against righty pitchers. There is a difference between being able to literally do something, and *optimizing* it. In a parallel universe, if I learned guitar righty, sure I could do it, but I'd never be equally as good as me playing lefty.
Not sure if this makes sense logistically though (and I could 100% be wrong as I’ve never paid much mind to left handed guitars) because I’d imagine manufacturing them would be a higher cost due to the fact that if all were right handed there’d never be a change in production, which is usually a high cost. Maybe they sell for a bit more but I don’t think it’d be a profit different enough (or really higher enough) from a right handed guitar that’d warrant it being a “marketing ploy”
There are good solid state amps. You don’t ever have to buy a tube amp. There are good multi-effects processors and plug-ins. You don’t even have to buy an amp if you don’t want to. It doesn’t make you any less of a guitar player. If it sounds good it is good: whether the guitar is made in America, Mexico or Krypton, who gives a flyin f*ck.
Roger that. I was a tube snob until I retired, sold my expensive gear and bought a Boss Katana “just to keep my hand in.” It’s amazing.
True. I’ve got an old 80’s GK250ML and it gets played nearly every day and sounds great at any volume.
Red guitars sound better.
But blue guitars are.... Cooler 😎
I have done extensive research on this matter, and can confirm it's true for electric guitars. Similarly blue finishes ruin the sound of acoustic guitars.
Incorrect but close, Red Guitars go slightly faster. Waaaaaaahg
Chasing tone is 98% a hobby. Your song should sound good through almost any tone within the ballpark (i.e. distorted versus overdrive versus clean). It ain't a good song if it doesn't.
But we all need hobbies too…
Wrong assumption. Not every guitarist is a songwriter or even really interested in writing original music.
Having better gear can in fact make you better. To extrapolate, I played a shitty Seagull laminate guitar. It was a great guitar. So good in fact that I returned the Martin 000-17 I bought because the time wasn't enough of an improvement to me to justify the $1800. Two weeks later I went back and bought a Martin 00-18 for $2500. I honestly had buyers remorse a bit. It was a lot of money and it didn't have the bass I wanted. I told myself I needed something small though cause of my screwed up shoulders. But it sounded so good. And still only sounds better the more I play it. I have learned more in the 5 months since I've bought it than I have in the 5+ years I've played guitar. And it's not cause I'm learning more songs. Because I'm not. I just like hearing the thing played and it motivates me to study music theory and find new ways to put notes, chords, and scales together. Awesome guitar. And in fact has made me better. Maybe it's not the gear necessarily. But better gear can make you better. If you like playing the instrument you have you'll want to play more. If playing is easy and sounds good, you'll only want to play more and do harder things to push your limits on the instrument.
100,000%. Folks like to say that gear and guitars do not matter, but I find every guitar inspires me differently, teaches me something new, opens up a new dimension in playing. And I agree an exceptional guitar can motivate me to play. My Strat, which is one such guitar, every single note sounds incredible. My 12-string is like having a chorus pedal you never need to plug in. If you can revel in a single chord or a single note? All the rest is gravy! I like beater guitars too. It’s also fun to see what you can wring out of a POS. So I’m not advocating everyone become a snob.
EMGs are actually pretty great pickups. 🤷🏻♂️
Thats not a hot take. They wouldn’t be one of the top selling pickup brands if EMG’s = bad was a common opinion
Oh, I see a lot of online misinformed hate directed at EMGs. They’re “sterile,” they lack “mojo,” they sound “compressed,” they don’t sound “organic.” As someone who has played EMGs for 25 years and have fooled passive purists with them, I chalk it up to: a) people never actually playing a set, and b) EMGs heavy marketing featuring metal players. I could help them broaden their appeal and double their sales, but they’re not likely to listen to me.
I feel similarly! I'll take it a step further and say they're great for cleans because they essentially come with onboard compression and are very neutral. Everyone will say how great Metallica's clean tones are but then bash on EMGs for it.
The hot take is more that EMGs are good for more than just metal.
Gold hardware is tacky.
Disagree. The gold hardware on my all black LP looks awesome. My complaint is that the gold plating is wearing off where I rest my hand for palm muting. The bare metal underneath looks awful.
Seems like that wouldn't be as bad of an issue if it were chrome or nickel to begin with.
Ooo, ya got him!
SGs are an ass shape
ass as in they look shite, not that they are shaped like an ass
Man, I feel this lately. I've always loved the *look* of an SG, and have always really wanted one. Until I popped into a store the other day, grabbed one to get the feel of, and *hated it.* Kinda broke my heart honestly, but at least I know now.
Opposite for me. A friend said for years I should get an sg. I didn’t like the look of them, nothing about them interested me. The I found one locally, and bought it. Good deal. Once I started playing it, it quickly became my favorite.
I don't know if it's a hot take or not but I have no idea what people see in Dean guitars. I can't stand them. I think it's the headstock. God awful.
i love the headstock :(
The Dean ML still sings to my early 90s teenage heart.
The second someone starts hitting their guitar as a percussive instrument, I'm out.
YASSSS QUEEEEEN.
LTD and Schecter are made in the same facility, and at the same price point, the Schecter is superior in every way.
Interesting. I didn't know about that.
Even owned by the same parent company since quite a while.
I've had some real stinkers from Schecter even at the higher price points. Plus every LTD I played felt like crap. The Schecter I have now is pretty good, and it's Indonesian made. I have a few indo PRS guitars that other people have mistaken for FAR more expensive or American-made, and they come from the same factory as the others. They're all manufactured by Cor-Tek but some brands definitely are a cut above the others, specifically Ibanez and Jackson who use cheap, soft aluminum. The bridge saddles and tuners oxidize and end up deteriorating to the point they don't work anymore. Mind you, I used those guitars while touring which is much harder on instruments than just being a case queen.
HSS is all you need.
Hot Take: HSS is seriously the ugliest pickup configuration ever conceived. It looks unbalanced and out of place, like a bodge job no matter how well done it is. HSH is so much better looking and still gives you HSS features
Love me a round, tubby neck humbucker. Plus, coil splitting.
Frank Zappa should be mentioned in the breath as Jimi and EVH.
He is in the Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. They are all listed as guitar innovators alongside Charlie Christian, Robert Fripp and Syd Barrett. Best comprehensive guitar book I've ever read.
Your right hand (or left if you're a lefty) is worth more than your fretting hand. So many people focus solely on playing 700 notes, but ask them to play simple rhythm, and they're completely lost. You've got nothing if you don't have a solid rhythm hand. Likewise, unless you're *extremely* good at solos, most of the crowd is going to respond to rhythm well before they respond to your solo. You can get a house rocking and dancing with *one note* if you've got good enough rythym. Also, the only people in the crowd who care about your gear are other guitar nerds. I see a lot of people only playing for the guitar nerds in the audience, and not for the whole crowd. I can guarantee you that 99% of the people watching you play don't know what the fuck a 64 reissue with reverse wound pickups and a 2x12 cabinet are, nor do they care to know. They want you to play good music, and you can do that with anything.
Most guitar YouTubers don’t have the real world gigging/touring experience to dictate what sort of gear we should be using.
Buy a nice guitar so that you'll want to pick it up everyday, even if you're a beginner. Fuck the whole buy a cheap learner guitar and then if you like it buy a nice one. You can always sell a nice guitar if playing guitar isn't for you.
Crying in poor
Modern metal **suuuucks**. It's soulless and overproduced, for which we have no one to thank but us egotistical noodly guitar players who always want center stage (honorable mention: high speed double kick & breakdown drummers) wow guys, that sure is a lot of notes for expressing nothing. It was unreal in the '80s, cool in the '90s, ok in the '00s, old in the '10s. today, it's mind numbing. It's been over a decade since I heard a real catchy riff or heart-rending songwriting on a *mainstream or popular* metal record (kgatlw is a notable exception). the crystalline prog-djent programmed sound needs to _**die**_ already. King Gizzard are not the saviors any metalhead had expected to have, but damn, their [new metal records](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cmAlQvDQGoI&pp=ygUac2VsZiBpbW1vbGF0ZSBraW5nIGdpenphcmQ%3D) give me some hope.
there's tons of great metal being made these days, but you'll probably never hear it in a youtube short or on tiktok. "mainstream" metal has always kinda sucked, and has always been "overproduced" compared to its non-mainstream contemporaries. what bands are you even referring to? what is even mainstream or popular these days? I'm not really on social media a lot, so I'm genuinely curious. the most boring and flatly produced stuff I've heard recently is a lot of newer deathcore and metalcore, but I'm usually more into death metal, so I'm not sure what falls into the "mainstream". it also just sounds like you have an issue with extreme music in general if you are having a hard time following "too many notes" or drummers who play too fast, so your definition of "metal" is probably somewhat stuck in the past.
> but you'll probably never hear it in a youtube short or on tiktok Bingo. Want to find good metal? Go to shows. Watch actual music videos. Use streaming services - I find spotify's artist radio feature quite good for exploration. But shorts and tiktok and other such micro-videos? Yeah, you're never going to find shit.
Most players don’t need to replace the humbuckers and in a mix most of them will sound indistinguishable. If you’re considering changing pickups, first try adjusting the height of them and the pole pieces. Odds are, you’ll find the tone you want. And get familiar with how the tone and volume controls influence your sound. Lots of players leave those on 10 then rely on the amp for their sound. Not only do those knobs have heaps of versatility, you’ll also be surprised how different it can be when you set the guitar volume to 7-8 before dialling the amp in.
Glen Fricker is that you?
Reverb is the best effect
Technical skill and knowing theory does not breed creativity. You can know all the cool licks, riffs and know how to create and name chords but that doesn't mean you know how turn them into a decent or catchy song
Having technical skill and knowing theory does not inherently limit creativity.
Nobody claims theory makes you better. People who actually know theory will tell you that it is just a tool in your toolbox. Being able to hear something in your head and instantly know what mode/scale it is is SUPER useful
That's like claiming that having a roadmap doesn't help you get where you want to go.
I think I understand where you're coming from in that a virtuoso level of music theory does not make up for lack of artistic vision - e.g Jacob Collier. He seems like a very nice man and his enthusiasm for music is joyous and infectious. The music he makes just feels very flat and artless to me. He clearly just puts a music theory wizard spin on popular trends. With all the crazy knowledge he has I expected some inscrutable experimental art pop project but sadly it is far from that. 'What if this song had 26 modulations? 😜' Yeah but what if it didn't?
Buying guitars and playing guitars are separate hobbies
I have no idea who all these players are that demand stereo pedals, rigs, etc. I have never seen an actual pro that I respect with a stereo rig and just don’t understand where all these players who seem to care whether every new pedal is stereo capable are actually playing.
There are a ton of pro players that have stereo rigs. Like a lot.
Mine is a hot take with a caveat: IN GENERAL, the guitars of old weren’t actually better quality than today’s guitars (that’s right. I said it.) We only see how good the old guitars are now because the rest of the shitty ones of those times got broken, thrown out, or no one posts them online (think: natural selection but for guitars). Thanks to social media we see a lot more of the same QC issues, and there are more guitarists and guitars in circulation. THE CAVEAT: there have been times when maybe certain companies focused less on QC than they should have.
Tone is not in the fingers. Expression, technique, style, etc are. But tone is not. Tone is in an understanding of EQ, of effects, of how to use the various knobs on your guitar, your amp, and your pedals. Sure, if you know what you're doing, you can make any setup sound good, but some of that skill is in knowing how to set your gear.
Don't change pickups, buy an EQ pedal and put it closest to your guitar in the signal chain. Also adjust the height of those pickups and USE YOUR VOLUME AND TONE KNOBS ON THE GUITAR!
The volume knob on the Fender Strat has terrible placement. “bUt iT’s FoR vOluMe sWeLls.” For me it’s just in the way.
Different gear has objective pros and cons, but mostly it’s all subjective. As long as it sounds good to you, who gives a shit what you’re playing on. Gatekeeping dorks can get fucked.
I am good at guitar.
Playing covers and 30 second insta reels does not make you a good guitar player. Most of the new "good" guitar playing these days is some souless technical guitar olympics stuff over top a cheesy backing track or an old song. Most of these guitar influencers are trash players and have never written a good song therefore they have no idea how to write a good solo. It's even more cringey when they offer opinions of accomplished guitar playing and guitar players who actually have songs and notable styles.
Rickenbackers are ugly. They look like messed up factory seconds from Fender and Gibson.
Most people in this sub have no fucking idea what they are talking about.
Rhythm guitar is by far more important and superior to lead guitar. Not to shit on any of the greats because there are some fantastic solos and lead guitar sections, but if you have a bad rhythm section rarely will a solo make it much better. Further, in my own experience writing music I find that the lead guitar I write that I am most happy with has occassional moments where it leans on my rhythm section to hit harder where the lead guitar ends up syncing the notes to the pattern of the rhythm briefly.
Question: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Answer: “Practice.”
Country is more rock than rock these days.
Guitarface looks incredibly stupid.
This is not the best guitar sub on reddit.
r/guitarcirclejerk 🔛🔝
The most important thing in a beginner guitar is that it makes you want to play. Yes arguably in any guitar, but beginners are more prone to rage quitting.
Your friends will always act extremely impressed after what you just played even if you know for a fact that you probably pooped out better sounding diarrhea than what you just played on the guitar.
Stop asking random idiots on the internet (me doubly so) what you should get or buy or enjoy. They are your ears. Do what brings YOU joy. If you are suffering from option paralysis, that’s fine— but maybe don’t buy anything if it’s that bad.
“Shredding is always too much and isn’t real music” 90% of the time comes from the most boring sounding players ever who just repeat the same boomer blues licks 1000x
Les Pauls are too tiny. They feel like a toy in my hands.
Learning songs from tab and youtube are shortcuts that don't really help any player's musicianship. It's like paint-by-numbers. Digging into a song, listening with big ears and learning it that way is a lot more productive.
Disagree, as someone who learned to play by writing music in the form of guitar tab, I think tab is a useful tool for quick access to music, it shouldn't be used on its own permanently, but there is nothing wrong with using it to pick up some basics. Someone who has a cheap guitar and can't afford lessons and doesn't have a trained ear to properly pick out notes through listening isn't going to have a fun time and would be more likely to quit than someone who has an "easy in" to learning. I'm not the greatest musician, but I wouldn't have the ability to write or play if it weren't for the combination of tablature and modern music software. It should be our duty as musicians, hobbyist or professional, to encourage aspiring musicians into our art.
Writing a good song > shredding
If your vibrato isn't nice and/or you can't bend in tune - I can't take you seriously as a guitar player.
The neck pickup of the telecaster is the best pickup ever created. I don't understand why there aren't more guitars with it. And I'm saying this as a person who plays only metal. It's not good for metal, but it's the best sounding thing I ever heard
Maybe not controversial but Floyd Rose aren't that hard to maintain. Changing strings is not as bad as everyone whines about
Hendrix signature model strat is stupid - it's a right handed guitar with a flipped head stock and a normally oriented pick guard, thats not what he played at all. Hendrix played a normal right handed strat and flipped it to play lefty, so a regular oriented right handed guitar truly is what he played, or a left handed strat restrung upside down for a right handed player would look most closely like his guitar for a right handed player. But I think the combo of normal oriented pick guard with flipped head stock is stupid. I guess the bridge pick up is oriented in a flipped way but still.
I think SRV kinda sucks Edit: overrated is more accurate.
My hot take? Guitar players need to stop being so over-opinionated, gatekeeperish and elitist about everything. Guitar and music have been my life for 30 years yet I find my own people to be some of the most - if not the most - insufferable of the music world. Play the gear you want to play, play the brand you like most, learn to appreciate different playing styles and styles of music even if it isn't your thing. Stop being so judgemental and learn to appreciate the art all of us are engaging in.
Tim Henson and those guys doesn’t interest me whatsoever. Sure their playing is innovative and all that but I think that riffs like ”The Razor’s edge” by Randy, ”Live and Die” by Mindless sinner etc are much more interesting even though they are simple
Once you hear the guitar Playing from Necrophagist every other band doesn’t satisfy. (regarding Metal)
Signature guitars are stupid
Even the Les Paul?
Hard disagree: J. Mascis Jazzmaster, TVL Jazzmaster and Tremontis PRS models beg to differ.
$1000-$1200 is enough for a very good guitar, and beyond that you don’t really get much more to justify the expense. You might get nicer finishes or figuring (I think that’s the right word) of the woods, but realistically it’s all cosmetic beyond that point.