Played electric guitar "live" for the first time in years last night...

Armistice

Armistice

Son of Yoda
The other half of our acoustic pop duo rustled up a bass player and drummer and so we rented a rehearsal studio and had a bit of a go with the full monty, sound wise....

I thought, two acoustic guitars just ain't gonna cut it, so I took an electric and my amp along..

Awesome, but fuck they're fiddly things to play when you're used to dealing with an acoustic. I'll have to go up a gauge in strings... felt like I was playing a toy.

I use them to record all the time, but it's different when you're in a band situation.

Plus I was astonished at how loud my 30W tube amp is. Got it all the way up to 1 on the clean channel and that was heaps loud enough to play along with a full kit of drums...

Fun though! :)
 
miroslav said:
That's how I feel about acoustic guitars since I'm more use to dealing with electrics. :D
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It was the string tension and gauge - I don't exactly have heavy strings on acoustics, 13s, but I don't just strum, I play reasonably complex picked stuff and lead, so I found playing a PRS with that mid scale length and probably 10s on it a little light in comparison and was tripping over myself a bit, but got more used to it as the night went on.

I always used to use 11s, even on a strat scale length, so perhaps I'll head up a gauge...

Nice to make some serious noise again though...
 
That's cool. :guitar:

I like your acoustic work. You play well, sir.
Makes me wish I had 10 fingers again. :D

And yeah, 30 watts of tube amp has some oomph. I've been checkin out the Blackheart 40 watt (venue series, I think) and almost talked myself into it.
All I need is for one of the other voices in my head to OK it and I'm in. :)
 
Armistice said:
It was the string tension and gauge - I don't exactly have heavy strings on acoustics, 13s, but I don't just strum, I play reasonably complex picked stuff and lead, so I found playing a PRS with that mid scale length and probably 10s on it a little light in comparison and was tripping over myself a bit, but got more used to it as the night went on.

I always used to use 11s, even on a strat scale length, so perhaps I'll head up a gauge...

Nice to make some serious noise again though...
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, I can play acoustic OK...it's just not the same feel as an electric, but then, when I do need to play acoustic, I don't try to play it like an electric, I stick to basic stuff and most times it's for some additional rhythm/chords...though I have on occasion played lead lines too when the song called for it.
I can't play full bar chords on acoustic for hours on end like I could on an electric. Maybe if I played it more often I could, but my hands are not as strong as they use to be in my twenties...:) ...and I also think I'm starting to get some middle-age arthritis in some of the joints. I know my mother had very early onset of arthiritis...so I guess I'm not goiing to dodge the genetics, but I've got plenty of playing time left.

I'm a bit more of a wuss on the string gauge for acoustics, so I stay at 12s, but on my electrics I play mostly 10s, though I've played 11s too and am stringing a couple of my electrics with 11s again just to have the tonal variety.
I also tend to play electric on the hard side...meaning I like to dig-in when I'm fingering notes and I like to "work the string", not just with bends, but also with various pressures and whatnot to get different flavors...so the 10s are just right for me.

Mostly though, as you say, I like making serious noise...so that's why I'm more into the electrics. :D
 
moresound said:
Straight guitar into the amp or did you have a few peddles?
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Ran it through my GT10. As I'd never used that with electric before in a band situation I spent a bit of time on the weekend making a few basic patches to get a "middlier" sound happening, knowing that the acoustic patches wouldn't translate, but I didn't really have time to think through the songs and what I'd play on electric as opposed to acoustic, so I was winging it a bit.

Some of the songs worked really well with electric, bass and drums, some were bit meh... we'll see where we go from here. The other half of the existing Jongleurs, Richard, wants to do the full band thing, but this drummer and bassplayer hadn't met each other before last night, and aren't a package deal, and i didn't get a vibe from either that they wanted to be "in a band" but I could be wrong...

More work for me if it goes this way... I'm running out of time as it is.. too much to do.

DOGBREATH - this is one of the voices in your head.... DO IT DO IT DO IT... :)

I think we should be taking our style direction from Insane Clown Posse... where do you get that makeup from? Perhaps kc knows.... :laughings:
 
miroslav said:
..and I also think I'm starting to get some middle-age arthritis in some of the joints. I know my mother had very early onset of arthiritis...so I guess I'm not goiing to dodge the genetics, but I've got plenty of playing time left.

I'm a bit more of a wuss on the string gauge for acoustics, so I stay at 12s, but on my electrics I play mostly 10s, though I've played 11s too and am stringing a couple of my electrics with 11s again just to have the tonal variety.
I also tend to play electric on the hard side...meaning I like to dig-in when I'm fingering notes and I like to "work the string", not just with bends, but also with various pressures and whatnot to get different flavors...so the 10s are just right for me.
Click to expand...

There's a few tunes where I play lead on acoustic fairly high up on the frets, 10 - 15 or thereabouts, which takes a bit of finger/wrist grunt as you'd imagine, trying to translate that to electric last night was the trickiest bit, the strings felt so thin and loose. I'll get used to it. I've always had a tendency to play harder on electric than I need to...

I've a chronically bad right wrist but it's settled down a bit over the last couple of years... no arthritis PTL... my hands don't look much, but you wouldn't want them round your throat, after all these years of acousticking... :)
 
jimmys69 said:
You did record this right? I myself would love to hear it. :)
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The other guy had his portable pocket size Boss recorder with him so we tried that... haven't heard the output yet, but suspect it'll be all drums... small room.... when he cuts it up and sends me something I'll post it up (if it's tolerable!)
 
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