A thread dedicated to the discussion of all the aspects of guitar playing. This is a second, if not the third incarnation of the given thread.

A quick question : does one have to re-adjust the scale after changing the tuning ?

Nice to see, hope we can make this thread live up to its name. If so, it won't be because of my scintillating contributions, but still...

As to your question: I guess scales are relative to tunings to the extent that the fingerings shift on the re-tuned strings so that, for instance, in Drop D, notes played on the sixth string would be shifted up 2 frets...right? Of course, if you just went all SOAD and tuned ALL the strings up or down, the scale shapes would stay the same. Correct me if I'm wrong, guitarists.

Strangely, given my love of all things metal, I haven't had my guitar in Drop D since a couple of years ago when I got a yen to learn "Gold Dust Woman" for some reason...yeah, I know, classic rawk...

You are totally right, VikingBeer. Scales are about the relationship certain notes have with each other no matter the key. If you drop all your strings, then it'll be the same, but if you mess around with Drop-D and such, then the shapes will indeed change. Figuring this kind of thing out if great practice!

If you're in kesslers tuning or Tosin tuning then it's going to be a bit different.


Both are 7 string tunings.

Kesslers is used by TesseracT , strings 1-3 are tuned a halfstep down and strings 4-6 are tuned a half step up, 7th string is dropped to A#.


Tosin tuning is named after Tosin Abasi which basically invented the tuning. Strings 1-6 are in drop D, 7th string is B.


Making the 7th string B gives a wide variety of odd chords you can play around with. Just to explain, a standard power chord would be a full step and string down apart. A power chord in drop D would be barred, a power chord with the 7th string in B would be two full steps and a string down apart.

As you can imagine, interesting tunings which would kind of change the way you would have to play the scale.

I personally love odd chords so Tosin tuning is a favorite of mine right now.

I have a question about my amp: Spider III. I assume it's a fairly common question, but whatever. Anyway, I've been a bit of a stickler about my tone of late particularly at louder volumes at band practice. Right now my amp is set up pretty much for Metal, scooped-mids and whatnot. I believe the exact knob settings are: Gain - around 3 or 4; Bass - around noon (5 or 6ish); Mids - 2 or 3; Treble noonish (5 or 6). To me it sounds a wee bit thin and too distorted for what I want at the volume level I use at practice, which is about 5-6. No matter what I seem to turn it too, it sounds just too distorted. Maybe it's because I'm listening to the sound of 2 loud guitars in a basement, I don't know. It also sounds a little thin for soloing, but it's possible I need another channel with a warmer, cleaner sound. So, is there anything that I can do to maintain a balance between a heavier distortion and yet be clean enough to hear everything? The tone I'm looking for is along the lines of a Thrash or Death Metal sound (like Metallica, Sepultura, Death). I'm not asking for a particular knob setting, but I'm just looking for some advice on the balance, like I mentioned earlier.

None of the thrash/death bands scooped their mids in the 80ies (maybe Metallica but they pretty much had no bass on their records instead). Back in those days the bands actually boosted the mids, all the attack and clarity lies i the mids.

About the amp I don´t know, I´ve heard Line6 in general and the Spider in particular are pretty bad amps.

Maybe I'll reconsider scooping the mids. Thank you for the input.

As for the amp, it doesn't seem as bad as people claim, but I have yet to go out and buy a tube amp or any other amp.

Quick question for you guys.
I'm looking into buying a tube amp sometime soon.
I was looking at the 6505+ and the XXX, but I saw that Bugera has modeled amps off of these.
Are Bugeras worth me looking into them?

Accept no imitations!!! Seriously though, the Peavey will sound much better. If your thinking of going valve have you considered trying to find a second hand head and cab? Personally I would reccommend the 5150 MK 1 as they are loud and crunchy as fuck, especially with mesa valves.

I want to buy a new guitar.. but i don't know if i'll buy a good thing or a bad thing as well.. I want to buy a Jackson RR3 with EMG caps by 1428 dollars. And i want to buy the LTD Alexi Laiho with the LTD pickups by 807 dollars. So , if i buy the Jackson i will be without money. And if i buy the LTD Alexi Laiho , i can buy the Alexi Laiho EMG pickups , and buy a new pedal.
So , what is better ?

What strings of 12-52 gauge would one suggest ? I am mostly looking for stainless steel strings. I expect sharp and "poisonous" sound.

Well, I personally use the Dean Markley Blue Steels, I found them better than D'Addario, but I haven't gone much further than that.
I've found them to last a little longer as well. The steel strings will always sound sharp and bright, not sure if it makes a huge difference in sound compared because the others just use a nickel coating anyway.

Now I've got a question...

My guitar strings buzz/vibrate when I'm playing things up around the 8th fret +

Would it be better to raise my bridge or to give the neck a little more releif? I thought it would be better to just raise the bridge, but I'm not 100% sure..

There are several possible explanations :

* You might need to adjust the trussrod.
* You might need to have your neck repaired.
* You might need to get thicker strings, to maintain tension if you play in tunings bellow standard.

Just raised my bridge a bit and it's fine now. It's in standard tuning so the heavy bottom light top strings should be fine.

I think I was just trying to set my action toooo low

Buy the ESP, it is a better guitar as-is, then change the pickup if needed. Alternately, put the $600+ towards a better amp if you don't already have a good one.

What exactly is "scooping" EQ? I've played guitar for about 3 years now and have no idea what it means. My amp is a Crate combo that does pretty good. I use the high gain channel with the gain at a 9.5 and the shape at about 6 or 7. I take the low down to about a 3, mids to a 5 and high all the way up. It makes for a tone that kills everything in it's path.

Lately I've been jamming random death metal and learning Frantic Disembowelment as well as improvising blues and whatnot. Frantic Disembowelment is a LOT easier than it was a year ago and now I don't have any trouble with it except for the really fast sliding riff.

So, scooping?

Looking to buy a new axe with about a thousand dollar budget, any suggestions? Looking in particular at some BC Rich Biches

You advised me last year for my guitar, now it's my turn

Any BC Rich NJ Deluxe (as long as the shape is available for it) should be good, mahogany body (I think), EMG 81 85, Original Floyd Rose, ebony fingerboard, neck-thru construction, unless you dislike Floyd Rose. Or you can buy a Schecter Hellraiser, but I think the model I own (V1) is discontinued, I don't see it on their website anymore. You might find the C-1 around though, especially at Penin.

What tunings do you guys normally use?

I usually keep it simple with E and D, but occasionally use C and Ab.

Eb is where I'm at.
I have a floyd rose and it really pisses me off when I want to play something not in Eb, takes forever to retune (I've got a second shitty guitar that I can tune to whatever, I leave it in E for practicing/playing chord stuff)

Luckily most of my favorite bands are Eb

I tune to E, Eb, and D for the vast majority of the time. It feels weird to go much lower than D with the gauge of strings I use.

Usually C# for death metal, otherwise my Warlock is usually a step down. My Les Paul is always in standard.

Standard for black metal, D and C# for death metal; standard with 7 strings for progressive stuff.

Hey everyone of the guitar thread! I have a question regarding picking technique. Recently I learned the song "My Last Attack" by Holy Grail. (The video for the song is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEMLthMBDF4). When I learned the song, I can only play the intro cleanly and keep up with them if I don't pick each note, probably because my picking technique is not where it should be. How do you guys practice your picking technique? Thanks fellow guitarists!

My picking technique was always something I considered a weak point.

Still, here are a few techniques I use to get up to speed:

1) The most important thing for me is being able to cross strings cleanly, without noise. So it really doesn't matter as much what I play, as long as it involves scaling across strings. Once that technique is smoother, it flows to other things I try to play. Even doing chromatic runs helps a bit.

2) Take 3 or 4 weeks, and simply stop doing hammer-ons and pull-offs. For most guitar players that's easy stuff anyway. Try simply eliminating that from your practice routine for awhile. It forces you out of your comfort zone.

3) Start slow, stay slow, until it's clean. Use a metronome if you have to. Resist the urge to go faster than you can, until you can do it cleanly. Work up slowly. This is a tip that I say, but have trouble doing

4) Start with smaller, 2-string patterns and work up from there. You don't have to jump into monster scales that run over all 6 strings right away. Get some really neat 2-string note patterns down first.

Hope this helps. As I say, picking technique has always been a challenge for me, but these are some things I do to work on it. I'm sure others have more ideas.

I keep my guitar in Bb nowadays. Planning on getting a baritone guitar one day.


Already mentioned, but a metronome is really useful. Start slow, and use a clean sound so that you aren't tempted to cover up your mistakes. That's how I practise. Set your metronome slow, and make sure you can play the bit perfectly five times in a row before bumping it up a few BPM.

i've been playing guitar for almost 6 months now.... and are there any exercises to FOCUS on metal?

What exactly is meant by Drop D tuning 2 steps down?
Cause I thought it was D-G-C-F-A-D which I've found out is D-Tuning!

Not sure but could it be C-G-C-F-A-D? I recall drop tuning means the first three strings make a power chord when openly strummed.

Well, just techniques and rhythm really.

Play scales like the Minor Pentatonic, the seven modes, especially the Aeolian (Minor Scale, also learn Harmonic Minor Scale), Lydian (Major Scale), and Locrian. The Chromatic Scale is awesome too and can help because Metal has chromatic riffs such as the intro to Master of Puppets. Riffs/melodies pretty much come from scales.

For rhythm stuff, play power chords and palm mutes as well as minor 3rds (inverted power chords), major 3rds, perfect 4ths (double stops), and minor 6ths (Like power chords, except one interval higher from the perfect fifth.)

And just learn other songs by your favorite bands!

It is C-G-C-F-A-D

Well, I've been meaning to pick up my guitar, hence the best song for standar tuning thread.
I've noticed that my picking has always been so lame.
I'm doing some exercises now to improve it.

Any exercises you guys do to improve your technique?

Picking it down--down--down-up-down-up-down--down--down-up-down-up-down--down--down-up-down-up-down--down--down--down

I use it to learn how to relax my arm while playing thrashy rythms

Thaks!

Could you recommend me some strings?
I broke a couple of 'em...
And I need to keep the thrash!

I use elixir strings, a bit more expensive but they last a lot longer (for me at least)

I find myself in Standard D most of the time. Ever since I was introduced to Death's Symbolic I haven't been able to get away from it.

After I started learning a bunch of Death songs my new standard tuning was a step down.

What if you want to play both songs in E and D standard? I don't think tuning your guitar from E to D and vice verca each day is a good idea, is it?

If I wanted to play songs in E standard, I played them in D standard. I don't give a fuck.

And how do they sound?
Are they good?

You know because something lasting longer doesn't neccesarily means its good
On my other guitar I got a set of Gibson's strings, it is an Epiphone mini Les Paul.
This is a Kelly Jackson with a set of EMG active pickups... Does that change anything about which strings should I buy?