Chris of Arabia
Desert RATT
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
Being crap...
Being crap...
Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
- Thread starter Christopher Caruana
- Start date
That90'sGuy
DyzaBoyzologist
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
Flat picking. I'm so used to strumming or doing lead playing that it becomes difficult thinking of lead picking as a rhythm section.
Flat picking. I'm so used to strumming or doing lead playing that it becomes difficult thinking of lead picking as a rhythm section.
Diminished Triad
New member
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
I try my best to treat the band and performers like we should treat them....they are the stars.
The best sound men can remain unnoticed....except by the band of course!
Keeping 5-10 musicians/singers perfectly EQ'd while remembering the specific dynamics of each performance is not easy.
But it's lots easier than playing the guitar at the level expected of a true professional. Those who can, do. Those who can't.......can still become sound engineers and have a blast!
I agree. And that's why I became one!
I try my best to treat the band and performers like we should treat them....they are the stars.
The best sound men can remain unnoticed....except by the band of course!
Keeping 5-10 musicians/singers perfectly EQ'd while remembering the specific dynamics of each performance is not easy.
But it's lots easier than playing the guitar at the level expected of a true professional. Those who can, do. Those who can't.......can still become sound engineers and have a blast!
Vasshu the humanoid typhoon
Unseen
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
My lack of intrest in playing with others anymore.....
I also learn slowly at times.....that one is down to the lack of real focus on the matter at hand...
Mainly because I think I suck, there is always something that needs work....like I do not have plenty of that as it is!!
Playing way more acoustic again, has somehow made my lack of focus take the second row, it is like reading a book, not just skimming it like when I play electric, I dig deeper without thinking, and get some sort of playing back in order!
That is also why I got bored by playing electric only.
A change in my listening to music have also improved on my playing.
Have always had a wide musical taste, and these days I do not listen to much guitarbased music anymore.
Trying to strike a balance there now!
Don't have any crazy dreams anymore either, I have finally just given in to just playing for the pleasure of it!
Took me a few decades haha!
But really it is the lack of talent, focus, and the need to work hard for it!
I cannot kick myself into doing that...I get bored and loose intrest very fast.
Having admitted that, I got some freedom of the mind, and it helped alot!
So now I just play because it is fun, I know that I will never be very good, and nor do I care anymore!
My lack of intrest in playing with others anymore.....
I also learn slowly at times.....that one is down to the lack of real focus on the matter at hand...
Mainly because I think I suck, there is always something that needs work....like I do not have plenty of that as it is!!
Playing way more acoustic again, has somehow made my lack of focus take the second row, it is like reading a book, not just skimming it like when I play electric, I dig deeper without thinking, and get some sort of playing back in order!
That is also why I got bored by playing electric only.
A change in my listening to music have also improved on my playing.
Have always had a wide musical taste, and these days I do not listen to much guitarbased music anymore.
Trying to strike a balance there now!
Don't have any crazy dreams anymore either, I have finally just given in to just playing for the pleasure of it!
Took me a few decades haha!
But really it is the lack of talent, focus, and the need to work hard for it!
I cannot kick myself into doing that...I get bored and loose intrest very fast.
Having admitted that, I got some freedom of the mind, and it helped alot!
So now I just play because it is fun, I know that I will never be very good, and nor do I care anymore!
Pierre
Stratologist
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
I have a similar, but exact opposite story Niels
Turns out that I barely ever play now. Once a month at most. No time, amd no discipline, but above all, absolutely 0 interest in becoming 'good' or 'better'. I am the least competitive person on the planet and I also never saw interest in bettering myself at, well, anything really.
I do love lutherie, and I'll continue to appreciate and possess beautiful instruments (got a custom Waghorn on order to test out the fanned-frets concept). But I know damn well I'm a hopeless player and I'm perfectly ok with it.
I am taking lessons now, for the first time in 10 years; maybe it'll help!
I have a similar, but exact opposite story Niels
Turns out that I barely ever play now. Once a month at most. No time, amd no discipline, but above all, absolutely 0 interest in becoming 'good' or 'better'. I am the least competitive person on the planet and I also never saw interest in bettering myself at, well, anything really.
I do love lutherie, and I'll continue to appreciate and possess beautiful instruments (got a custom Waghorn on order to test out the fanned-frets concept). But I know damn well I'm a hopeless player and I'm perfectly ok with it.
I am taking lessons now, for the first time in 10 years; maybe it'll help!
InbredJunk
New member
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
For me it's the inability to leave well enough alone. I am constantly modifying my amps and guitars. From changing caps, speakers and tubes in my amps to changing bridges, tuners, pickups, wiring on my guitars. I know what has worked really well for me in the past. I have achieved my ideal guitar sound, and I know how to get back to it, but I just can't stop experimenting.
For me it's the inability to leave well enough alone. I am constantly modifying my amps and guitars. From changing caps, speakers and tubes in my amps to changing bridges, tuners, pickups, wiring on my guitars. I know what has worked really well for me in the past. I have achieved my ideal guitar sound, and I know how to get back to it, but I just can't stop experimenting.
DMR
New member
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
For me it's been falling into a semi-freguent rut, and getting out of it. I picked up the guitar over 20 years ago but I should be much better than I am because I haven't made the proper effort to achieve my goals for various reasons. It was the hard rock guitar sound of the 80's that inspired me to play, and still inspires me today. And while I am pretty proficient at playing in that style, I long to be a more well rounded player with the ability to improvise when it comes to soloing (my current ability in that department is pathetic to my ears). I've recently got into the Texas Blues Aley (formerly Stevie Snacks) blues guitar lessons in hopes of adding a solid blues foundation to my playing in that regard.
One problem is that I have too many hobbies. I've been a regular ice hockey player for 20 years, I like video games, i'm an avid scuba diver/spear fisherman, and an avid reader. I'm passionate about all these things that take up my time. And then factor in work/school over the years and it's been difficult for me to devote the necessary time to playing and learning guitar.
For me it's been falling into a semi-freguent rut, and getting out of it. I picked up the guitar over 20 years ago but I should be much better than I am because I haven't made the proper effort to achieve my goals for various reasons. It was the hard rock guitar sound of the 80's that inspired me to play, and still inspires me today. And while I am pretty proficient at playing in that style, I long to be a more well rounded player with the ability to improvise when it comes to soloing (my current ability in that department is pathetic to my ears). I've recently got into the Texas Blues Aley (formerly Stevie Snacks) blues guitar lessons in hopes of adding a solid blues foundation to my playing in that regard.
One problem is that I have too many hobbies. I've been a regular ice hockey player for 20 years, I like video games, i'm an avid scuba diver/spear fisherman, and an avid reader. I'm passionate about all these things that take up my time. And then factor in work/school over the years and it's been difficult for me to devote the necessary time to playing and learning guitar.
LazyLightning
New member
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
Experimentation can lead to profound discoveries, so in that aspect I think it is a very good thing.
Experimentation can lead to profound discoveries, so in that aspect I think it is a very good thing.
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
Sorry - just saw this.
It was a combination of things. It was a careful balance of speaker/cab selection, using a good attenuator if needed, a good light OD or boost pedal used judiciously, EQing, dialing in gain crefully, and occasionally using a plexiglass shield.
Honestly though probably 50% of it comes down to the amp itself. 40-50W is as much as most people (notice I said most, not all) will ever need.
And again, the key issue was controllability. That's the key word there.
Sorry - just saw this.
It was a combination of things. It was a careful balance of speaker/cab selection, using a good attenuator if needed, a good light OD or boost pedal used judiciously, EQing, dialing in gain crefully, and occasionally using a plexiglass shield.
Honestly though probably 50% of it comes down to the amp itself. 40-50W is as much as most people (notice I said most, not all) will ever need.
And again, the key issue was controllability. That's the key word there.
shane.xero1
New member
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
Drummers
Drummers
treyhaislip
Well-known member
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
Squeezing too hard on the neck...I should really only get guitars with Stainless Steel frets because I squeeze so hard. I've been working on it and have gotten better but still in the process of working on this.
Squeezing too hard on the neck...I should really only get guitars with Stainless Steel frets because I squeeze so hard. I've been working on it and have gotten better but still in the process of working on this.
Johnny the Kid
Shaunofthedeadologist
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
Sustaining and hammer ons and pull offs. Pretty much soloing skills in general.
Sustaining and hammer ons and pull offs. Pretty much soloing skills in general.
crusty philtrum
Vintageologist
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
Finding other players with imagination and/ or vision.
Curiously, in a world where so many are keen to point out that they are musicians or artists, most of them seem to have the imagination, vision and creativity of a housebrick.
Finding other players with imagination and/ or vision.
Curiously, in a world where so many are keen to point out that they are musicians or artists, most of them seem to have the imagination, vision and creativity of a housebrick.
Chickenwings
Alnico 6/8
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
pay.
pay.
DreX
New member
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
It's hard to blame them, though. I've heard it said that being in a band gets you pu**y (and that's technically true in my case, though not spectacularly so), and it's a social thing to do otherwise, the adoration of the audience is cool (assuming one has an audience), and playing an instrument is a fun physical exercise if nothing else, which is what really comes down to for most of the people who walk through the doors of a Guitar Center. Sometimes the best band members are the ones without vision, too many cooks in the kitchen or what have you. Consider people who play in an orchestra, following other's direction by design. With there being so many reasons for performing in a band other than as a creative outlet, artistic vision might be the exception rather than the rule.
Maybe what's more annoying are people who pretend to be other people who actually have vision, like all those unique guys and their unique horn rimmed glasses and lumber jack beards, performing a highly experimental fusion of folk and pop rock.
It's hard to blame them, though. I've heard it said that being in a band gets you pu**y (and that's technically true in my case, though not spectacularly so), and it's a social thing to do otherwise, the adoration of the audience is cool (assuming one has an audience), and playing an instrument is a fun physical exercise if nothing else, which is what really comes down to for most of the people who walk through the doors of a Guitar Center. Sometimes the best band members are the ones without vision, too many cooks in the kitchen or what have you. Consider people who play in an orchestra, following other's direction by design. With there being so many reasons for performing in a band other than as a creative outlet, artistic vision might be the exception rather than the rule.
Maybe what's more annoying are people who pretend to be other people who actually have vision, like all those unique guys and their unique horn rimmed glasses and lumber jack beards, performing a highly experimental fusion of folk and pop rock.
Demanic
PenultimateTone Member
Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?
This sort of behavior is NOT a fault. Work logically to achieve your values until you are satisfied.
