Guitar Hero as the Ultimate Guitar Trainer

Like everyone I’ve seen millions of references to Guitar Hero but was surprised on seeing it featured in Guitar World (June 2008). It seems the editors of Guitar World have reconciled themselves to the existence of Guitar Hero after feedback indicating the game has given many first time players the confidence to pick up the real guitar. Anything that gets someone interested in the guitar is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. But, what happens to your Guitar Hero playing once you do get interested in the guitar?

I picked up the guitar at age 50 and now that I’ve played for awhile I view playing Guitar Hero as taking away from practice time. While the game is lots of fun it always comes down to how much better I would be on the guitar if I invested time in it vs. Guitar Hero. Since I really need the practice I opt to play the guitar. This is not the usual 'why play a game when you can play the real thing' post but an 'I want to have my cake and eat it too post'. Why can't they invest development effort into an interface so a guitar can be used as a controller and create the ultimate guitar training platform?

Guitar Rising and Guitar Wizard coming out later this year both provide a guitar interface. The full integration of this type of interface into Guitar Hero would be the best of all worlds, especially for us aging rockers learning the guitar. We could play the game and get our guitar practice at the same time. Anyone reading my articles knows I’m a big guitar trainer fan. We’re talking the ultimate trainer here.

In addition to all the benefits of a standard guitar trainer you would also get continuous quantitative feedback on your playing as you will get the clam sound for missed notes and an actual score for accuracy. You also get what traditional guitar trainers cannot offer, rock and roll initiation of the sort depicted on Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny. The game may not throw things at you but you will get booed off the stage if you suck!

If games like Guitar Hero are indeed creating interest in the guitar like the Guitar World editors say, these game makers are well served by full integration of the guitar in order to hold on to the fans they’ve created for the long run.

Interesting Experience Nets a "Free" Ibanez Bass

You know the legend where someone stumbles upon a vintage Corvette sitting in a barn somewhere that was only driven to church on Sundays and you pick it up for a song? A reader sent this in and I thought it would be of interest:

Yesterday I was in my local pawn shop checking out the guitars in stock and asked the music "expert" there if they had any guitars that might need repairs that they might be willing to sell cheap. He responded that he had a bass that had the head broken off, they shipped it to an on line customer and it had a bad day. It turned out to be a 2001 vintage Ibanez EDB 600. They sold for about $400 to $500 back then. I asked him what he wanted for it and he said make me an offer. I said $10 just for laughs and he said make it $20 and it's yours. I hauled out my debit card and got the bass, Gig bag and Peavey Leather strap for the agreed price. The bag and strap were worth $30 so the bass was essentially free. 40+ years of woodworking and furniture making has taught me to use glue and clamps and the neck is now drying. I'll touch up the paint and for the cost of a set of strings I have a really nice bass, to sell or play. It's worth asking for what you don't see. I would recommend checking out these places as in this time of economic disaster, many such instruments are available. I've never seen so many nice guitars for sale, really cheap. Amps and effects as well. I would recommend that you visit your local pawn shop, as they are anxious to sell now.

Cheers, Gary

Man, I think I'm going to visit my local pawn shop!

Guitar Amp Repair Part Two

I recently wrote about problems with my Marshall DSL 401, which led to a trip to my local amp doctor. When I received the call that the amp was ready for pickup I eagerly rushed out to give it a test.

The diagnosis was bad soldering (three connections not soldered) and bias out of adjustment (way out). I again learned about the difference between single and double sided circuit boards and hand soldering (a big issue with this amp tech). I plugged it in, warmed it up, and the magic is back!

The clean channel was crystal again and fattened up nicely as I turned up the gain. Playing with the gain and volume knobs on the overdrive channel yields great crunch and sustain; all the things that caused me to buy the amp in the first place.

The moral of the story for those of us who cannot put out $2,500 plus for a hand wired amp is get to know a good amp tech!

Support Your Local Guitar Store

I like going to Guitar Center because it has almost everything for everybody. It became my default location for any guitar related needs. I finally broke out of that routine and visited a local guitar shop and found I’ve been missing out.

While local shops carry a fraction of what Guitar Center does they do fill niches in depth that larger stores cannot. I happened by Artisan Guitars earlier in the week and this represents a great example.

Artisan specializes in acoustic guitars and it feels part guitar store part art gallery. I got exposed to everything from completely hand built guitars with recovered exotic woods (works of art as well as functional) to CNC machined ultra low cost yet high quality guitars built offshore. I was able to take my time and find what I needed plus learn a whole lot about acoustic guitars.

Although I say local, not much is local anymore in the Internet and rapid shipping eras and Artisan provides online shopping for their inventory of new and preowned instruments. So, although the large stores have quantity, don’t forget to check out that guitar store around the corner if you want to do a deeper dive into a particular guitar niche. You’re missing out if you don’t!

Guitar Aging Experiment – How to Create a Relic

The relic guitar market has really taken off and you have to pay a bunch of money to get your new guitar pre-aged, which drives interest in do it yourself approaches. Serendipity happened this morning as I was catching up on my feed reading and ran across the start of a DIY guitar relic experiment on Electric Guitar Review.

Actually, I’m more interested in anti-aging treatments since I’ve hit midlife and try to keep my guitars looking good so they age gracefully. The only “relic” treatment I’ve applied to a guitar was unintentional. But, for those interested in aging their guitars, this series should be right up your alley.

The article is entitled Chop Shop: And So Begins ERG’s Great “Tele Relic” Experiment Of 2008. Anyone who follows these posts should see a blow by blow account of aging a Classic Player Baja Telecaster as well as related links in the articles and comments that should be a treasure trove of information for relic enthusiasts. I’ll include links to these posts as shared items so you can keep up with them as they are published or just subscribe to EGR.