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Just needed to vent my love of playing or even learning my guitar....I have nobody to talk guitar to...i bore my brother and other friends cause they don't play or understand so need some like minded friends...I've recently bought a harley benton acoustic it's cost £235 and sounds like a taylor alnost...really warm and rich....it's like a guitar 4 times the price...i bought it after reading amazing reviews and it lived up to them....I'm no Jimmy page,personally i think he's better than hendrix but yeah...but I'm able to play ok,just started about a year ago...after playing about for years but now learning properly...so yeah just wanted to vent my guitar talk somewhere and found this.. so yup,not sure how it all works on here but hello everybody anyways✌

Last weekend, my daughter asked to have a go on my guitar. She heard me play a single note that reminded her of something and asked me what "that song is? You know, the one that goes (hums tune I don't recognise)". Eventually, after a few more clues and using my dad psychic abilities, I realised she meant "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and the Deltones. SO I worked out the notes for it and she spent most of the weekend trying to play it. Now, she has never really played guitar before and had a strumming action similar to a stuck windmill sail, but she was enjoying it. She also had a go at Master of Puppets and a bit of Nirvana. Then when I was out of the room I heard a couple of recognisable tunes and realised that she was looking at one of my books and was having a go at "Sex on Fire" and "Cigarettes and Alcohol". I was impressed that she was having a go and even managed to produce something recognisable, so I've decided to get her an electric guitar of her own. I've ordered a Mooer Hornet modelling amp (£105 from Thomann) and today went down to the local guitar shop to look at one of the new Squier Sonic series Telecasters (I considered a TE-62DB from Harley Benton, but wanted to get a guitar from a shop that would be set up already, without having to worry that I might have to return it or pay for a setup). I went in and asked to try the black model. The guy got a cable, got the guitar, plugged it in and left me to it. I played for a bit and then started to examine the guitar and that's when I noticed a lump out of the finish where my arm was resting. I had a notion that they only had one black one in stock. I pointed the chip out to the guys in the shop and they were gutted, not at me obviously. The guy I'd been dealing with even said that he wouldn't have minded if someone had done it and said to them. To damage the instrument and hang it up again before walking away is just a really sh***y thing to do. Anyway, they've ordered a new one for me and it should be here within the week.

this is odd, but I stumbled onto something a few years ago. I was changing strings and forgot to polish the neck. I se Old English dark furniture polish. It is really good in my opinion. anyway, I decided to go ahead and do the neck. as it turned out, the oil dampened my strings just enough to rid it of what I call brassy, shrill in the high end. It produces a dampen effect on the strings that I rather like. Thought I would pass that on for no apparent reason.

Hope it goes well! I tried to interest my late cats in plucking the strings years ago (I had these crazy notions of trying to record them, sample it into something...) but couldn't get the into it at all. Not tried this with the dog, but she'd probably try to eat the guitar. Bless her, she's enthusiastic about *everything* but about as subtle as half a brick.... When I was twelve, Iasked for a keyboard for Christmas. My parents spent a small fortune one something really nice, but despite several years of piano lessons I just never took to it. I think the problem, ultimately, was I got big into guitar music, then didn't have the motivation for keys. Could be with a n electric around if that's the stuff she listens to, she'll take to it more than the acoustic. Is she still a bit young for Riot Grrl? WE're surely due a revival of that and the grunge end of things now, aren't we? All the 90s stuff I've been hearing about the kids getting into now has been more the Britop end of things, but we're doubtless one more episode of The Gallaghers away from that getting old....

Sorry for the delay - just got back from a ridiculously sunny trip to the Scottish Islands! I might be wrong, but I was sure that I've seen something like that in the past on the market. I'll have a dig around and see if it was just in my imagination.

when our central heating kicks on, my amp generates an added hiss, not real bad but enough to notice. I never record when its on.

I rehearsed in a flat at Crystal Palace, back in the late '60s; it was impossible to not get radio from the amps (There's a whopping great transmitter there...) We tried tinfoil and stuff, but to no avail. We moved the rehearsals to Shepperton in the end.

I'm only a bedroom player, so don't have much in the way of pedals. The board is from Thomann, as is the case. I won the D'Addario tuner. The Blues Crab is a great little drive pedal. The Donner Dark Mouse is a rather good distortion pedal, supposedly based on the RAT. The Horse Classic Chorus is a cheapie from Amazon. Does me for all I need it and the Donner One is a basic looper.

A parts-assembly one would also be interesting.... As very much a Fender/Fender style man myself, I would love the idea of something in between - pre-done necks, bodies with pre-cut pup / neckpocket / bridge / et al routes, but a huge, square blank otherwise so they could be cut into a custom shape... that would be interesting. (Wonder why that's never been on the parts market before - unless I missed it?). The set-up course sounds great, too - that's something I can see me benefitting from in a big way.

Hopefully, she'll get interested in it, although the other day she said she wasn't sure about getting an electric guitar (she doesn't know I've bought it). She has an acoustic that she never touches and alluded to this. I said that if you have the guitar sitting out on a stand, you are more inclined to play it. Fingers crossed. If she doesn't get into it, at least I can nick the amp

Good one. Really nice when the children are interested. Niether of mine interested in guitar at all, but my son was keen on learning my upright bass and settled eventually on the accordion (of all things), so at least we can have a minor jam...

That sounds like a great idea, we could do a GC build workshop! My plan for semi retirement (still a few years away) is to do one of those longer 3 months courses, where you learn literally everything and end up building several instruments to get up closer to the skill level needed to build a custom guitar like this. My personal choice would be a lightweight, thinline esquire / LP jr / cabronita type arrangement with a single Gretsch pickup or p90. But there is a place down in Sussex (www.guitartechcourses.com - Guitar Tech Courses) that offers a shorter weekend course to build F styled guitar using various parts. I did their Pro Setup course (a present from my wife), which has to be the best money ever spent on guitar pursuits, so I suspect the building course would be a similar level of quality. I am comfortable now mixing and matching but never attempted frets or carving anything!

I hear you. One day I'd love to go on one of those guitar-building courses where you put it together over a couple of long weekends, building from scratch with expert tuition and guidance.... We should one day have a GuitarChat get together at one of these.... This is a fantastic project, really impressive to see it coming together. I always wanted a guitar that is somewhere between a Firebird, an RD Artist and a Squier Supersonic. Fender 68 Strat style maple net with the CBG headstock, blue sparkle body. I did always say I wanted a bolt on, but seeing this I could imagine myself wanting to go for a through neck, that's something I've never had....

Quite so. Never had much use for anything above the 15th fret myself. But then my guitar heroes are Steve and Mick Jones, Johnny Ramone, Link Wray.... not yer Satriani / Vai types(talented as they undeniably are!)

The little amp has arrived. I opened it just to check that it works and had a very quick play through it. It's very light, but the knobs, buttons and switches all feel fine. It sounds great. I played through the a few of the presets they all sound superb. There's a built in tuner, which will be useful for my daughter. It's all boxed up again until her birthday.

I just picked up a BOSS ME-50 through Facebook marketplace for only £70, it’s a beauty . I’ve only just started to explore its capabilities but, so far I’m impressed. Like most things bought second-hand, it needed a good clean