Show us your guitar setup

[Ithacus]

This is what you get with poly finishes compared to the old nitrocellulose lacquers which age and weather very gracefully.

The ‘boiled sweet’ saying people use for modern finishes is so true; some of the modern finishes are so thick and so shiny they look awful (to me anyway).

Removing poly finishes is easiest using a hot air gun and warming up the poly. You can then remove it in big chunks with a spatula/Pallette knife.

[kisielk]

Just got my Fractal FM3 as my portable jam rig. This and a PA speaker is all I really need to get my sound.

[909one]

Yeah Ive chipped off poly with a heat gun and palette knife. It can be annoying but in your case it looks really easy since its already chipping.

[Prof_lofi]

Twas me - then and now!

[rmro]

Hi, I ended up buying the Tim Miller course which is I’m finding really rewarding thanks for the heads up. One thing that puzzles me is the reason one of the arpeggio patterns always duplicates a note, would you happen to know why this is?

[kisielk]

There’s not really any particular reason for it, it just works with the shape or sounds good. I’m subscribed to Tim’s site and he often encourages just doing things by ear or intuition instead of sticking to any specific theory or rules.

[pftjschute]

old photo of a guitar setup, much of which I sold to finance my conversion to synth in 2018

the guitar is one of those pieces I’ll never get rid of. just picked it up for the first time in maybe a year and played it into norns. perhaps it’s time to re-explore!

[rmro]

Ok, thanks. That is the feeling I have from dipping my toe, it’s quite free and open which suits my approach as pretty much a non musician a lot. I get by with my ears and years of tinkering.

[lumena]

Duplicating notes is a jazz thing… it forces the timing to influence you to hit strong chord tones on the downbeat. Makes it easier to swing the beat.

[Tunnelwater]

Another possible reason for the duplicate notes could be to emulate the false or alternative fingering sound that sax players use to great effect. Although you only really get this effect if the repeated notes are on different strings and I don’t know how they appear in Tim Miller’s patterns.

[lumena]

So I have the course somewhere, tell me what lesson and I will look it up, it’ been a while since I looked through the material. Pretty sure I will get you a better answer that way.

[rmro]

Hey thanks. If you look at the 3 basic arpeggio patterns shown at the beginning of the course, the third pattern which requires a bit more finder stretching has a duplicate note. I thought initially this was a consequence of the basic shapes but if you look at e.g. the Phrygian examples there’s a duplicate note again. I don’t dislike it but curious how you use it.

[kisielk]

I assume you mean this pattern, or something similar?

Those arpeggios are just one of many tools in the toolbox. Tim also teaches and uses many other patterns and arpeggio shapes on his website beyond what are in that one course. The most important thing for improvising is to internalize the sound of a particular movement so you know what it will sound like before playing it. Then when you are in an improvising situation you can hear things in your head and just play them. I wouldn’t fret too much about a detail like this, if you the sound of that then use it, otherwise don’t.

[adrianf]

Ok, I splurged and purchased a tenor baritone. I have some Cello background and have been enjoying playing some old cello songs on a GUITAR!

@kisielk and @zebra
Chord shapes are something that are new to me. And I’m going through a jazz piano book to see if i can learn some standards. While transcribing, I’m finding it hard to play 4 note voicing. I can play some triads but seem to make most progress with dyads avoiding the 5th mostly. Is this similar to your experience? Is there some secret finger tricks that may be missing (other than practice). Playing mostly melodic stuff is a blast though.

[simondemeule]

Sounds like a really lovely instrument. As a cellist I would love to have an electric guitar that is magically compatible with my muscle memory. Maybe one day I’ll convince myself this is a reasonable thing to buy haha. From my research it seems there are very few baritone guitars meant to be tuned just like a cello.

[kisielk]

I tend to use stacked 5ths as spread voicings for 7th chords.

For example something like: 0 0 2 2 would be C G E B for major 7. Then you can shift the highest two voices down one fret get minor 3rd or minor 7, or shift G down one fret to get a flat 5 (of course this only works if you’re playing a root not on the 0th fret).

I haven’t really explored a lot of inversions or anything but I like these fingerings because they give me a nice and meaty root + 5th in the bass while placing the character notes on the 2 higher voices.

[adrianf]

Wow. crazy timing. If you are on the fence, I bought one and the first thing i did was play the Bach cello suite. Other than slightly longer spacing (and rusty fingers) I was able to feel immediate gratification.

[simondemeule]

Crazy timing indeed. That sounds like a lot of fun! Do you find it odd playing things that would usually be in thumb position?

[adrianf]

I’ve tried thumb position, but i think the way one holds a guitar almost horizontally is not conducive to that position (certainly doable on the A and D strings). I also don’t know if I’m holding a guitar properly, but i’ve pulled my strap (hilariously) high so that the guitar is sitting really high on my chest. This lets me play at the neck where the spacing feels closer to a cello which allows for easier extensions as well.

I’ve had to resort to 1st finger at thumb position and finger 2, 3, 4 at extended position instead of T, 1, 2, 3. If i remember my cello training correctly, thumb position didn’t use much 4th finger or 4th extensions (please correct if my memory is wrong).

edit: fixed confusing finger numbers

[simondemeule]

It makes sense that everything doesn’t translate between instruments since electric guitars and cellos are pretty wildly different in shape.

Also just an extra idea I thought I’d share — I got to play around with an acoustic guitar that had flatwound strings and absolutely loved it. They feel very similar to cello strings to the touch — they don’t have the abrasive edge of roundwound strings. If I had this guitar I would get strings like these in a heartbeat. If you never played with these you might want to give them a try!