That would have been great, I have the live DVD from the In The Flesh tour and set the 7:1 home theatre system to 11 and listen to Comfortably Numb. The guitar duo with Doyle Bramhall almost makes me weep.

Pink floyd Roger waters 11 comfortably numb In The Flesh (Live)(CD2 - YouTube

This won't do it justice but WOW, I'd almost give up my lefty to play like that

Cheers, SB

 

Woofer,
I'm a massive John Denver fan and from what I can see on line, Country Roads appears to be a song that is achievable for a beginner. A lot of his guitar playing was finger picking which obviously takes years of practice. I'll just stick with strumming and learning those chords and chord progression to get a song out. I don't want to be fantastic at it. I just want to sit around and play a few tunes for people with a few beers. How great would it be to say hey guys lets sing a few tunes and I can play the guitar. Would be awesome. Thanks again for the support and advice. We really have a great bunch of people here.

I'm also a HUGE Floyd fan ! Comfortably Numb and On the Turning Away are two of my favs. The guitar solo in both is incredible.

 

Bordo,

I have the musical talents of a gnat and wish you the best.

Don't gnats make a buzzing sound? I can't even do that.

I travel for work and some of my coworkers bring their guitars on the road with them. They play them in their hotel rooms after work to chill out. I go back to my room and blow bubbles in my beer to no particular tune.

I think you'll do well because you have the interest. I think you need to be born with musical talent/interest. I wasn't so lucky to be born with musical talent/interest.

The guitar you had linked is left handed. I always thought that left and right handed guitars were the same except for the pick guard placement and how the player stringed it. Maybe someone could shed some light on that. If you could find a right hand guitar cheap and restring it to lefty, maybe that would help.

Edit: An electric guitar would have to be setup for a lefty.

 

Hey Seb, thanks for the welcome. I've been out the loop lately with a move to some more permanent housing with Mrs. Woof and an adopted a teenager. Mrs. Woof's youngest got herself in some trouble in Las Vegas and it was decided by all to move her up here. Never expected to be a Dad at age 52, but I'm half a block from my favorite local trout lake so when the teenage drama rears its ugly head, I have refuge

Bordo, Funny you should mention John Denver. When I was a beginner, I took a folk guitar class at school. It was taught by the choir teacher and all we learned were John Denver songs complete with the finger picking. It's surprisingly easy to do. Just takes practice. The Denver songs are long forgotten but I can still finger-pick

TBT, Acoustic guitars have a set bridge saddle, so restringing a right handed guitar to be left handed poses some problems with string height. The saddle itself, once made of ivory or bone but now man-made materials is slanted slightly to accommodate the different string diameters. Also there are intonation issues. Each string must not only be in tune when played open, but must also be in tune at the 12th fret. In addition, the piece of material at the end of the fretboard known as the nut, is filed to accept the difference in string gauges.

Guitar necks have a built in truss rod. This metal rod, usually non-adjustable on accoustics re-inforces the wood in the neck to compensate not only for the overall tension of the strings but for the differences in tension on the neck for the group of three heavier gauge strings as opposed to the lighter three strings. Restringing to be left handed will eventually bend or warp the neck affecting playability

Electric guitars usually have individually adjustable bridge saddles. One for each string. This makes switching over easy. Just replace and re-file the nut and set the saddles for action and intonation. Electrics are usually equipped with adjustable truss rods so neck problems can be solved

Action and intonation are usual problems, especially with the value line guitars. I usually take any new guitar to a tech and get the set-up dialed in. It can make a huge difference

My limited musical talent but love of live music landed me on the soundboard nearly 30 years ago. Worked in clubs and with individual bands. Most recently worked a reunion of 60's rock band Moby Grape.

The secret to being a good Soundman?

Getting the bass player laid

It's true

Finally, back to you, Bordo.

Whether you struggle with it or take to it like a duck to water.

Be proud of the callouses at the end of your fingers. Means you're a guitar player

 

The nut is usually glued in place, and can normally be (carefully) tapped off with a flathead driver and a hammer, then needle-file the glue residue off and buy a blank nut from a music shop, costs a few bucks. There you can make your own grooves for the strings.

I`m currently semi-seriously building a four-stringed semi-acoustic Explorer, it`s been on hold for a while now due to lack of time and some problems with the veneering, but in case you`re interested, a some kind of a build-blog can be found on this thread:

https://cbrforum.com/forum/off-topic...s-here-139717/

 

If I was a dog with a tail it'd be wagging Woof! Happy to see you online. Hope the teen prob doesn't send you to the trout lake too often - unless they're biting

You should check in more regularly, I'm off with Mrs SB this afternoon to Visit Mr and Mrs Kiwi TK in UnZud. There could be bedlam not to put too fine a point on it! I think we may treat this as a training run for the Isle Of Man TT CBRF gathering in 2014.

Cheers, SB

 

I would go around and look at a few guitars and see what you like. It's going to be sorta hard being a lefty, but you can get an idea.

If it were me, I'd probably be looking at some yamahas in that price range. I've seen some damn nice ones for little money.
My buddy had one (sorry, can't remember the exact model), and it was fantastic for the price. Nice finish, real easy to play, and had great tone.
I think he paid like $200 for it used, but it was only like a $350 guitar.
Just something to look at.

 

Thanks guys. Yes for my first guitar I just want something that sounds good. Nothing fantastic. I just want to learn chords and chord progressions for basic songs and if it seems I am good at it I will get something better later on. If not and it doesn't work out I can say I had a go and sell the guitar. I have some other expenses atm and cant buy the guitar for a couple of weeks but I'll get one and get into it and see how I go. I cant really afford lessons and don't really have the time to go so I'll pick up what I can off You tube etc and see how I get on.
I know practice is the key and getting those fingers to go into place automatically is the result of that practice. I'm happy to sit around and try to knock something out one day. Cheers.

 

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but thought my two cents might help you on your journey. A childhood friend and I both started guitar at around the same time. He took lessons and learned guitar the traditional way by learning music theory, chords, scales and whatever else including how to read music properly. I learned by reading tabs and figuring out rhythm by playing along to the songs I learned. For the first few years I was lightyears ahead of him, I was prattling off random solos from songs we both liked and he was still messing around with basic riffs.

Fast forward about 3-4 years and now I'm stuck playing "covers" whereas he's throwing out improvised blues licks and stuff. Don't get me wrong, I still have fun and tbh, I don't have the musical faculties to really compose so his path probably wouldn't have done much for me, but it's something to consider if you're trying to decide how to approach it.

I know lessons are expensive, it's part of the reason why I taught myself how to play so many years ago, but nowadays you've got free lessons on youtube if you do the proper searches. Also, I don't even hold the neck correctly so I can't move up and down the fretboard as comfortably as someone who learned to do it properly... kinda wish I had a better foundation to build on and I know I can still learn, but we all know it's easier to learn properly the first time than to unlearn and then relearn.

Just my two cents.

 

^ first time I get to use this:



My words exactly. I kind of knew how to play the basic cords by instinct before ever even trying, took me more time to convince my music teacher in school that I`ve never played the guitar before than to learn a few basic chords.

Then my curse kicked in. I can learn the very basics of just about anything in a few tries, getting forward from that is what gets me every time...

I`ve never played in a band, only played for myself and for my own fun. Got two guitars ATM, a black Squier Stratocaster and a satin black ESP LTD AX 50 Metal Axe, neither of which I never play... Should, but somehow even if I get the inspiration it fades before I get home...

Got to get that fixed tomorrow. I also have that one project going that I linked before and the drawings for the next.


Bottom line here: It`s not THAT important what you play, what IS important is that you DO play. It helps a lot if the instrument is to your liking, but it`s not gonna do you any good by hanging from the wall, ask me how I know...