Great advice. May I add, try to play standing up. Not only do I believe the body geometry is better suited to keeping your arms and wrists more relaxed and therefore more dexterous, but you'll hopefully start to work your way towards not relying on looking at your hands so much (I'm still working on that myself, it's a long process)

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I am now playing trumpet with Prince Buster tribute band 'Balzac'

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

I almost always play unplugged. This led to my switch to roundwounds. It will blow your mind what you can do.

Something I've been doing for ages is practicing a known melody and just playing that in many many different styles with tons of passing notes/flourishes, very fast, very slow, double picked, uniquely picked, everything. This allows you to try and be creative and it really helps you learn your way around the fretboard and opens up new opportunities for creativity/expression.

Due to the close proximity of my neighbours i usually practice my Strat unplugged. The problem i find is that when i plug in at my mates little recording studio i feel out of control with what i’m hearing through the speaker, by the time i’ve adjusted we’ve lost the moment. I wouldn't knock practicing unplugged by any means but i believe electric playing is a skill within it self. Particularly clean playing - the clarity side of things.

Something I was told when I first started talking lessons...

Watch TV.
This way you stop looking at your hands and if you plan on playing live you get used to playing with distractions.

"Maybe there aren't any surf bands; there's only surf music?" Tuck

Before I had a good place to practice, I used a portable headphone amp that allowed me to plug in another music source so I could play along. It just clipped onto my belt.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I am now playing trumpet with Prince Buster tribute band 'Balzac'

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

I practice using a Behringer USB thingy, that allows me to play via software amps within my computer. At first i was confused by the latency, it takes some miliseconds for the processing. It felt less "linked" like it is with a real amp, but I got used to it and the benefits are that much more over the negative aspects. I won´t miss it a single day!
you can record what you play, do playalongs and all in very good sound quality over your stereo headphones. For me it´s the perfect way to practice, learn and write tunes or simply doodling around with good sound and not disturbing anybody (my son is sleeping right above my room, so I can´t use a normal amp)
Loed

here comes the WEST SAMOA SURFER LEAGUE

guitar wrote: Spend time playing your (electric) guitar unplugged.

Martin,
I hope that is a good tip. I spend 3 hours or more a day playing unplugged. That is also how I select guitars. I like to hear the voice of the actual guitar. Seems like each guitar has its own voice. You can play a couple Stratocasters, for instance, and they will sound different (unplugged).

Talk to you later,
Norm

The only time I ever plug in is at a show or at band practice. Not only do I stand up, but I chase my son around the house. Makes playing a show seem like a piece of cake

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Hi all,

just my 2 ct about playing an electric guitar unplugged:

The instrument “electric guitar” consists of the guitar itself, the cord, the amplifier the speaker(s) and eventually some more devices like stomp boxes etc.
The sound of this instrument is influenced by each component starting at the strings and ended at the speaker.
If a guitar sounds good (to oneself!!!!) can only be judged when checking the entire chain and elements of that instrument.
Now you might argue, a guitar sounds different with every amp and what I hear can be a good amp or a good guitar or bad amp or bad guitar.
Your right of course. But it´s still the entire chain you hear and you need to hear that for a complete picture of what an electric guitar sounds like.
You also should judge a guitar in its foreseen context. So don´t try out a Jazzmaster you want to play clean through a dual rectifier at max. gain.
Or some ESP shredder guitar through a Tweed Champ if you want to play metalcore. You know what I mean!

What else:
The acoustic sound of an electric guitar must not be in any relation to its amplified sound.
How is the electric sound created? A string is picked, its movement induces a voltage within the coils of the Pickups. This is amplified and shaped within an amplifier and reproduced very loud (relative to the original sound) through a speaker.
And what do you hear from a unplugged guitar? It is the sound that comes from the strings and resonating elements of the guitar, something a pickup never picks up, as it is only sensitive to magnetic field changes, it has no ears or is kind of a microphone!
The louder a guitar is (acoustically) the less sustain it will have, as the energy for the loudness must be provided from the strings movement.
If this is good or bad has to do with taste and what you need the guitar for.
What I want to say: As the acoustic and electric sounds are created in very different ways you cannot transfer the one and its qualities to the other.

Final important issue:
If you hear it through the amp it´s relevant for the instruments sound. If not it´s not!
For example String buzz at offsets: I have a JM and a JAG both suffer from string buzz at the bridge, audible when played unplugged.
When plugged in this is not audible at all, so I don´t care!
Next example: string squeal when moving chords on round wounds, this is almost inaudible when played unplugged but very present when played amplified, even more when played with overdrive.
Or ringing strings, that are not damped properly will only become a problem when played with heavy overdrive.
You will get serious problems when you don´t learn during practice how to keep the strings quiet you don´t need!
So practice should be done mostly in the same way as you play afterwards.

So for me it is of little value if at all (and no fun) to play unplugged.

This statement. is a bit offensive, but this is on purpose to get the discussion going! Not intended to attack someone or someone´s opinion personally!

So what do you think?

Cheers
LoeD

here comes the WEST SAMOA SURFER LEAGUE

Last edited: Sep 03, 2012 09:49:36

maybe I am wrong - try to convince me!
Did you experience something different?
to disagree is ok, but without arguments it´s not helping the discussion.
cheers
LoeD

here comes the WEST SAMOA SURFER LEAGUE