Tonyy

If you break strings...you are playing way too hard. Use a super thin pick, too. Hey...I have a little bulldozer out here on the farm. When I used to come up against a stump or a stubborn boulder...I'd grit my teeth, sorta stand up from my seat, lean forward...and push the controls harder. What good does THAT do??? Ya gotta play light if you are strung light, matey!

Another voice in the wilderness!!! Cheers, matey! (And thanks for dropping that second "y"!)

BTW: I HATE this &*&^&* spell check. Sorry for the flubs...

You said this "disappears" when you don't play it alone. THAT is the real problem with ANY musician. Getting "in the moment" is everything. I had heaps of trouble with this until a few sessions with a Sports Psychologist, believe it or not. Four hypo-therapy sessions put me right. To relay what I was shown... How many times have you driven your car somewhere, and yet, you "ended up there" when you really had no memory of the whole drive??? But you've steered, braked, turned, shifted...whatever. You were under hypnosis at that point. Make yourself "get there" and you'll fin getting back "in the moment" a bit easier. You will (hopefully) forger about the :steering, braking, turning" and be all emotion...which WILL show in your playing. Hope that helps...it cost me over $500!!!!!! Ha!

Anyone but me use super lights??? My electric sixes use .008's...one acoustic uses .009's. I'm just curious. A lot of people just can't understand the techniques involved...

At the moment I'm moving to a new mainstay...I've actually worn out my IBANEZ artist EQ. I bought it around 1980-ish and can still hear stuff I played doing commercials that I forgot about that pop onto the radio or TV every now and then. It's falling apart and I'm done getting it fixed !!!) I am "moving" it's setup swapped into a new Les Paul. I play very light strings with three outputs from the guitar: rewound Humbucker with two outs (EAD & GBE) and the stock output... Fender Jag...'64 or 65 I think...with different pickups...Gretch country gentleman at the bridge...Humbucker at the neck... Gibson FB-12...'67 (It's a solid body 12 string Firebird, believe it or not.) Martin "Johnny Cash Rosewood"...'74 Epi dreadnaught...(plays like a Strat) Gibson new issue Firebird (WHAT a piece of crap!!! It was a 60th b'day present to me...)

Of course. Each of my sons learned their first E chord on it...just like I did! I've got quite a few nice classics. My fav is a Gibson FB-12...one of only 24 made in '67. I bought it new... About that Bobkat... Ya got me thinking. When I was getting it from #2 son on to #3 son...it needed a new (and matched) tuning peg. The guy at the store really was twisting my arm to buy something "new" for my kid. I explained the family connection...and he just didn't wanna get it. Sure, it's a clunker of a thing..like memories we carry around...

Love Steely Dan... The Osmond's were SMART. Real smart, in fact. Can't say I liked their music...but they did have their heads screwed on right. ABBA (to me) are also like that...GREAT songcraft.

My dad. He was an immigrant tailor from Italy...in metro NYC...where I was born. (I'm in Australia, now.) He, and a WW2 buddy, opened a dry-cleaning shop. A black lady...their presser...was in charge of the AM radio. All Motown. The fellas had a hard time learning English...but they LOVED Motown! Ha! I still laugh over that juxtaposition! Anyway...he brought me home a HARMONY Bobkat in 1962 and that sorta did it... I miss the old guy...

Hi, Randy...a newbie, here but I've used split 6 strings for over 40 years. Get a GOOD pickup rewound so there are two outputs: EAD & GBE. Through the board...put them into two different channels...panned far L & far R. Live, use a bass amp and a trebly amp. If you can...use "synth mode" on each side...different, of course. There's a guy in Brooklyn that's made pickups for me for quite some time: www.ubertar.com Tell Paul, "Tony in Australia put you on to him." Regards, Tony EDIT: Oh, yeah. I use ProTools HD and, of course, initiate a STEREO channel for each side...just sayin'......

Gidday, everyone...glad to meet cha'ya! Straight off...I gotta explain the extra "Y" in my name. The four letter version was already taken...so, what the heck...I added another "Y". FINALLY! I ain't associated with a four letter word! I'm really at a crossroads in my life. I just turned 21...again...for the third freakin' time! I'm 63...and have had a life of music.(Yep...a Woodstock alumni, too...) Jingles. Commercial music...like ya hear in elevators. I always had a love/hate relationship with it...but it's paid the bills. But now...as I look back on the rows I've hoed...it's a freakin' long way back! But!!!! When I look the other way...to see what the way forward looks like...I can readily see the fence. That's it. Finito... So...I am driven to get me a Grammy. I'm even starting a Bach in Popular Music at Griffith Uni. One son (24, keys & electronic compositions) has already earned his Bach. My second son (22, bass) is in it, now...my third son (20, 6-string) is getting his arm twisted by me to start along with me. I've got a REALLY nice studio out here: AVID C-24 desk, 8-core MAC, ProTools HD...Moogs/Key Synths/Guitar Synths...all sorts of doo-dads. We are off in the rainforest way behind Murwillumbah. NICE!!! My boys always are here using the facilities and I get to jam with them all the time. They have just finished their first album... Me? I play guitar. Yep. I'm good, too. I write pretty good, too. Well, so I've convinced myself, anyway! With all my experience in jingles...I do have VERY strong and MEMORABLE stuff with "in yer face hooks" and melodies. My playing buddies are all in the USA and they are session musos. I miss them, HEAPS...and we were kids, together, long long ago. We get together to do things, still...and we are working on a killer album right now. The "in house demos" are nothing short of shockingly good. I can hardly wait to get everything recorded "for real". One shortcoming...is finding a singer as good as the rest of us. That search continues... My influences have brought me to come up with what I call my playing genre: Soph Rock. Pronounce it "soft rock"...meaning "sophisticated". No three chord run of the mill stuff. R/4/5 with 7ths gets trite and boring. So do 4 chord cycles that go on and on and end up nowhere... Beatles, Moody Blues, Rush, Supertramp, Yes (I already have tix for their Nov 14th show), Who, Queen, Brahms, Mahler... My favourite guitarist is...far and away...Jeff Beck. Sure, Henrdrix and Clapton, too...but Jeff Beck heads up my list... For you 6-stringers out there...here's how I'm set up... I have heaps of guitars...and have used an Ibanez Artist EQ for donks. JUST getting my new Gibson set up from my guitar guy: Les Paul "studio". Light strings (.008's). Besides the stock Humbuckers on it...I have it being fitted with a third Humbucker in the middle...but it's getting rewound for two outputs to put out EAD & GBE separately. (Criminy! I'm STILL waiting for it to be finished!) I put the regular output into the board...as well as the other two...split EAD far left and GBE far right. Playing "out loud"...I have a small bass amp for the bottom strings and a trebly amp for the top three strings. I keep the amps separated about three meters apart. My Artist is set up like this...along with a Roland synth pickup on it, too. I'll get the Roland pickup swapped over to the new LP as soon as I get it in me hands! So...why did I get onto this site??? Companionship...peer reviews...swapping playing techniques and recording ideas...keeping abreast of today's trends and "what's goin' on"...and being able to not be so much of an "analogue dinosaur" in this digital age! What else can I add??? Not a whole lot, I guess!!! Cheers! T EDIT: Hey! I thought this was an Aussie site! Nope...what the heck...so what...I'm in Australia! I'm cool with that...