Home Forums Meet and Greet Total Absolute N00b Just Starting Out

Viewing 9 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • #19104
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      Hi Doug and everyone!

      I remember seeing magazine ads back in the 80s for Metal Method. Stuck in the back of my mind was the thought “someday if I ever get a guitar, this seems like a good way to learn to play.” Well, fast-forward thirty years and I just yesterday purchased a guitar and signed up for MM v2016 and got the GP6 software on my Mac. Better late than never, eh? (Oh, yeah, I’m a Canadian living/working in the U.S.)  It is so cool that Doug is still doing this after all this time!!

      A few pieces had to fall into place for this to happen: my wife is a Native American flute player, and earlier this year we got some gear for her to record with, including a Fishman amp (for acoustic instruments and mics). She thought it might be fun if we could play together, doing flute/guitar duets. So okay, that’s a cool idea, but I’m an old-school metal-head and just playing acoustic guitar doesn’t grab me.

      What put me over the top was John Petrucci’s solo in “Trial of Tears” from the Breaking the Fourth Wall Blu-Ray (also at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NhBmYXUX7U – starting at the 8 minute mark).  Mind. Totally. Blown.

      So my intent is to be able to understand the fundamentals well enough to be able to play metal, blues … whatever, so I can play along with the flute and jam with other guitar-playing friends.

      But the Fishman is as clean as they come, and some overdrive/distortion would be welcome.  So any tips would be welcome, e.g., I should get an electric guitar combo amp for myself, or a distortion pedal, an iPad effects app, or what?  TIA, y’all.

    • #19106
      Sarah Spisak
      Keymaster

      Welcome to the forum!  A combo amp might be the best way to go.  Having two very different instruments coming out of the same amp isn’t really ideal.  🙂

      • #19175
        Anonymous
        Inactive

        Thanks for the suggestions! The consensus was for a cheap combo amp, and I concur. I tried a Fender Mustang I v2.0 but I didn’t like the over-processed sound of the amp mods and the dials were of poor quality, electrically. And impossibly small fonts on the panel, washed out by bright LEDs. Design Fail. So I returned the Fender, hoping to get a cheap Marshall. But apparently the CF series is discontinued and my local Guitar Center only had the sorta-cheap Code25 in stock. The interface is better (readable) and some of the effects seem okay (there are dozens of choices) and it is really loud. 🙂 🙂  I’m not familiar with Line6, but the guy at GC said they are preferred by metal players, so that brand is now my #2….

        I will try the piezo out with the Fishman for my acoustic ‘clean’ sound (when needed) and the magnetic out with the Marshall for replicating the ‘pleasing’ tonality Doug gets on the MM lesson videos!

    • #19107
      . W H U N E .
      Participant

      lol…

       

      welcome.

       

      ^ ^

    • #19108
      Will Flaherty
      Participant

      Welcome to the forum and Metal Method! I suggest checking out the Line 6 Spider 15 watt amps. They’re perfect for an at home practice amp and I use two of them in my private teaching studio. They just came out with version V, so you can likely pick up the IV model for $50 or so.

    • #19110
      Sean
      Participant

      Welcome! Sounds like you have a plan. LINE 6 makes a nice practice amp. Check out Kustom also.

      Tell me and I will forget ,show me and I'll remember, involve me and I'll understand

    • #19111
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      you might look into one of the Roland cubes, the ones that have some modelling and also an additional input for a mic. then you do a duet and also have a mic too. coffee shop or restaurant duets I often see those roland cubes (personally I’d prefer to build a custom setup tho they do have an ok metal setting too). unless the fishman already has the mic in, which it might..

      with the new basic course out, now is pretty much a perfect time to get started.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #19118
      MotleyCrue81
      Participant

      Welcome to the club! We all started from square one, you’ll get good fast with Metal Method if you put the time in! Go for a simple amp to begin with, it can all get very confusing very fast if you start out with the really expensive toys. xD We’re all here to help, good to have you. 🙂

      Bring hair metal back!

    • #19120
      rorygfan
      Participant

      Welcome, good to see a nice detailed post and introduction.  In the start up period You could buy a multi effects processor to put inline with your guitar and fishman clean channel too, just for practice at home. But like Sarah says one instrument only.  I have a Roland cube since it is small, cheap and effects built in.  Over years in the the past i have owned a Line6 spyder and POD also, custom Blockhead Marshall clone, several Marshall tubed amps, Fender champ, Kustom, Vox AC 30, Roland Keyboard amp, etc.  My only reason for saying this is they all worked fine for their purposes at the time.  You sound like you just are learning and not ready to play live so if that is the case, just go into a music store and spend an afternoon playing them all.  The modeling amps like Roland and Line 6 have a wide range of preset tones too. Get something for $100. and an multi effects processor maybe or VST plugin’s if you want to go the ipad route, just don’t get bogged down in computer time versus guitar practice time.   The ipad can be used to concentrate on Guitarpro practice…. Enjoy and keep posting.   Petrucci is awesome.  Get inspired by him and other players as it is a long path to learning, but very rewarding.

      • #19176
        Anonymous
        Inactive

        @r0rygfan … I have no illusions that I will ever get past 1% of Petrucci’s abilities. Drunken hair-metal cover band dude level is where I expect to top out. 🙂 But Petrucci, Satriani and the uber-shredders are, as you say, to get inspired by. I try to be patient, and do even the really basic stuff clean and accurate before moving to the next lesson. I know from playing golf that if one learns to avoid the top 10 Bad Habits starting out, then they will not become ingrained in your muscle memory. Which is a good thing, because it is harder to unlearn a bad habit than learn a good one. Especially at my age!

    • #19129
      superblonde
      Keymaster

      Isn’t it fair to say tho, that if lets say a flute player is very good with being the front instrument, and the songs aren’t speed metal fast, then within 3 months of solid daily practice (with metronome etc), a newbie guitarist could be able to play simple backing chords for the flutist in live performance, to a typical very simple duo setup (cafe, wedding, etc). Just playing simple open chords as backing, nothing complex, that type of thing. I’m just guessing but seems possible, certainly within 6 mos of regular practice. What a fun goal.

      I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
      And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

    • #19179
      rorygfan
      Participant

      Which is a good thing, because it is harder to unlearn a bad habit than learn a good one. Especially at my age!

      Well I am up there in years too, ha. I have been fortunate in having many different hobbies over the years and Guitar/Music I have found the most fun and rewarding, it’s nice to master something that everybody else isn’t able to do too.  If you stick with it you will get to certain milestones that keep your interest going too, starting out is frustrating.

Viewing 9 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.