guys, let say i leave my guitar in the car, acoustic, and electric, under the hot sun, here in malaysia let say for 3 hours. is it ok for the guitar?

enteryourusername, yeah, I sent it to Ng at JS Music. Very highly recommended.

And Namqul, doing that CAN damage your guitar. Warping or other problems can occur. Most of the time I WILL carry my guitar around.

Well, the best way to gain stamina is by practising. Learn a few fun heavy downpicking songs:

1) Trivium - Like Light to Flies
2) Avenged Sevenfold - Unholy Confessions
3) Bullet for My Valentine - Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow/ Waking the Demon

Beside Master of Puppets, those first 3 songs were the ones that helped with my downpicking. And make note that you should really dig into the strings to get the real 'ooomph' sound of downpicking. Then try singing while playing, that would be even cooler.

yea i have learned all those songs and it helped but i actually alternate in waking the demon.and master of puppets is a real pain.tx anyway

Really? Wow, i learned MOP rhythm way earlier than those 3, maybe around after 5 months of playing. And for me MOP was one of the easier ones. Woah, maybe i was born to be a downpicking rhythm player instead of a lead player!

haha .i dont get it either

Time to open the box!


Oh ya, and I played through this:

Wah, Musicman hardcase!! Faster show us the guitar!! Please please please?

after that you can try play riff like Deathmask Divine from The Black Dahlia Murder
very interesting song
but the riff is really fast and its tiring to play down picking-style...i use alternate picking for this song

i learned MoP before learning those too. like light to the flies is a really fun song to play, really trains your stamina especially during the prechorus where there is string skipping involved.

and that hard case is awesome!

Is that SMX?
Dang I always wanted to try that amp, but but but shy lah

anyone knows where to get coffin case here?

Anyone here heard of the new Peavey Vypyr series?Supposedly something like the Roland Cube series but even better.I'm lookin forward on trying one

Used to have it in Ironwood. But now, no idea.

Oh, and the recording of my Marshall is up. Apologizing once again for tormenting you all with my horrid playing.

yea .just had sum major gAAAASS once i went to the peavey site.the vypyr seems pretty awesome and amazing at price to.hope to get it soon

WHERE?!?!?!?!?

**scratch that found it alr

cool stuff btw

anyone knows where i can get the cheapest guitar-usb cable around?

Nice playing, like how you did the medley into a 'Evolution of Metal' kind of thing. Haha. But it sounded quite muddy, was it just the recording?

i like the TL-2 better than the ZW-44. haha
the clean not bad....

Oh yeah, i saw this video earlier this year, totally forgot about it. Recently rediscovered it and it STILL makes me laugh till i drop. You all have to check this out, haha.

The muddinest is probably because I'm using a vocal mic. I'm a total noob when it comes to home recording, so any help will be appreciated. Hopefully by next year if I want to do more recording, I'll invest in the Shure SM57. Also, my UX2 isn't calibrated properly.

It's literally a setup and hit record situation tonight.

Will tweak when I have more time.

Yeah, the Shure SM57 would make it sound really good. I'm quite interested in getting one myself. Any idea how much they sell for?

I think they are in the RM500-600 price range. Could be less also.

Anyway, I still don't really know proper placements of the microphone. I just follow what my lecturer in uni taught. Stick the mic near the center, and then whack on the volume. I remembered someone told me to place another mic further back (or was it at another angle?) and then blend the 2 sounds together.

RM500-600? Haish, then i'll just forget about it I guess...for now.

where's the recording blacktrix ?

Check the 'My Song' thread.

fast solos requires alternate picking. u can't do the fade to black solo with only down picking, it's tiring(sounds horrible too). the trick is try to predetermine the position of your fingers, on both hand. minimize the movement of your hand, let your fingers move around. and, practice helps. i'm having trouble with sweet child's solo where the wah came it, but i'm almost nailing it .



masters is on downstroke. but this is rhythm part, not solo part. so it can be done with downstroke.

1st, check your positioning(guitar and hand). make sure you're comfortable and your wrist can strike easily. why? i find it difficult to downstroke on a sitting position, standing is easier.
2nd, warm up. always warm up before doing masters. it'll be painful and tiring if you just dive in.
3rd, use only your wrist and fingers(right hand). try to get your right hand into a smooth motion.

hope that helps. if you find MOP is difficult, try blackend (with downstroke of course) .



hope my advice above can help.



yeah, MoP is actually easy once you get the hang of it. although some part is a bit tricky, i salute you if you can downstroke the interlude riff after the solo, just before getting back to main riff. the one with C scale i think(?).

tx

zeroglyph, very helpful advice there. I'm stuck at Sweet Child solo where wah kicks in too. Thanks anyway

Salute me!

on mic-ing guitar amps, there are many methods. no right or wrong answer. I'm sharing what I know.

1. SM57 is still the most common 'go to' mic to go to for guitar amps. pointing it towards the centre of the cone will be more boomy as compared with towards the edge. a common practice is somewhere in between. there is some 66% rule if i recalled correctly. it means putting it 66% away from the centre of the cone.
2. The mic can also be angled. putting it directly perpendicular to the amp's speaker grill is known as mic-ing on axis. putting at a certain angle will affect the tone too. do experiment with it
3. As for distance, its typically between 1" to 10" from the cone. It affects the tone due to the 'proximity effect' microphones have. (imagine talking into the mic with your mouth touching it, itll sound bassy, while slightly further itll sound natural). The further it is away, the higher chances of 'bleeding' from other external sounds.
4. For studio environments, its common to add another condenser mic at a further distance to capture more of what the player is actually listening to. there are calculations for this especially if the speakers are in stereo (we typically dont want a phasing and cancellation effect). however, i'm not gona give a technical lecture here on the calculations.

i've learnt from mistakes i did and here are some common things we guitarist do. for those of you here who are starting to gig, well hopefully this can help.
1. avoid the smiley face EQ. human ears tend to be more sensitive towards mids (roughly the 3kHz region), therefore, the smiley face tends to give a nicer, louder impression (when at a lower volume). when gigging/recording, volume is usually high, therefore making the impression useless. what you end up getting is too much bass and treble and no mids. you cant cant through a mix without mids.
2. during soundchecks, guitarist usually setup to have their sound so big that it takes up the entire frequency spectrum. they sapu everything from bass all the way to the highs. its alright to use a high pass filter to cut off the bass. your guitar sound will not sound that good on its own, but once the whole band plays, its so clear and everything comes out nicely in the mix (with no cancellation or 'boomy'-ness) and overall, you sound much more professional.
3. we usually set up our EQ by standing slightly further from the amp. (i mean, hey, who actually puts their ears on the speaker when they play?!). remember that your mics are so close to the speakers. so if you actually walk and listen to your monitors/house system, there is alot more highs (thus you can sound really sharp on the house system). so after setting the EQ where you find nice, its always safer to slightly lower down your highs. if you are daring, put your ears next to your speakers and play and you'll get this point. (dont hold me responsible for losing your hearing though! )
4. putting your amp on the floor tends to sound more bassy and sound bounces off the floor and bleeds into your mic. try putting it at an angle (or on an amp stand)

as for what i do live:
usually a 2X12" is provided. if there are alot of instruments in the band (or there is more than 1 guitarist other than me), i'll just mic up one speaker.
if I am the only guitarist and I need a bigger sound, I'll mic both speakers, with each of the SM57 with different distance from the cone, and diff angles (one on axis, the other angled, usually about 30 degrees). i then pan the mics one hard left and another hard right. as the result, there are 2 slightly different tones coming out from the house system, giving it a nicer bigger sound.

hope it helps. thats all i can think of now. (gosh didnt realise i wrote so much). anyone got anything to add that i missed?

edit: sorry double post

Blacktrix, the SM57/58 goes for around RM350...

as in, using a mixer or extra eq to cut off the bass?
if dont hav both, is it ok to put the eq like, low bass, high mid, medium high?

nice post btw. learnt a lot.

Awesome post man. thanks for the help. Will try out some of the techniques when I can.
Hmmmmmm...... for RM350, maybe I'll go get it when I'm back from Europe.

Speaking of EQ pedals, I had a sad smiley face before I stopped using my eq pedal completely (stupid behringer switch gone bonkers =( sigh)

usually if you talk to the soundman he'll do it from there. (and most good ones do it even without telling you).
however, knowing the local scene, only do it if you know the soundman doesnt take it personally. he can definitely screw up your act. always be polite, and never give instructions. politely give suggestions, and always thank and give credit to your sound engineer.

i was at urbanscapes and saw this band (im not gonna name them), and they are slowly gaining popularity. i was abit shocked to see how rude they were to the sound engineer.

hey guys today i had the same problem.i was doing my soundcheck b4 my gig tomorow and everytime i use my digitech metal master distortion the guitar tone really cant be heard.maybe im putting the lows too much and very little mids on the amp and pedal.any advisable amp and pedal tweaking suggestions to make my guitar sound more clearer .this time im using a higher watt amp.so i dont think its the amps fault.help tx

the rule of thumb that i usually follow is:
1. crank up the bass till the amp starts to buzz, then backup a few notch
2. crank the treble so that it'll balance the bass
3. add mids as desired.

i found that eq settings differs a lot from one gear to another, so the mid-scoop setting may not necessary be the best. just use your ears.

my 2 cents.

ill try the mid scoop tomorow.tx again

i don't think u should go with the mid-scoop way, since you wanted to add more tone to your guitar. try putting in more mids instead. try to balance the mids and treble.

im gonna play metal.so all the bass and treb and mids musst be balance around 8?

try not to use the notches to gauge balance. all 8 doesn't necessarily means balanced. heck, it'll sound horrible actually, no matter on what gear. just try the steps i've posted, it have helped me a lot. the hard part is to get the balance between bass and treble. the mids depends on your taste. believe me, mids does help put some crunch in your tone, don't neglect it. even for metal.

Yeah, forgot to mention that as you know, amp settings can vary from gear to gear. My Marshall's EQ is totally nothing like my Laney's EQ...... so what might work for you at home, won't be the same on a different amp.
Follow Echobrain's advice on how to properly setup for live performance...... they are REALLY helpful.

ok tx

wah everyone gigging tomorrow eh?
Gapnap with Emerge, me at the NECF closing, evalshtog with his metal show!

evalshtog, try lowering gain. i am not joking. with higher wattage amps and louder volumes, lower gain can actually result not only clearer, but heavier! *metal horns up*

yeah..1 day before merdeka ...good day for events i guess..people will come ..

all the best in your gig yea ..

LOL! all the best man. solo kaw kaw, but give some room for ur other guitarist la. kesian him, your tone so nice nobody hears him. pump the MIDS!!!

btw, whats ur gt6 setup before u plug into the vox?

oh nola ..me and my other guitarist.....its not like ..."i pawn you on the stage" kinda thing lor ..
got understanding punya ..

i am using the 5150 mod , one of the variations ..and tube screamer as a booster..you also use gt for live shows ah ?

but in ur video, ur really pawn him la, cant hear him at all
anyway, GREAT PLAYIN!! i like it!

haha ya la. by the way awesome tapping !!