Hobbies and pastimes.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm using .011s on the Ibanez, and have since the early 90s on Gibson-style guitars, but getting ready to drop down to .010s as aging catches up. I don't hear very much difference at all. I liked 11s because I could dig in with the pick and drive the amp a little more, but it's nothing 1/1000th of an inch really changes. I've played 10s on my Squier Strat for years and the amp still responds when I dig in with my pick. It's more how I hit the front end of the amp and I can set that up with the volume knobs etc.

It they feel good, play 'em. I choose strings more for finger-feel than amp-tone, on electric. Totally different on acoustic, to be sure. I want big strings to drive a thin top, and I let the guitar tell me what strings it wants, with a flattop. On an electric guitar, it doesn't matter so much, in my opinion.

I tend to lean toward lighter strings, currently running 12's on my acoustic and 9s on my solid body's and have picked up some 8s and will be giving those a try soon, but the (probably) 10s on the new one feel good, and I have a set or two of those floating about.

Strings are an quick and relatively low cost experiment.It makes it easy to try different things and compare the results.

I have all sorts of gauges running around from when I was doing local tech work a few years back, tried 'em all. I think most guitars have their own preference and my job is to listen to the guitar. But if it's a 24 3/4" scale and humbuckers, 11s nail it. My fingers just don't like pushing them around as much (my style involves a lot of bending).

[Deesse23]

Just came back from the 2025 Wurstmarkt (sausage market) in Bad Dürkheim, aka. biggest wine fest in the world. Am drunk like a skunk. I love going to wine fests and get wasted. Does that count?  

Just prepared me another "Schorle"* at home, just like at the Wurstmarkt. Decided id finish with a well rounded Tuica**

No officer, i have no problem with booze, only without

* Wine mixed 50/50 with (cool) sparkling water, Roman style.
** Romanian "moonshiner" plum Schnaps, 40vol

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Bought a house. Trying to replace fly-by-night "landscapers" work with green grass. Staring to hate winter creeper vines.

[Rizen]

Drawing original characters is hard and so are action poses. This is the main character from my first book Rainbows Wane:

I'll add a background next. Here's a few failed attempts at poses. These take a really long time to make.

[TheGentlemanBastard]

Blew out the D-string on the new guitar, so I took that as an opportunity to do a basic setup. Took off the crappy factory strings, checked the neck and found it dead flat, put a fret rocker on the frets and found enough minor spots to justify some fret leveling, conditioned the fretboard and restrung with much better strings (10s which are perfect for this guitar) . Action was good, so I left that alone.

The factory strings are hands down the worst I've seen yet on any guitar. There's usually a noticeable difference after re-stringing with good strings, but this was shockingly better. With a basic setup and new strings, this $200 Grote guitar now plays and sounds way above it's price range (as does the Tele style).

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Thump? Is that you?

[SYZ]

Thump? Is that you?

Nope... Mr Bastard is responding (largely) to Thump
in an ongoing debate about Mr B's new guitar hobby.   

[Thumpalumpacus]

Thump? Is that you?

Of course it is. I'm the only guitarist in the world, obviously.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I knew that going in.

[TheGentlemanBastard]

Huge realization the other night. I've been killing my fretting hand on Cyndy Lauper's Time After Time trying to follow the progression F - Open G - Em - F (one bar each). It finally dawned on me that if I play a barre-G instead of the open G, I can essentially keep the same chord shape, and just move up and down the frets. I still stumble a lot on this song, largely because I don't have it down by memory yet, but that one change makes it a lot easier to play.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Huge realization the other night. I've been killing my fretting hand on Cyndy Lauper's Time After Time trying to follow the progression F - Open G - Em - F (one bar each). It finally dawned on me that if I play a barre-G instead of the open G, I can essentially keep the same chord shape, and just move up and down the frets. I still stumble a lot on this song, largely because I don't have it down by memory yet, but that one change makes it a lot easier to play.

I know the song in my head but never learnt the guitar part. Am I right or wrong when I think that the F chords are played on the top four strings and don't require a full barre? That might make it easier ... if my memory is right (flipping a coin, lol).

[TheGentlemanBastard]

Huge realization the other night. I've been killing my fretting hand on Cyndy Lauper's Time After Time trying to follow the progression F - Open G - Em - F (one bar each). It finally dawned on me that if I play a barre-G instead of the open G, I can essentially keep the same chord shape, and just move up and down the frets. I still stumble a lot on this song, largely because I don't have it down by memory yet, but that one change makes it a lot easier to play.

I know the song in my head but never learnt the guitar part. Am I right or wrong when I think that the F chords are played on the top four strings and don't require a full barre? That might make it easier ... if my memory is right (flipping a coin, lol).

Everywhere I've looked it's Barre-F.
I've tried it playing the way you describe:

It's close, and I used to rely on it in other songs before I got better at the barre F chord, but, it just doesn't sound quite right. Besides, shifting one chord shape up and down the neck is easier than shifting between three shapes. It's not the barre chord that's killing my fret hand, it's all the shifting into and out of the barre chord. The F-F-C-C measures are bad enough.

[Thumpalumpacus]

@TheGentlemanBastard, I stumbled across this tonight. I don't know if you're a Trower fan, but he talks at moments (not enough for my nerdery!) about rig -- guitars, effects, amps. Hope you find it enjoyable, brotha.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Thump, do you watch any of the "first time reactors" on Youtube? GenToday people reacting to being exposed to music outside their comfort zone.

"Who is 'Yes'?" "RUSH? Sounds like a traffic problem." "My grandfather said there was a band called 'the beetles'. Can't find anything by them on Youtube."