I will say that it was the Michael Palmisano interview that motivated me to buy one of his signature guitars... and it was totally worth it.
He came to our store in Nashville a few times, did a clinic and judged a “best in shred” competition. He’s a nice dude.
I'm not much for effects...if I have fuzz, reverb and chorus I'm good....but I may have to pick one of these up. I can think of a myriad of uses for it.
I've been on the fence about getting another electric guitar for a long time. I've had a couple over the years but never did much with them, I'm more of an acoustic guy. But the band's been wanting a little more out of me, and honestly there's some stuff on our playlist that would be better served with a little more stank on it than an acoustic can give. The other night I was up to my parents's house, and my Dad, who has turned my old bedroom into a regular music store unto itself handed me a new electric he bought. His first since I was little. I loved the way it sounded, the way it felt in my hands, and I almost offered to buy it from him. Instead, I came home and ordered it. So I got this, the Epiphone ES-339 Semi-Hollowbody: Sure it's not as glamorous as some brands, but to be honest I've never been one to buy name brand only. If a guitar feels and sounds right to me, I get it. Plus, I can't invest $2,000 in something then worry about it getting knocked over or drunks spilling something on it. The other plus to this is, I ordered and pre-paid for it through a local, family owned music store who is kinda hurting right now. Sounded to me like they needed a good sale today.
Dude... nice purchase! There is NOTHING wrong with the latest Epiphones... just some stigma around a low price. They are built pretty nicely these days, and the automation around building seems to be such a high quality that it's really making a nice, consistent, well-playing guitar. Enjoy it!
Thanks! There may be some musicians in the crowd that will snicker, but I don't care. I've never paid more then maybe $700, tops, for a guitar and I've been really satisfied with them over the years. Mine are workhorses, especially my tiger maple Dean 6-string. I'm looking forward to learning to play more and better.
Also, the Epiphone QC building is like…right across the street from the Gibson factory, and Gibson workers do shifts there. Very pro operation. When those ES-339s first came out we couldn’t keep them in stock, they are really solid. Good purchase @walt
That's really good to know! Dad was gonna order in a Les Paul, and for all I know he still may. But he picked up the ES-339 first.
With the success of the solo gigs last year, I decided it was time to get into the world of vocal effects. So I got the Boss VE-500 pedal, which is vocal effects and harmonizing. I’m gonna have to work with it for a while to dial it in, but I’ll report back on how well it works.
Why'd you go with the Boss instead of TC Helicon? I have a basic TC H1, and I've messed around with my buddy's TC VoiceLive before. I always found that Boss has a few more features, but the actual vocal sounds were better on the TC, imo. But, everything I've played around with is 8 years old or more, so I haven't heard any of the newer gear. Please do report back!
Affordability, mainly. TC is fantastic, but the one they make now that is the most similar is $750ish I think. Boss was $479 tag price and I got it for a little over $400 with my connection to the old job. And I plan on also getting the RC-300 looper…and a new EV tower array…and a new keyboard…so money is a factor, I’m at the point I need to really invest a lot to open up gig opportunities. Gotta take myself more seriously, so that they do. Now, TC makes pedals closer to that price, but they’re more simple - to change the type of harmony you have to turn a dial. The Boss allows programming, plus expression pedal use so I can eventually set the expression pedal to affect the harmony level. Instead of clicking them on or off I can just fade them in and out. Harmonizing is always tricky in general though. It is always going to be slightly unnatural to my ear, but if I can dial it in and use it when needed, I think the average dinner guest won’t be that discerning. And if I can’t get it figured out to my liking, I’ll just go with the TC.
Alright, after diving into the pedal just a little bit... This will do some really cool things, but you almost have to ignore yourself to do it. The harmonies are good, but work really well when you use the "pitch correct" function on your voice. However, for now, when you use that, it feels like it's then doubling your voice - normal voice, and auto-tune. However, I can't tell if that's me hearing it in my head and the speaker, or it is doubling it. So I'm trying to figure that out. But when you really start using the harmonies, there's ways to adjust them so that they sound really nice. One issue is, your brain wants them louder because you're listening for them. Dialing the levels in compared to the lead voice is key. Hence, the idea of an expression pedal. Here's a demo video online, starting at the actual harmonizing demo song he plays. And you can hear he's got the levels pegged. It sounds...robotic in a way, but they do work quickly. https://youtu.be/FnjcLSF78Ng?t=516 So I did a quick and easy test with the Eagles, "Take It to the Limit," and it sounds real nice. The issue I'm trying to figure out is, how to get it to understand suspensions better. As in, "I'm gonna sing this suspended note over this chord, so you need to harmonize with THIS note." It doesn't sound awful, but it's not what I want. There is a way to specify exactly which note harmonizes with a certain lead note...but that changes with the chord, so it's not helpful in my application. It'll take some work, but it will become something that makes the gigs more fun. The reason I got it? I played a NYE gig for the first time in ages, at the upstairs room of a bar a few towns over. Downstairs before the gig, there was an old guy just sitting at a keyboard, playing the automated rhythm tracks, where one press of a key in the left hand will change the chord. He would do little licks with the right hand, and then choruses with a harmonizer pedal that was feeding off the keyboard. It was hokey, but it sounded nice and full. My issue is, I play a couple hours, and I do a more free and loose set. I don't use backing tracks, because I take requests and I go from song to song based on key, tempo, what position my capo's in, how interested the crowd seems to be, etc... so I'm trying to do the harmonizer, then add a looper to do quick rhythm beats and all that. Most of the other local acts use backing tracks and I want to stand out.
I brought the new guitar home today, and while I was there helped our son’s girlfriend pick out a guitar which she is strumming on the sofa now. My plan was to use my Fender Acoustasonic Jr amp which I also use for my acoustics, at least until I scrape up the cash for a separate amp. I couldn’t get the guitar to sound good, so I tried it through an amp we have for the electric drum kit. Then it sounded better. So looks like I have to buy and lug around another amp. My buddy said I can use his at our first gig of ‘23 in a couple weeks. I’ve been playing acoustic so long, I have to kinda learn a new way to play guitar. I was saving the Garage Band University website for their video tutorials on power chords and scales, but it looks like the videos are behind a pay wall now. Any recommendations for a good video series?
I knew when I bought this electric guitar there was going to be a steep "re-learning" curve at times. I'm learning to play power chords for that harder rock sound as well as looking for ways to utilize the guitar on some other songs we do without the distortion. And all along, I'm hearing this thing with the G-string... it's in tune, but when I play it, it sounds awful. I know the action is set really low, am I pressing too hard? Don't think so. I checked with the tuner. Played an open G note, then played an A note on the second fret. A is WAY sharp. But I'm not pressing hard! I take pics and send to my friend. He's like, "That's weird." I sent pics to the store where I bought it, and they said to bring it in. Then I start looking up ways to check and make sure it's set up correct. Yeah, it is and I notice on the 12th fret I barely had to touch the string... wait a minute. So I take another whack at it. You guessed it, I WAS pressing the string to hard. All three of us had a good laugh, and now I have to really be careful because I'll be switching from acoustic to electric and back throughout the 3-4 hours of a show.
I had that problem when I went from playing acoustic with medium gauge strings primarily since I was 13 to an electric a couple years ago. I was squeezing it like owed me money. Once I let up on the neck considerably, it sounded so much better.
Yeah... I remember the first time I tried playing a light gauge electric with a scalloped neck... I was pressing so hard that it was playing out of tune. It took a bit of getting used to. One thing I find very interesting having a few different types of guitars is how the playing style has to be changed. The difference between a wide necked Les Paul to a Tele to a Gem... it's really interesting to consciously recognize the difference in how you deal with picking, fingering, whammy or no... even the pick hand resting positions are different based on guitar geometries.