Blog - The Guitar Learner

“Only they who believeth in their guitar quest shall be granted passage”

Guitar Riffs Intro to Boost Your Self-Esteem

sometimes it’s hard to get some confidence in our playing. there are others with better licks, arpeggios, or even their own awesome songs those make us feel “not that good”. When you pick a guitar on your friend’s house or stages then begin playing it, you feel nervous. yes, it happens to me too many times. We all need some sparks to get the heat started. One way I do for most of the time is, doing some cool guitar riffs i like to get a grip into the situation (we could say it when we do check-sounds). Surely with early preparation. So i made a list, short one, of five guitar riffs to bring myself into confidence.

first on my list, well of course, the intro of “enter sandman” metallica. It’s very popular intro, even some people would say it’s a cliche, i wouldn’t say that. The first clean riff section will make sure your clean tone is set. the next section presents our overdrive and distortion sounds whether it’s ready or not, so you can do some adjustments onstage. the important thing is, this guitar riffs is so hot so by doing it you can feel the hype and forget your nervous.

the second, “can’t stop” – RHCP‘s intro. hot sweet punches to the strings with funky rhythm tempo wake your both right and left hands instantly without making them shaky. a slight overdrive and bright light bridge pickups’ sound will drive you fast into the confidence. Red Hot Chili Peppers makes everyone hopping their hips better than any hip-hop.

third intro is “Humans Being” – Van Halen. I like this because it’s van halen and it’s the easy one. I’m not doing “eruption” to impress anyone, i know that doesn’t work for boosting self-esteem. actually i chose this intro because i like the reverb and modulation effects created by van halen in this intro. Somehow by doing this on checksound, i will know how my modulation effects setup works on different stages. the point is, if our preparation is set and the output sounds just like we want to, there will be no more reason of getting lack of confidence.

the fourth is “this ain’t a love song” intro by bon jovi. a fine touch by richie sambora’s taste. Sometimes all i need is one clean tone sound and all will be set and ready. i use this many times, especially when i get my analog pedals on stage. a rich clean tone will be overdriven nicely and stay clear in distortion. at least that’s what i think and it goes smoothly in most of my performances.

the last Guitar Riffs is important

the last one, our own songs’ intro! surely as guitarist we have our own riffs or licks and i like to play my own riffs on stage, just to get myself comfortable while I’m checking my own sound style exactly. this one is the most important. making our own licks and riffs is the great and fun part of guitar learning. because, YOU WILL NEVER GO WRONG about it. It’s the reflection of our hard works. so be proud and get more confident about our own playing.

surely we can do some riffs created by famous instrumental guitarists, or some hyper crazy licks exercises. it’s all up to you. now I’ve shared my list. Where’s yours?

actually we can exchange our guitar riffs list and get better in our guitar playing, right?

two men exchanging 1 coin, both of them get 1 coin
two men exchanging 1 list of 5 guitar riffs intro, both of them have 10 guitar riffs intro
The Guitar Learner
September 25, 2015
Made In PRC guitars and gears, really okay?

Some of us found this out and start saying things, some stay quiet. Well, let’s start with the abbreviation first. P.R.C stands for People’s Republic of China, so Made In PRC means those guitars and amps are made in China. Yes, all the famous guitars and amps brands those have this label are making their products in china. we could be surprised by it,but it’s a common industry’s strategy called overseas production.

How can this even happens? surely we can imagine the almost same thing happen to fast food brand. they have recipes and patents, so they can sell the fast food to all over the world in fresh condition and precise product quality. but what happened to guitars and amps? they are not FOOD! guitars and amps are supposed to be someone’s lifestyle!… correct.. so is food. food is lifestyle.

It is likely emotional rather than rational. Of course we want the real taste of American built guitars such like fender or orange amps made in U.K. we feel that our love and loyalty is completely betrayed by the brands just by seeing “Made In P.R.C.” label behind our gears. Unfortunately it affects us in guitars deals subjectively. No, it is not wrong thing to feel like that, but let’s make wide searches and get a bigger vision about this Made In P.R.C. stuff.

In the last decade, China becomes a huge source of industry. China has materials, tools, workshop and workers to do things with minimum running costs, while in USA and Europe, those elements are getting expensive. With rapid technology shared worldwide like now, china takes this opportunity into maximum efficiency and high target in quality competitions. there’s nothing wrong about it besides the living wage issues in china. they are just developing rapidly, that’s all. and if we believe that science belongs to the world, this is not anybody’s fault. But exactly that’s the main reason. the world balance is changing its weight. Now, guitars and amps from china are coming to houses and stages all over the world.

Enough about industry and world economy. Let’s talk about the product quality. Personally, my gears are almost all Made In PRC. my Gretsch G5236 is made in China, my Orange amps TT15JR is made in P.R.C., I have Boss GT-8 made in Taiwan and more of this kind of stuff. I don’t really care about the differences between china or Taiwan or somewhere between both (sorry. it feels like they change names into taiwan, china, PRC as marketing strategy to boost sales. 😀 ) but i do have my attentions in Korean’s made such like My Fender SE Telecaster Spalted Maple (great guitar). I don’t have USA guitars, yet, since i have few disappointment on Fender Stratocaster Highway One made in USA. so far, my empress multidrive pedal (hand-made in Canada) and Celestion G12EVH (made in U.K) satisfy me. and so the Made In PRC. I love how they sound.

yup. just like that, i picked my own gears and i love them because i know how they sound. I don’t really care about where it’s made, but i really DO despise counterfeits. faking people’s name and get money because of it means take away someone’s salary and discredit the hardwork and quality. The ironic thing is, China has this counterfeit issue, too. big one.

I really do hope people stop making counterfeits and start their own brands. i present my big RESPECT to anybody who do that
September 2, 2015
Eko Guitars N(e)XT series Electro-acoustic steel strings

My another gears update is an electro-acoustic guitar. I found it on local shop, while i was surprised about how this Italian chitarra brand appeared here in my city. Surely i gave it a try and i found myself like it. the sound quality and the price are somehow equal (plus few advantages) to my ears, so when it comes to comparison with other guitars in its price range.

this is what i got, the factory default:

actually I am impressed by things eko guitars has by factory default. The acoustic steel strings are great! feels like newly installed and vibrate the tones equally (though i can’t get used to it anyway, gotta change them with electric guitar strings). i got mono-jack cable and one Allen wrench for adjusting the truss rod. pretty neat for made in P.R.C guitars, and i guess that’s why Eko guitars, an italian guitar brand could came to my house.

when it comes to comparison, i picked yamaha apx500ii as its rival, and this Eko N(e)XT guitar won… it has more serious saddle bridge than apx and the eko guitars preamp delivers equal tones, (my apx500ii doesn’t have middle tone, which i need them most for my solo playing)

my first tryout on stage were my last night gig. i was fully satisfied, and i can see this guitar could do few more things after i set something up for this. you can check eko guitars at www.ekoguitars.it and i’m sure you will get more details, meanwhile i will set up things for the vlog. see ya

Update

now I have proper video for this guitar checksound. Here the guitar sound samples using TZ Audio Stellar X3 condenser mic:

September 1, 2015
Line 6 Spider IV 15 Watt Amp, yes, it’s LOUD!

Lately 15 watt amps become so popular and I guess I know why. These days PA and miking systems are in their great performances so it’s an easy way to get low volume sound sources louder with precise details. At this time we can get our 15 watt amp inside our room on big stages and with today’s technology, we can make the best of it. Own the 15 watt Amp is wise choice.

What I have for this post is Line 6 Spider IV 15 Watt Amp and I’m pretty sure this amp is a bit famous. It says “Line 6 Spider IV 15 Watt Amp 15 is the #1-selling amp in the USA…” – Line6.com. Well, not that fast actually,but indeed this stuff has some value. It is solid-state amp and it covers lots of famous amps such as ’65 Marshall® JTM-45, a ’58 Fender® Bassman®, a ’63 Fender® Vibroverb and a Supro® to stuff like Mesa/Boogie® Dual Rectifier® tones. This amp is competitive one on its class.

there’s nothing much at the rear panel except power plug, Line6 moved them to front as you can see on pic, to make things easier to operate.

It’s half open back so i took a pic of the speaker. It’s Line6 custom built speaker for this amp. It sounds good for me.

Surely I made the shootout video and i will put it right away after my preparation, but, overall Line 6 Spider IV 15 Watt Amp is affordable and it sounds good, too. It has more options for my sound choices as a solid state combo amp should do and it’s loud enough for my room. never crank the volume knob all the way up though… volume at 9 o’clock would be enough for practicing and jamming along your favorite songs put in via CD/MP3 jack hole.

yes. it is loud enough
August 3, 2015