Thanks, you just want me to buy that stuff and then make fun of me right Derek?

Nope! I've been a Slipknot fan since I saw them on Ozzfest back in 1999

I know, but I'm not

After learning the theme from the X Files as well as Planet Caravan, I can confirm that my dog does not care for reverb or delay. Every other time I've practiced my guitar she'd just curl up beside me and fart up a storm. Any time I've been practicing stuff with reverb, though? Nope! She bolts like the world is gonna end.

You should start a band, called "the dogfarts".

Depends. Gotta get me a cable, and see what I can do about the nerve damage fucking with my fret hand. That really screws with one's mojo. I'm a leftie who plays right handed, so my fret hand was decent. I was capable of some fairly nasty legato shit once upon a time.

Give 'er hell then, bud

Last night I decided to try to play that intro to Buried Dreams by Carcass. I didn't want to go to the trouble of tuning down just to fuck with one lick, so I tried it in standard.

I'm sorry for what I did to your song, Mr. Steer. I am so, so sorry

If you don't mind the mental gymnastics, just tune the E string down to the lowest pitch you'll be using and adapt the song from there. That's what Zakk Wylde does. Which is odd, considering he can probably afford to have a dude on standby with a bunch of different guitars. But it does work.

Tempting, but I'll probably just force myself to be less lazy. I love practicing and I often do for at least an hour a day, but actually getting set up and sat down to do it is my biggest mental hurdle. What I should do is look for a few songs/riffs that I want to learn that share common tunings and tune my ESP and Kramer down full time (both have a Floyd Rose setup so it makes more sense to have dedicated tunings for those), and to float through tunings on the Epiphone since it's quicker to tune.

I've gotta find a way to get my guitars to not hum like motherfuckers when I'm running them through the distortion channel on my amp, too. I'm positive that a noisegate is a wise investment at this point. I practicing with the distortion on just pisses me off because of the fucking constant hum.

And there's the exact reason why I started playing 7 string axes over a decade ago. :D

Especially having only one guitar back then, tuning up and down that many steps means a whole new setup, with new and diff gauge strings each time. I wanted to play carcass and hypocrisy one day, and then plain standard E metallica or whatever the next haha.

My playing seems to be improving pretty steadily now. I even got a "hey, your speed is really coming along well!" from my teacher. Now... someone call in a bomb threat to my work so I can go back home, burn one and get back to it.

Sure thing. You're over at the beefy.com warehouse, yeah?

Why not!

I spent my afternoon learning how to restring a guitar with a Floyd Rose bridge. Several hours later, I've got it figured out nicely

Saw Scottie Mishoe on the roadside today, playing for singles. Shouldn't have been as thrilled as I was, the dude's the best slap guitarist on Earth - bar none. But he's an addict. So... there he was.

For the umpteenth time, here's Scott playing slap:
https://youtu.be/YPW3wRZm96s?t=24

Find me a better slap guitarist, and I'll suck your dick and then your dad's.

My playing really feels like it's improving. I just wish I could put more than an hour or two in per day.

The music place where I get my lessons has a recital every December. My teacher has not so subtly hinted that he'd like me in on it. He's suggested Smoke On The Water, but I think I
want to aim higher and go for Wicked World by Black Sabbath. I don't have the triplets or the solo down yet, but the rest of the stuff just needs to be tightened up. Thankfully I've got around six months which, so long as I put in the work, I think it's not entirely out of the question that I could pull it off. Worst comes to worst I could play an abridged version without the solo, because who the fuck will know that's in that room, anyways?

My brother has both a guitar and amp in jail somehow. Practices all day, every day.

Listening to Van Halen when I'm less than a year into playing guitar is equal parts inspiring and intimidating.

Van Halen's rhythm skills are more intimidating to me than his lead playing half the time. Like most guitarists who grew up with their drummer, his sense of time is almost supernatural.

My favorite thing about Eddie is, by far, his tremolo picking. I've never seen anyone else do it like that. It looks SO cool the way he does it, and it sounds great to boot.


Check out VH's Live Without a Net to see Eddy's tremolo picking technique at its height. Watch it start to finish and you'll gain an appreciation for Alex Van Halen, too. That guy knew how to use synth drums to their utmost. Really, they're just triggers on tom drums. But I still like Alex's solo on that record. Video, whatever.

Here it is on YouTube. Stay a while and listen.

Eddie is just ridiculous all around. I watched a video of him explaining his tapping technique and it blew my fucking mind at how effortless he makes it look.

Right now I'm just stoked that I've figured out a small solo section that my guitar teacher gave me. It's still way too loose, but I know what I've got to do and when I've got to do it. I've just got to get it into my muscle memory now.

I really, really, really want to try out the CR60C amp from Orange (60W 2 Channel Combo Amp w/Rev FX Loop). I can't seem to find a store anywhere near me that carries them. It seems like it's exactly what I'm looking for, but I sure as fuck am not going to order an amp off the 'net that I haven't ever plugged into

Alright here's a weird one, primarily for those of you who write songs.

Does anyone else ever come up with a bit they're particularly proud of and have a little ego party afterward? Like you expect attractive people to march in the door and fuck you because of how good this new piece of music is? Like I understand completely that it's part of the creative process, and that this shit never turns out as Godly as you want it to, but it's still a righteous fucking feeling.

I'm not at the composing stage at all, but I do get that kind of feeling when I finally get a part down that had been giving me a lot of trouble.

Also: it turns out that practicing vibrato is a bit easier when you're tuned down a step. Makes sense.