Your guitar-playing pet hates

Tonedef

I'm sure we all experience those little things that endanger our tooth enamel. I defnitely have my fare share:

Putting down my pick and 10 seconds later not being able to find it again.
Grabbing the axe, eager and ready to go for a good practising session, then finding that nothing wants to work - every note buzzes, you just can't fret properly, the pick snags, whatever. I usually put down the axe in disgust right there. :?
Earphones snagging on the strap/cord
Guitar going out of tune when you merely glance at it. Luckily I've largely sorted this with my guitar now
Cables somehow managing to gordion themselves overnight.
My bloody amp being temperamental
The neighbour's dogs howling at the moon late at night when I'm trying to practise
Seeing rust on your two-day old steel strings.

ezietsman

Tonedef wrote: I'm sure we all experience those little things that endanger our tooth enamel. I defnitely have my fare share:

Putting down my pick and 10 seconds later not being able to find it again.

Grabbing the axe, eager and ready to go for a good practising session, then finding that nothing wants to work - every note buzzes, you just can't fret properly, the pick snags, whatever. I usually put down the axe in disgust right there. :?

Earphones snagging on the strap/cord

Guitar going out of tune when you merely glance at it. Luckily I've largely sorted this with my guitar now

Cables somehow managing to gordion themselves overnight.

My bloody amp being temperamental

The neighbour's dogs howling at the moon late at night when I'm trying to practise

Seeing rust on your two-day old steel strings.

#1 Put it in the strings of the guitar, make a habit of it.
#2 Welcome to the world of guitar playing ? It does get better tho.
#3 That's annoying, thats why I don't use earphones, that and they sound really horrible.
#4 This shouldn't happen. Some guitars are better than others. Floating bridges and cheap machine heads are the culprits mostly.
#5 Aye, I agree.
#6 The amp should not be temperamental. That will make me put it in file 27
#7 See #2
#8 Clean them after every session with a bit of surgical spirits and paper towel. Makes a world of difference. Mine goes rusty quickly too if I don't.

Tonedef

#1 Put it in the strings of the guitar, make a habit of it.
I've been trying, but I can be really scatterbrained, and when I do forget, that plectrum is HISTORY.

#2 Welcome to the world of guitar playing ? It does get better tho.
I usually go have a nap/play some Slap Fight/make dinner/whatever. I usually find that my best time is late at night, when I get in that zone, I can sometimes even manage to impress myself.

#3 That's annoying, thats why I don't use earphones, that and they sound really horrible.
The amp only gives the sound I want when cranked up, that would make me divorced very quickly. Besides, I suck. You don't understand how much I suck. I'd rather spare others that agony. ?
Also, the overdrive amplification hums like a box of bees, but not through the earphones.

#4 This shouldn't happen. Some guitars are better than others. Floating bridges and cheap machine heads are the culprits mostly.
The action on my guitar was way too high. I adjusted it much lower and now it just needs a tweak here and there at the start of a session, which I figure is normal.

#6 The amp should not be temperamental. That will make me put it in file 27
It doesn't always amplify when overdrive is disabled. I've tried to see if there's some sort of pattern to this behaviour, but no dice. This wouldn't be much of a problem, as I prefer a bit of distortion to bring out sustained notes, but that hum would
also drive me batshit were it not for the earphones. It was pretty much for free though, so I'm not complaining too much, although it is a bit of a heap.

#7 See #2
I swear, I'm going to pull a Marty McFly (with that HUUUUUGE ASS speaker) on the neighbours one day.

#8 Clean them after every session with a bit of surgical spirits and paper towel. Makes a world of difference. Mine goes rusty quickly too if I don't.
Exellent idea! Thanks.

AlanRatcliffe

I don't have any guitar-playing pets, but my dog hates my Ebow. ?

Squonk

I just wish I could play the darn thing ?

DaFiz

I get all excited and bang the body of the acoustic guitar which picks up and annoys the sound guy :-[

Tonedef

Squonk wrote: I just wish I could play the darn thing ?

Suuuure.

singemonkey

Sweat. The bane of my life. Whether playing or restringing, it annoys the sh!^ out of me and kills my strings which in turn kill my frets.

Headphones can be a drag. But used with an amp emulator they are a superb way to practise. Great guitar tone and the track you're trying to learn blended together and no one can be annoyed.

Oh. The other thing is that I don't have one clear place to set up and practise. Where I can just leave everything set up. I have no sound system in my front room, so I can't just keep everything set up there. But I can't leave my crap spread across the living room all the time. So there's always the annoying set-up procedure - going back and forth between rooms. Forgetting stuff. Misplacing stuff. I can wind up pretty irritated by the time I'm actually set up to go.

ezietsman

singemonkey wrote: So there's always the annoying set-up procedure - going back and forth between rooms. Forgetting stuff. Misplacing stuff. I can wind up pretty irritated by the time I'm actually set up to go.

Yep. That sucks.

Also, when you go to some people who has a guitar and amp and they keep asking you to turn the amp down, even tho its already more quiet than the TV or an acoustic guitar. Whats up with that? I hate the fact that I have to turn down the amp late at night at my own place too. Neighbours can mos wear earplugs.

samIam

Lol great thread !!

Those bloody headphones... I tend to forget about them... snag them on the neck or just rip them off my head ☹

[deleted]

1) Take off shirt.
2) Put on headphones, running cord to back or front of body depending on cord length.
3) Put shirt back on.
4) Buya?

raithza

Neighbours... just the other day my neighbour had to nerve to knock on my door at 2.15am!!! luckily i was still up practicing drums.

LooneyAtTheGate

1. Headphones catching on things and other cable irritations.... I thought when i grew up everything would be wireless??? >☹

2. Dropping your pick but when looking down to pick it up you find that it has fallen into a wormhole to another dimension, never to be seen for another 7 years.
My answer? Buy 10 plectrums EVERY time you go to the music store and scatter millions of them around like so much dust ?

3. Those extension pedal things that are battery operated but are always activated when they're plugged in: You pick up your guitar ready for a jam and see that you've left the jack in the whole night .... One expensive 9V battery down the drain >☹ >☹ >☹

AndrewD

Carry equipment to gigs, especially my amp.

And yeah plectrums love playing hide and seek...

[deleted]

AndrewD wrote: Carry equipment to gigs, especially my amp.

Yes, that's a biggie. Makes you wish you ONLY did those gigs where they give you a towel and a bottle of water and ask you which stack you'd like to use. :'(

singemonkey

Stratisfear wrote:
AndrewD wrote: Carry equipment to gigs, especially my amp.
Yes, that's a biggie. Makes you wish you ONLY did those gigs where they give you a towel and a bottle of water and ask you which stack you'd like to use. :'(

Or that you played a teeny, tiny amplifier and had one of those guitars that can change tuning instantly.

On the subject of scattering picks, does anyone else find that the more you have, the faster they disappear? I seem to be able to hold on to one for ever, but can lose six in a week if I have 'em.

ActionArnie

Clumsy drummers knocking your beautiful axe over stand and all .... sorry just doesn't cut it. I can still see it fall in slow motion in my mind >☹

guidothepimmp

hitting the vol knob when rocking out...

DonovanB

singemonkey wrote:On the subject of scattering picks, does anyone else find that the more you have, the faster they disappear? I seem to be able to hold on to one for ever, but can lose six in a week if I have 'em.

That is amazingly true....

Was I the only one who looked at this thread and thought,"I don't have a pet that plays guitar."

I bought a trolley to haul my gear in one trip. I hate stairs now. Even before the trolley they were a pain but this makes it worse.

And I hate rocking up to a gig with security and they want to check my guitar case for weapons. They watch too much "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" or "Desperado."

Riaan

On the subject of scattering picks, does anyone else find that the more you have, the faster they disappear? I seem to be able to hold on to one for ever, but can lose six in a week if I have 'em.

You lose them even faster if you have toddlers. Picks tend to crop up in the most amazing places...under pillows, in shoes, under the toilet seat, etc.