What annoys you most about guitars or guitar playing?

Jack-Flash-Jr · 2013-11-12T11:45:12+00:00

I'm thinking general things (so not "I get annoyed when I try to play a Flying V sitting down")... and if anyone has a solution, shout! For me: changing tre...

What annoys you most about guitars or guitar playing?

RobbieZ

I basically have two major ones:
1. My own insecurities
2. Keep on comparing myself with others and then thinking I am just not good enough
3. Getting things perfect in practice just to fumble it all during Sunday worship >☹

I have to add on a positive note, I am very blessed to have family and friends who does not give up on me and keep on encouraging me. Thanks guys! ?

PeteM

Airguitar wrote: https://plus.google.com/106213758079976171764/posts/JkkLiVBe8ak

Do I hear an amen?

Snigger... not too loudly though, the missus might hear.

LooneyAtTheGate

The usual.. Plectrum teleporting, cables, missus interrupting, string impalement..
Playing it perfect until I hit record then it all goes pear-shaped :'(

warrenpridgeon

RobbieZ wrote: I basically have two major ones:
1. My own insecurities
2. Keep on comparing myself with others and then thinking I am just not good enough
3. Getting things perfect in practice just to fumble it all during Sunday worship >☹

I have to add on a positive note, I am very blessed to have family and friends who does not give up on me and keep on encouraging me. Thanks guys! ?

The "live" scenario always makes things somehow tougher...I've messed up super easy parts just because of that. With time it will get easier/better and you will find that you make less mistakes. Also, most of the people in the congregation won't even realise you made a mistake (unless it is really huge and the band stops). A wrong chord or being off time isn't THAT noticeable by your average Joe ? so keep on keeping on.

Psean

warrenpridgeon wrote:
RobbieZ wrote: I basically have two major ones:
1. My own insecurities
2. Keep on comparing myself with others and then thinking I am just not good enough
3. Getting things perfect in practice just to fumble it all during Sunday worship >☹

I have to add on a positive note, I am very blessed to have family and friends who does not give up on me and keep on encouraging me. Thanks guys! ?
The "live" scenario always makes things somehow tougher...I've messed up super easy parts just because of that. With time it will get easier/better and you will find that you make less mistakes. Also, most of the people in the congregation won't even realise you made a mistake (unless it is really huge and the band stops). A wrong chord or being off time isn't THAT noticeable by your average Joe ? so keep on keeping on.

Yeah, for me it's usually the nerves before a gig, especially during the first song, as well as fumbling stuff I've nailed in practice. That said, the more I play in public, the more comfortable I'm getting and the less of a 'thing' it's becoming.

Psean

Jack Flash Jr wrote: For me: changing treble strings (getting it to sit nicely and neatly in the tuning peg)

I hate restringing the treble side of a 3+3 headstock. Fender style single sided ones are just so much easier.

NorioDS

Squonk already mentioned it but... having the time to play and ZERO inspiration. You pick up the guitar and it's "plang plang plang".

Other days, when you have no time, that's when you come up with some awesome riff that you KNOW you'll never repeat coz you didn't record it and now you have to leave ?

dojedagonzalez

I Agree with pretty much all above, adding:

1) Stepping on my cable and get it unplug from my guitar >☹

2) That the guitar Strap snaps out, dropping my guitar to the floor (several times ☹)

Chocklit_Thunda

Psean wrote:
Jack Flash Jr wrote: For me: changing treble strings (getting it to sit nicely and neatly in the tuning peg)
I hate restringing the treble side of a 3+3 headstock. Fender style single sided ones are just so much easier.

There is a way! And I will tell it to you as soon as I remember it! All my guits are perfectly in tune ?

EDIT: Here you go. Skip to 7:04
=

Also... Corksniffers annoy me.... Can't we just take them all, stick em in a room with glowing hot tubes on the floors and walls and then fill the room with GERMANIUM chloride gas?

dojedagonzalez wrote: 1) Stepping on my cable and get it unplug from my guitar >☹

2) That the guitar Strap snaps out, dropping my guitar to the floor (several times ☹)

1) wrap the cord through your strap once THEN plug in. It wont pull out.

2) Strap Locks. Or adjust your playing technique so that you're at least holding the neck enough so that IF it fails you can just grab the neck before it crashes to the ground.

IceCreamMan

hey its all about playing .......

2 things grate me and I guess the first one is more about life per se , big ego's......playing a guitar well does not make one god...nope not even Clapton....it just makes one a good guitar player,,cept eddie cos he is god u understand

second is GAS..damn it is expensive

warrenpridgeon

Chocklit_Thunda wrote:
Psean wrote:
Jack Flash Jr wrote: For me: changing treble strings (getting it to sit nicely and neatly in the tuning peg)
I hate restringing the treble side of a 3+3 headstock. Fender style single sided ones are just so much easier.
There is a way! And I will tell it to you as soon as I remember it! All my guits are perfectly in tune ?

Also... Corksniffers annoy me.... Can't we just take them all, stick em in a room with glowing hot tubes on the floors and walls and then fill the room with GERMANIUM chloride gas?

dojedagonzalez wrote: 1) Stepping on my cable and get it unplug from my guitar >☹

2) That the guitar Strap snaps out, dropping my guitar to the floor (several times ☹)
1) wrap the cord through your strap once THEN plug in. It wont pull out.

2) Strap Locks. Or adjust your playing technique so that you're at least holding the neck enough so that IF it fails you can just grab the neck before it crashes to the ground.

Ahhh...straplocks... CHECK THEM OFTEN... They start to wear out and can pop loose... That's what happened to my guitar... Ironically... the new set I had ordered arrived two weeks too late to save my guitar.

Bob-Dubery

Looking after the nails on my right hand. If they get to a certain length then the guitar starts sounding good, but also they start knocking against things and get chipped and torn. Sometimes putting my hand in my pocket to grab my car keys can be enough to tear a nail.

Also, and in case you hadn't noticed, they grow! A little each day. So I suppose I could file them every day - but even then it's how much to file, what angle blah de blah.

And you have to have them just so. Especially the little bit that turns down to meet the side of the finger. Get that sucker the wrong shape and it snags on the strings - not a lot, but just enough so you notice and that's off-putting.

Protecting and maintaining right hand nails is the biggest schlep for me. Generally a torn nail happens a couple of days before some occasion on which I HAVE to play.

Left hand is easy. Necessary, but easy. Just cut 'em down to nothing and file any rough edges away.

Last night I cut them back a chunk. Now everything feels different and the 3rd string has got quieter.

Meh.

Kush

1) Not having a jam room/ studio in my small town house and having to set up my rig every time I want to practice because I keep my guitars in their cases and carry bags because the thought of them getting dust in nooks and crannies I can never clean makes me cringe.

2) Smudge marks on my PRS copy which reappear as soon as I start playing making those 5 minutes I spent wiping her down seem like a waste of time

3) My sound engineer at church who keeps telling me my Guitar-> Wah -> Fender Mustang 1 Amp -> Marshall 2x12 solid state (modded speaker out from Mustang goes into "CD in" jack to make use of larger 12 inch Celestion speakers which make me sound fuller and less tinny) is weird. I have some choice words for him that I can never say out loud because we are in church every time he goes on about my "weird" set-up.

4) Sharkfin picks

5) The fact that there is no law against Cash Crusaders selling and marketing their First Act, Sanchez and Ritmuller stage props as guitars.

6) People who believe playing Guitar Hero somehow makes them actual guitar players.

....a-a-a-a aaah. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders now. Very cathartic, this.

warrenpridgeon

Kush wrote: 1) Not having a jam room/ studio in my small town house and having to set up my rig every time I want to practice because I keep my guitars in their cases and carry bags because the thought of them getting dust in nooks and crannies I can never clean makes me cringe.

2) Smudge marks on my PRS copy which reappear as soon as I start playing making those 5 minutes I spent wiping her down seem like a waste of time

3) My sound engineer at church who keeps telling me my Guitar-> Wah -> Fender Mustang 1 Amp -> Marshall MG250 DFX (modded speaker out from Mustang goes into "CD in" jack to make use of larger 12 inch Celestion speakers which make me sound fuller and less tinny) is weird. I have some choice words for him that I can never say out loud because we are in church every time he goes on about my "weird" setup.

4) Sharkfin picks

5) The fact that there is no law against Cash Crusaders selling and marketing their First Act, Sanchez and Ritmuller stage props as guitars.

6) People who believe playing Guitar Hero somehow makes them actual guitar players.

....a-a-a-a aaah. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders now. Very cathartic, this.

Have you demo-d the difference to him? And often, from what I have seen so far, "sound engineers" at church will just be guys who want to help out and don't have the training or knowledge to do it properly... eish... YMMV tho...

V8

Airguitar wrote: https://plus.google.com/106213758079976171764/posts/JkkLiVBe8ak

Do I hear an amen?

Hahaha, good one! My solution is to play loud. My mate popped by last nite, but I couldn't hear him knock or call the phone because I was bangin away on the bass, rather loudly ?

My top 3 :

Fasle marketing of guitar products. I bought a Korg G3 (decades ago) coz' Dimebag Darrel (RIP) endorsed it. Tried for 2 years to get a Pantera tone only to discover a while later that he'd never ever actually seen or used one. He eventually apologised for ever associating his name to it...
Re-stringing steel string acoustics. A job I dislike so much, I just don't play em anymore.
Reputable shops that sell new guitars that are badly setup

BobZ_1989

dojedagonzalez wrote: 2) That the guitar Strap snaps out, dropping my guitar to the floor (several times ☹)

Try buying a 4 pack of Grolch beer, get the dumpies as they have that relocking lid, take the red washers off and use those as strap locks, had them on my strat for a year now and my straps have never come off since.

My number 1 gripe is with my pinkie finger, that little s#it has a mind of its own!

Paddy

Being 31 y/o and having arthritis and not being able to play as often and for as long as I like. I'm busy recovering from a problem with my strumming arm elbow. And I've really been really wanting to play lately but can only manage 5min then I'm done.

So it boils down to not being able to play due to injury/sickness.

But the big problem with not being able to play for whatever reason is that your GAS increases significantly. At least mine does.

And +1 on the wife. Either I'm being too loud (while playing eclectic with headphones on) or the "could you please do..." just as I start playing.

arjunmenon

Paddy wrote:
And +1 on the wife. Either I'm being too loud (while playing eclectic with headphones on) or the "could you please do..." just as I start playing.

Or the "How many guitars/pedals/amps do you need?" one

Jack-Flash-Jr

? Hah, this thread is comedy gold! And a little thin on solutions :-[ ?

arjunmenon

Kush wrote:
3) My sound engineer at church who keeps telling me my Guitar-> Wah -> Fender Mustang 1 Amp -> Marshall 2x12 solid state (modded speaker out from Mustang goes into "CD in" jack to make use of larger 12 inch Celestion speakers which make me sound fuller and less tinny) is weird. I have some choice words for him that I can never say out loud because we are in church every time he goes on about my "weird" set-up.

? This has happened to me.
My setup is a little different though (Strat -> TC Polytune -> AMT vol pedal -> Craig Amps Dual Drive -> MI Tube Zone -> BBE Sonic Stomp -> Eventide delay -> one out to a Boss princeton pedal (and to FOH via H&K Redbox) and one out to a Craig Amps Brit 15).
Our FOH (is a qualified engineer and does know what he is doing) kept griping about how much easier my life would be if i just used a multi-effects pedal (he does have a point). He then told me what amazing tone his son was getting from a Boss GT10 (not slating it and the GT10 is capable of a lot).
I suggested his son come out and play with us.
Roll to next week, son arrives with a Jackson and said GT10 in hand, plugs the headphone out to the desk...and 3 things happened:

1. He couldn't hear himself and neither could the rest of the band.
2. His tone was quite terrible (obviously the pedal wasn't tweaked to go straight to FOH)
3. Our FOH guy tells me i should just stick with my current setup.

?