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Hi All, as with most people, lockdown gave me the opertunity to review some of my past choices and to take up new challenges; one such challenge being to attempt playing the guitar.
At the tender age of 58, this presented its own challenges (along with being left handed), however I have overcome these and have acquired an Ibanez Artwood electric / acoustic guitar and an Epiphone Les Paul standard. To date, progress has been slow, but consistent; I have learned chords, scales (blues and western), alternate picking and a few others. Chord changed remain slow, but speed is increasing. I can play House of the rising son, locomotive breath, basic blues licks, smoke on the water and the intro to nothing else matters (when I look back, I have probably advanced a lot more than I think that I have).
All this being said, I am at the point where I am becoming increasingly more critical of my playing and the sound quality; thus could someone point me in the correct direction for:

  1. Where could I get both guitars set up correctly to improve action and reduce buzz (despite fretting correctly)?
  2. A good (patient and knowledgeable) guitar teacher to arrest any bad habits that I may have picked up and (most importantly) to improve my playing?
    I am based on the East Rand (Benoni) and would prefer anyone within the local area.
    BTW, with regards to current sound / tone, I run the LP through a Zoom G9.2tt effects unit into a Roland 30watt solid state modeling amp - I would like to (at some point) get a good valve amp to (hopefully) achieve a richer sound.
    I am not looking to get into a band, I just simply want to be able to play the guitar for friends and family (and to be able to play to the point that neighbours don't feel as though their ears are being assaulted).
    Thanks, in advance, for your assistance.
    Kind regards,
    Gary

GaryB Welcome Gary!

Congratz on picking the best habit (music 😉 ) and a grand place to ask questions (here!).

I'm not JHB based, but I hear good things about JD Customs from other members. I'm sure someone will chime in with recommendations for getting instruments setup. It's often a night vs day thing when you go from the factory setup to something that someone has taken time and care to setup. Always worth the $ - **as long as the person doing it is skilled 😁 I do my own setups now, but endured years of doing poorly until I figured it out.

Same goes for teachers - generally I reccomend being prepared to figure out what you want from one (I think you have) and then finding the right person to teach you what you want to learn. A.t.m I don't know of any in JHB, but again, I'm sure someone based up there can help. Are you prepared to do remote (skype/zoom) or prefer in person?

P.s. All the tunes you've listed are almost exactly what I started on - though my very first was The Door's "Break on Through" ðŸĪŠ

    Welcome, enjoy

    And +1 to everyone Studmissile suggested

    • V8 likes this.

    Thanks to all for such prompt replies.
    @V8 - remote / Zoom lessons are an option and thanks for the suggestions.
    @studmissile and guidothepimmp, thanks for the suggested contacts in Benoni.
    Based on the above, I now have a place to start and I think that correct setup is going to be the first priority.
    Thanks again everyone.

    • V8 likes this.

    Bluetone Thanks for the update. I see that his site is still active; I'll give them a call when I'm back in Benoni.

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