Just got my new Fender American Standard Telecaster today with Fender Super Champ XD amp.
They are both incredible!!

Piano is just such a great fundamental starter instrument, and i glad i started out there... It's the best way to learn the basics of music theory. There's just no bullshit: one key representing one semitone and it just goes on until there's no more. You can press as many as it is humanly possible at once and do any combination of any notes, all with two hands.

Still everyone wants to play guitar. Maybe it's because they can jump around carrying it, slide up and down the fretboard, bend it, twang it, distort it, pick it, pluck it, ... etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Kasper:
Piano is just such a great fundamental starter instrument, and i glad i started out there... It's the best way to learn the basics of music theory. There's just no bullshit: one key representing one semitone and it just goes on until there's no more. You can press as many as it is humanly possible at once and do any combination of any notes, all with two hands.

Still everyone wants to play guitar. Maybe it's because they can jump around carrying it, slide up and down the fretboard, bend it, twang it, distort it, pick it, pluck it, ... etc.

There are a lot of reasons why people want to play guitar more than piano; one of them just being guitar being the prototypical rock instrument. I think a lot of people overlook the timbral possibilities of the piano, though; you can totally mic it and do weird shit with it. I have to take a few semesters of piano for my music degree; and in order to keep myself amused while practicing, I'd load a piano patch up and throw an auto-wah on it or something. It actually sounded pretty cool.

And you're absolutely right about theory; though I think it's easier to see certain things on guitar, like transposition. A piano, you start to get lost in the black keys whereas you don't see a difference between a minor third in C or a minor third in D on a guitar -- it's just three frets up.

quote:

Originally posted by Steven.:
What's lame about piano (not the instrument intself) is that a lot of people are really good at reading piano music and playing it and can't get beyond that somehow. Like you have people playing these impossible fucking songs and they can't just play chords that are written out, let alone jazz chords. I don't get how someone can become so accomplished at an instrument without understanding some fundamentals of theory beyond just reading.

As far as piano as an instrument, it's probably the best haha.

That's actually part of the focus of our piano curriculum for the degree -- it's not just learning how to play pieces in front of you, but how to read jazz charts and improv stuff over them, things like that too. It's a cool idea, but I'm pretty horrendous...

This thing is sweet. Great for heavy overdrive.

Question for those of you with tube amps - mine has been making crackling noises and the sound has been going in and out randomly. I've tried all the inputs, with different guitars and cables... so it's definitely the amp. Is that just a sign that tubes need to be replaced?

quote:

Originally posted by atkinsm8792:
Just got my new Fender American Standard Telecaster today with Fender Super Champ XD amp.
They are both incredible!!

sounds like you did pretty good!! American Teles are the real deal. I was WAY close to getting a Super Champ XD, too, but my card got denied (sometimes my credit card doesn't fly in Japan). It worked out because I got a couple of free japanese amps instead!

By the way, I think the solution to all this piano vs guitar talk is quite obvious. Have you guys heard of this sweet new instrument called a keytar? It's the bomb.

In all seriousness, though, I think the portability of the guitar combined with the price and image is what sells them to most people. Personally, I wanted to start with piano, but I got a guitar for free so I didn't really complain. I learned plenty of theory despite my guitar-roots... it probably just took a skoshi more effort than it usually would (and some abstract thinking).

If you guys are actually serious about theory and want to delve into some of the interesting differences between piano and guitar, you should really check out this guy named Pat Martino. He has an essay that he wrote on his website for free... it's really insightful and quite an interesting read if you're up for the challenge (or maybe it's easy for you). He meanders into some spiritual territory a bit and goes on about i-ching for a while, but the meat and potatos (the theory bit) is absolutely wonderful.

Here is the direct link:
http://web.mac.com/noshufuru/iWeb/The%20Nature%20of%20Guitar/Welcome.html

There's a few youtube videos of Pat Martino, and to be hoenest, I haven't seen a-one of them that really shows what kind of a player he is-- you have to hear his recordings to get an idea (he did a wes montgomery tribute album a year or so back that's pretty solid).

As for brian and his tubes-- I wish I could help you more, but my only experience with tubes is with old organs. I think most of the time, crackling is caused by wiring problems or cheap hardware. As far as I could tell... with organs when a tube starts to fade out things just get a lil more quiet than usual. Again, though, I'm really not in a position to answer your question difinitively, so I hope someone else can help you out.

quote:

Originally posted by .brian:


This thing is sweet. Great for heavy overdrive.

... jonny greenwood nerd.

It's funny that you guys post all your gear and talk about how great it is etc, but lets hear if you can actually use it and make some decent music. This thread is pointless.

Kasper - hah, yeah I guess so. I really do love the sound of it though, that Contour knob can change it from a mellow overdrive to metal-esque distortion so fast.

Punk as f**k - Stop being so damn negative.

quote:

Originally posted by Steven.:

quote:

Originally posted by atkinsm8792:
Just got my new Fender American Standard Telecaster today with Fender Super Champ XD amp.
They are both incredible!!

sounds like you did pretty good!! American Teles are the real deal. I was WAY close to getting a Super Champ XD, too

The range of effects and the high quality sound for the money is astonishing. Tone control on the tele is awesome as well.

brian you need to regulate this bitch

quote:

Originally posted by pile of wood:
brian you need to regulate this bitch

Can't ban someone for something like that.

Atkinism - I'd love to get a real American Tele some day... but my Thinline is surprisingly high quality for being Mexican made (at least in my opinion). I think my next guitar will be a G&L ASAT Bluesboy, those things look perfect to me.

I think punk has a good point thouhg... gear is kinda pointless unless you use it.

One of the big problems I have with gear is peoples tendency to say nothing but praise about them... everything is the best when it comes to gear, which makes it extremely hard to really figure out what's good or not.

I think sometimes people like the way a certain guitarist or group sounds and they choose their gear based off of those facts when in actuality those groups or individuals are using gear that has been customized to help cope with the faults of their gear.

Also, about the super champ xd-- it mainly appealed to me because it had some neat features for a budget amp. The only problem I have with it is the fact that it has all of those onboard effects... from what I can tell, they aren't really adjustable which basically renders them pointless in most situations. I'd rather them just get rid of the effects and decrease the price or increase the quality of other parts of the amp (or better yet, focus on one effect).

quote:

Originally posted by .brian:

quote:

Originally posted by pile of wood:
brian you need to regulate this bitch

Can't ban someone for something like that.

Atkinism - I'd love to get a real American Tele some day... but my Thinline is surprisingly high quality for being Mexican made (at least in my opinion). I think my next guitar will be a G&L ASAT Bluesboy, those things look perfect to me.

Yeah if you're going to spend the extra money, it's definitely worth it. Because of the exchange rate now though, there's no way I can afford a G&L, in England, though they are gorgeous. I'm lucky I got my tele before the new year as the prices will go up again.

Also Steven, I understand your concerns with the amp. However, you can buy a footswitch which lets you control the effects. Admittedly, you can only control one at a time with it but it's still great and worth it in my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by atkinsm8792:
Also Steven, I understand your concerns with the amp. However, you can buy a footswitch which lets you control the effects. Admittedly, you can only control one at a time with it but it's still great and worth it in my opinion.

I don't simply mean toggling them on/off... I meant it more in terms of fine tuning.

Speaking of exchange rates... I got about an 18% raise since the dollar has become so weak and I'm paid in yen! Incidentally, I'm still buying stuff with my american bank account =\.

quote:

Originally posted by .brian:

quote:

Originally posted by pile of wood:
brian you need to regulate this bitch

Can't ban someone for something like that.

Atkinism - I'd love to get a real American Tele some day... but my Thinline is surprisingly high quality for being Mexican made (at least in my opinion). I think my next guitar will be a G&L ASAT Bluesboy, those things look perfect to me.

I didn't mean ban him. Maybe just shove a virtual boot up his loosey goosey anal canal. Isn't there a command for that?

Oh and a G&L Bluesboy huh? Doesn't someone in that one band we like play one of those? laff. I want one too, to be honest. Thinking of turning my back on playing heavy shit and trading in my SG Standard for something like a Telecaster or Bluesboy. I'd add an Ibanez Tubescreamer to the pedal collection for when I needed some fuzz.

Right now I'm torn, though. I have $500 to spend on new gear and I'm leaning towards an Mbox 2 but at the same time I want a new toy to mess around with musically, like a MicroKorg synthesizer ($300) and maybe that Tubescreamer. SHIT!!!!!