BS: hello hello

Subject: BS: hello hello
From: winterchild
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:25 PM

hello, folks!

GLAD to be here!

Onceaponatime, I used to drop in here nowandthen,under another name, and had alotoffun. The sheer volume of threads while I had a better half and a life would have me dropping out again, reluctantly. Now I have a comp at home and not much of a life, I look forward to dropping in often. Looking to improve my life, I plan to take up the guitar, which I once studied briefly as a child, so I may eventually have something to contribute, too.

Winterchild

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: nutty
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:36 PM

Welcome Winterchild ..... I'm glad that you have come in out of the cold.

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Alice
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:40 PM

Welcome back. Enjoy.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Amos
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 03:08 PM

Hey there, hi there, ho there, you're as welcome as can be. Accelerate your intentions toward the guitar at once. The music within MUST be bropught out!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 03:23 PM

Welcome indeed. Hope you don't mind if I shorten your handle to WC;-)

(Only kidding!)

Cheers

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: C-flat
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 04:07 PM

Welcome Winterchild. Now sounds like a good time in your life to revisit the guitar. Plenty of freindly advice around here.

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Mudlark
Date: 11 Jan 03 - 02:29 AM

Hello, hello, you've got pretty hair...I thot this might be a request for lyrics.

Welcome, Winterchild. Get yourself a new set of strings and start pickin'...look forward to seeing you post often.

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Tinker
Date: 11 Jan 03 - 07:15 AM

This guitar thread and the long list of threads referenced to it might help in the where to start, get me going catagory. Welcome back.

Tinker

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: winterchild
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 04:52 AM

Thank you, nutty, alice, amos, c-flat, mudlark, Dave gnomen, and tinker for your warm welcome!

In from the cold is the idea. "Winterchild is warm but wild".

Amos - you've it aright; the music must out, like a cat (and like a cat, comes when it pleases, but _must_ have attention when it comes, or it goes away and comes less often).

Tinker - THANKS for the links!!! _Very_ thoughtful.

WinterChild

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Schantieman
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 04:54 AM

Hello and welcome.

Hope you feel at home here!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: winterchild
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 05:16 AM

Thank you, Steve.

I look forward to dropping in quite frequently. Some of the names are even familiar from before!

WinterC

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 05:19 AM

You have to be mad to come here, but it doesn't help. Or is it the other way round...? Well, I like it here -- draw your own conclusion!

Steve (a different one)

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Jeanie
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 05:25 AM

Welcome back to Mudcat, Winterchild.
Come and chat with us in Mudchat !

- jeanie

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: winterchild
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 05:30 AM

Jeanie -Erm - I always feel crowded on chats - everything happens so fast, and the words MOVE while you're trying to read them!

Heck, I hardly have time to read a couple of threads before I have to go away again...

And Steve; it takes a fire to put out a fire, sometimes! Two madmen/women _can_ create sanity... especially since sanity is defined by the majority!
cackle!

WinterC

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: winterchild
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 06:02 AM

Here's another question;

I don't actually have the guitar yet ('tho I've started hand exercises), I've got the money saved up, and I've been looking at guitars in music and pawn shops, asking questions, so I know a little more about guitars than I used to, but what kind of things do I look to _avoid_ in a guitar?

I mean, say I find one cheap in a small country pawn shop, and the folks there don't know anything about guitars. It doesn't seem to be cracked or warped, the neck looks straight when I look down the body end-on like one would do to check arrows, but I don't really know if I'm maybe missing something. I'm not good anymore at tuning (it's been 25 years, ferchissake), so if I tune it I can't be sure that will tell me anything.

Can anyone give me some advice?

WinterC

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: stevetheORC
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 06:41 AM

OOOOH dont go into Mudchat (they are all a bit strange in there, but pleeeese dont let them know I told you so:0)

A hearty Orcish welcome ( Before any one says anyfing I dont want to eat her heart ok:-)

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: C-flat
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 09:42 AM

You need to know if the neck is straight so looking along its length is a good place to start. Next, play an open string and then play it fretted at the twelfth fret. This should be an octave higher than the open note. Double check this by playing a harmonic note at the twelfth fret (lightly touching the string while plucking it should produce the same note as the fretted 12th fret note)
If it's a little out it could just be in need of a set-up but if it's miles out, leave it alone.
Next step would be to play single notes up each string, on each fret, listening for buzzes, rattles or flat spots.
If you're still happy that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the guitar, get comfortable and sit and play it awhile. Does it feel balanced? Is the neck-shape comfortable in your hand? Does it make you want to play it?
In the end, it's all quite subjective so you it must make you feel good when you hold it or it will stand in the corner of your room gathering dust.
I hope you find what you're looking for.(It can take a lifetime!)

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 10:23 AM

Welcome, Waterchild..

The usual warning: Be sure your shots are up to date. Some of these catfolk bite.

Good luck with the gitfiddle.

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Amos
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 10:55 AM

C-flat has the rights of it -- checking the scales, octaves and harmonics is a fast way to get a sense of how well the thing will play.. You want to listen for tone that pleases you, once you determine its accuracy. You don't want an action that is too high. (the degree the strings are raised above the fretboard, which increases as you go up the neck) such that you feel you have to work hard to make clean notes high up the neck. Action is usually adjustable, and what's acceptable depends on your muscle strength. If you don't have a lot of finger strength built up you might want to look for a good classic guitar with nylon strings. A guitar with an action that is too high can tire you out and interfere with the joy of playing.

Structurally look for something that has no body cracks. If it is second hand a few beltbuckles scratches in the back are inevitable but those are negligible. Even a lot of scratches in the pickguard area is not a bad thing necessarily, just meaning it has been played a lot, or perhaps very enthusiastically. The main thing is the accuracy of the fretting, the action, and the tone.

A

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Amos
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 03:22 PM

You might enjoy this recent thread on the subjkect of Taylor's nylon-string guitar, too.

A

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 03:56 PM

Action is usually adjustable

Except usually doesn't mean always. And only within limits when it is adjustable. Or rather, it's easy enough to raise an action that's too low, most times, but lowering one that's too high is likely to be more of a problem.

But if you find a guitar in a pawn shop looking a bit sad, but the neck looks straight, and there isn't too much room between the strings and the fretboard at the 12th fret (maybe 1/4 inch), and it feels like you'd like to bring it back to life, what's to lose? You might get a real beauty, like I did in a Cancer Charity shop for £10.

I used to drop in here now and then,under another name - that's the kind of thing to make one curious. I wonder if it was...

Anyway, welcome back. Maybe you can help settle the arguments we get here about whether the Mudcat is changed for the worse since the Good Old Days, and so forth.

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Amos
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 04:21 PM

..oh, and while you're at it, the one about the number of angels that fit on a pin's head is important, too! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: rock chick
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 04:47 PM

Wellcome home

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: winterchild
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 04:59 PM

Steve - Thank you for your warm welcome!   ....Your notion of "strange" I wonder about!

Bobert - only waterchild in summer. Too cold now... Brrrr! I'd be icegirl and too stiff-natured to hang out with you lot! ...although your friendly welcomes might melt that frost!

C-flat & Amos; Thank you for excellent advice!

McGrath - "what's to lose" - good point!

I was nobody noticeable - few if any would remember lackluster Eluned. Anyway, she was a different person; life-changes galore since then!

Mudcat seems, if anything, warmer and more welcoming to the newcomer. Sometimes folks seemed just a bit self-involved back then. Then again, ones opinion of others might reflect ones self.

Amos; As many as want to!

WinterC

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Col K
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 05:12 PM

Welcome back. Don't be afraid of the mudchat .Yes we are all mad in there but thats the fun, theres a lot of good friends waiting to talk to you there.
All the best with guitar sorry I can be of no help with that don't play any instruement myself.

Col

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Genie
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 09:00 PM

Ooooh, goody! Another geetar player! (Thank goodness it's not the accordion or banjo!) *G*

Wilkommen, Bienvenu, etc., etc.

Genie

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: kendall
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 10:04 PM

I learned something from Midchuck about checking the action. Put a nickle and a penny under the 6th string at the 12th fret. It should not be tight or loose. Then just a dime under the first string at the 12th fret. Those are the standard measurements.

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: winterchild
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 04:12 AM

ColK - thanks, maybe I'll try Mudchat when I have some hours to spare. Just now, got too much on my plate.

Thanks Genie, but I'm not a gi-taur player YET; give me a couple of months, alri'? ('thou in the meantime, you get to give LOTS of advice!)

Kendall, thanks! That sounds like something I heard oncet. I've added it to the massive file that includes everyone else's, but I think I'll remember that one easiest.

WinterC

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: Redbeard
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 09:43 AM

Hi there,
More free, and probably irrelevant, guitar advice here. First of all, don't get hung up on name brands. Many people are very dedicated to a certain brand like Martin, Gibson, Taylor, etc. but I say that you should get a guitar that sounds good to you. There are lots of old and new brands that nobody has ever heard of that are wonderful. The second thing would be to look for good tuners, they have to hold the strings at the tension you select without you having to mess around with them all the time. Also it is probably a good idea to invest in some kind of electronic tuner (nobody can tune the B string). Lastly, the soreness in your fingers and the pain in your fingertips will eventually pass.

Subject: RE: BS: hello hello
From: winterchild
Date: 02 Mar 03 - 05:08 AM

hi, hope no-one minds my reviving this thread. Just remember, it will sink back down to the bottom pretty quickly.

I just wanted to thank Redbeard for his advice and say, yeah, I remember that soreness.

Also, re the guitar, since I had an opportunity to make a trip to Poland most of Feb, I have not gotten into the Guitar Lessons yet, but I decided I should relearn how to play _before_ I buy, so I've found a friend to borrow a guitar from, and Lessons start next week.

WinterChild