The Guitar Thread

It might be worth considering having a setup job done on your acoustic guitar. It will make it easier to play and might make it sound better depending. Just a thought.

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Iā€™m a huge fan of the Godin family of guitars (seagull, Norman, etc). All made in Canada. The value you get is crazy. The prices are great, and the quality is equal to guitars 2-3x the price.

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Agreed about consulting a guitar tech about what can be done about the acoustic guitar.

I got lucky with the low-cost Breedlove cutaway nylon string that I found for sale used. The acoustic volume on it is low compared to the proper classical guitars in the showroom. The tradeoff was that this Breedlove had a low action allowed me to play chords and other stuff higher up on the neck that couldnā€™t be played on those other guitars. If I needed more volume, I could plug it into an amp. Granted the Fishman electronics that came with the Breedlove is not known for being high-end but for my purposes itā€™s ok.

I have a low end Martin 000 X1AE. Great tone and added electronics that I didnā€™t even realize where there. I went for a Taylor and walked out with the Martin. Once I picked it up I fell in love.

This will probably be my next guitar-related gear purchase. Iā€™ve put off learning how to adjust the action on my guitars, because of the fear of breaking the neck by twisting the truss rod too much in the wrong direction. But apparently, itā€™s not that easy to bust a neck like that, unless youā€™re strong enough to pinch grip a heavy boulder with one hand, tear a thick book in half, etc.

The truss rod and string action gauges should be enough for me. Anything requiring more than that, Iā€™ll still get a pro involved.

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I really recommend not to order a guitar online, but
try out some models in a shop.
For 1000 ā‚¬ there should be a good one that fits for you.
It`s also interesting to test different versions
of the same model. More often than not they
are quite different, especially cheaper guitars.
Some years ago I nearlly bought the Martin 000 15 finalform has mentioned.
I love that guitar, but I didnt buy it because
I donĀ“t want to take care too much of a guitar.
That guitar would never get outdoors and it
would make me nervous everytime small kids (or anybody) get near to it.

Thanks everyone for your answers !

About servicing the guitar, I actually do it every year and the last time they changed the bridge but eventually I wonā€™t get anything better out of it (Cort mr730fx), hence I want to change.
It sounds quite good plugged but unplugged itā€™s very muffled ā€¦ And I never plug it :grin:

Godin: Iā€™m also a fan of them - since Sylvain Luc is one of my favourite guitar player. I love the sound of the A-serie or Multiac but you should plug them ā€¦ I think theyā€™re not really made to be played unplugged but I could try.
Also my dad has a Simon&Patrick (cedar) for years and it sounds fantastic! - Much better than mine for sure.

Finally, I would love to try many in shops instead of online but itā€™s not possible yet ā€¦ Buying second hand where I live sounds like the better option.

Something else,
Anyone has seen that before :open_mouth:
Theyā€™re designed/engineered close to my home town :partying_face:

https://www.lagguitars.com/en/pages/videos-hyvibe

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Do any of you use a compressor on your guitar? I recently got one of those Diamond compressor pedals but havenā€™t tried it out yet and I donā€™t have much experience with compressors in a guitar context. Would love to read about how / in which situations you guys use a compressor.

I use one! I have an Empress Compressor MK II. I did not use one for years, but itā€™s an always-on pedal for me now.

Some people say compressors cover sloppy playing, but I think thatā€™s only when things are overly compressed or the mix knob isnā€™t used/available. You can use a compressor in a way that doesnā€™t kill dynamics in playing.

I really like how it lets me swap between picking and finger style without a loss in volume, I like the added sustain, and it really just makes it sound better.

Recommendations for normal use would be to use a quicker attack and release, and use a mix knob to blend the compressed with uncompressed signal.

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Sure, Iā€™ve used a compressor off an on. People typically associate it with increasing sustain for solos, and itā€™s quite fun and addictive for that purpose.

However, I got into it more for managing my level in the mix so itā€™s not too loud or too soft. Thatā€™s why pro rhythm guitarists love using a compressor. My Walrus Deep Six compressor came with a little booklet with sample settings for rhythm guitar, lead guitar, etc - Iā€™m sure yours might have a similar quick-start sort of booklet as well.

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I used my old dynacomp for funk riffs,
my wampler mini ego is an always on effect, I pretty much only play clean guitar and for that itĀ“s perfect.
I donĀ“t even touch it, all knobs just around the middle position and IĀ“m happy.

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I use an empress compressor MK II for guitar as well. Itā€™s incredibly useful for controlling the mix, shaping the feel of the clean signal, and I often use it like a boost to drive fuzz pedals or my amp.

I sample, loop, and layer my guitar tracks a lot. Things gel a lot faster with a compressor on the front end.

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I have a JHS Orange squeezer which is great. I play fingerstyle and it help make my guitar chime a bit more and also keeps the volume more consistent when I swap over to playing chords. Also great for improving the tone of a higher wattage tube amp at lower volumes, the added compression and sustain make the amp feel a little bit more alive under your fingers.

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I have the Keeley Compressor Plus, which is like a Dyna-Comp with a blend knob (something the JHS Pulp & Peel also has). Donā€™t use it all the time but it does subtly affect clean sounds in an (almost always) positive way.

Also have a Boss Compressor Sustainer but thatā€™s for smashing drum machines throughā€¦

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Compressor : David Gilmour, at around 2mn.
I read about Dynacomp, and Boss CS2.

Funky stuff

I use a compressor on my Hx Stomp (Deluxe Comp), and Octatrackā€™s compressor.

High attack time boost the transientsā€¦

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Comp can be the missing link for some passive pups players. Can bring a rig to life with it at the front of the fx chain.

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I use a DOD milkbox compressor and sometimes a DBX over-easy.
I usually play without a pick so a little bit of compression is great for dynamics and adding a little brightness on the attack.
My other main use is to ham fist the settings and eliminate all dynamic variation for use with pedals that require accurate tracking like pitch shifters, synth pedals, etc. That combined with a single coil neck position pickup yields best results.

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Do you happen to have any videos or recordings? You are definitely one of our resident OT experts, and Iā€™d love to see how you are integrating guitar/bass into it from a workflow perspective. Iā€™ve got the guitar -> amp sim -> OT going, but Iā€™m curious what role your OT plays in that scenario.

Do you use pickup machines? Flex machines? A MIDI foot controller?

When creating a track, what is your typical flow? Make some drums on OT, record a loop, repeat for the next pattern?

Sorry for the thousand questions, Iā€™m just impressed by your knowledge, and think you might have some insights that will help me better use a very similar setup to you.

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yes octalord, pls tell us your secrets @sezare56

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No workflow yet! Still experimenting.
Sometimes I use OT as a multitrack recorder, with one shot rec trigs, but ideally Iā€™d use my big foot controllers (MFC10 and FC200).

I recently noticed that it was easy to swap a Pickup overdub recording to a Flex, even with previously plocked parameters. So Iā€™d use Pickups in that scenario only I think. Lower GAIN for recording decay is interesting too.

With Flex itā€™s also possible to overdub with mangling and decay.

Destructive looping with Octatrack - #45 by sezare56

I also process incoming audio with many rec trigs in order to process small recordings on the fly.
Exemples I already posted here too, incoming guitar only through Analog Heat as drive, no samples. Flex tracks to process recordings as drums, bass, synthā€¦with pitch, amp, fx.

Itā€™s possible to resample that and play it simply with a pattern change.

Hoping to make a decent demo one dayā€¦

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