Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Essentials


Knowing the parts that make up your guitar will help you immensely when you first pick it up. It’s not essential, of course.

Many people are able to get along fine with out knowing every nook and cranny of their guitar, like the truss rod or x-bracing. But it definitely won’t hurt, and the more familiar you are with your baby, the easier it will be to pick up.

There are a few parts of the guitar, however, that you’re gonna need to know to really understand what we're talkin about here.

1- Machine Heads (a.k.a. Tuners) | The Tuners allow you to tune the strings to a certain note (go figure). They are located at the end of the neck and are screwed into the headstock.

2- Frets | The frets made out of steel and allow for the strings to vibrate and therefore create a tone. If you hear a rattling when you play, it’s most commonly a result of a lack of pressure applied to the strings. Quick solution: press down harder.

3- Neck | The neck is bolted (or glued) to the body and is separated from the strings by the fret board. Moving your hands “up the neck” means to move toward the body, moving “down the neck” means to move away from the body.

4- Body | The body on the acoustic is used as a resonator for the sounds resulting from the vibrations of the strings. The strings are usually strung through the top of the body (the side with the sound hole) and then inserted through the tuners where they are tightened and tuned. The body on the electric also resonates but does not contribute as much to sound as the body of the acoustic. It houses the electronics including the pickups, the volume/tone knobs, and the wirings to the output connector (where you insert your cable that connects to the amp).

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Tuning | No matter how good you get, if your guitar isn't tuned correctly then it just won't sounds right. There are a shit ton of ways to tune your guitar but the most common tuning for a guitar is called Standard Tuning.

Standard Tuning : starting with the thickest strings you tune to E, then to the next gauge down is A, then to D, then to G then to B and then the thinnest string is a higher E (E-A-D-G-B-E). There are a bunch of tuners online you can find, the best one I have found one that offers a lot of other tuning presets, which can be very helpful. When tuning your guitar it is a good idea to tune through the strings once, then retune a couple more time because new strings take a little while to settle in.

The Pick | When you play guitar, you want it to feel right. I know when I first started; I had no idea on what the different kinds of picks were out there and what they meant. I saw some with naked ladies on them, different grooves, and different flexes. Basically it comes down to what you like to play with.

When you hold the pick make sure you hold the broadside with the narrow end plucking the string, as if its an arrow pointing toward the guitar.

GhostCaseKilla Pick (pun intended):

Personally, we at the Albatross Method aren’t into all that fancy stuff and stay pretty classic. Our choice of pick is a medium flex.

**Tross Tip**

While holding the pick, keep your hand relaxed and start by brushing over the strings, if you still get caught on the them try a lighter guage pick. They bend much easier and help get the motion of strumming to feel more natural

Now get out there and play!

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