For a bit longer save 50% off my new course Elevated Open Chords here: samuraiguitartheory.com/p/elevated-open-chords?coupon_code=launch50&product_id=5063529
Played with a bassist who removed the ground pin from his amp. If he made contact with anyone else at any point while playing, we'd both get shocked. We banned that amp from rehearsal REAL quick.
Although you should never remove the ground pin that issue you describe is not caused by a missing ground pin and can occur on amps that have a ground pin. It's very dangerous even with a ground pin and is usually a fairly simple fix for an amp tech. There should never be current on the ground.
100% Samurai is right on ear plugs for soundchecks, especially when you start playing mid-tier and up venues. I had perfect hearing before I got big with my blues trio, and one show we did a soundcheck and my right ear was right next to a PA stack that was "muted" according to the soundguy. Next thing I know a sharp feedback hit me and I instantly lost some hearing, ear bled, and started me down the painful road of tinnitus. I was 23, and now at 31 I'm partially deaf in that ear and literally can't use ear plugs live cos I won't be able to make out definition in the music
Years ago my band got to the mid-tier level and was invited to play the big showcase clubs, but never did :(. To fill these crowded mid level rooms we were pretty loud. I never turned my 100w Marshall past about 5 and only brought one cab to the gigs, a set up which was plenty loud enogh. We had the equipment to be really loud though! Like everyone else back in the day I didn't wear earplugs. We were always careful to position our speakers such that they weren't pointing in band members ears. It sort of worked over the five years that I played out. Even so, I've had mild tinnitus for fifty three years. Most of the time the "buzzing" is low enough so it isn't much of a bother although I have lost a bit of my high frequency hearing. The bottom line is use ear plugs and save your hearing. -dave
Absolutely correct on ear protection. Since unwelcome discovery of a horrendous feedback potential of my not so high powered pa system and not overly powerful amp, I have the great joy of partial deafness in one ear, and frequent ringing in my ears. This incident took place when I was 18, so, even given 50 years to get better, it hasn't.
One I would add: Never bring a piece of gear to a gig that you didn't use in practice. I had a bandmate bring a delay pedal to the biggest gig we'd ever played. As we were setting up, we got a microburst of rain and didn't get to sound check. In about the third song of our performance, he hit the pedal for a solo and it sent a burst of feedback that echoed throughout the gorgeous mountain setting that we were playing. We weren't invited back.
My fave is seeing two guitars and a bass all tuning up from different brands of expensive tuner ... ignoring each other because they don't know any better. Oh, and those stupid things clipped to headstocks or, ow, my sides, music stands!
@@RideAcrossTheRiver Within fairly broad limits, 440 Hertz is still going to be 440 Hertz, regardless of manufacturer. I keep a very sensitive Seiko chromatic tuner in my case, and always use it before going on stage. While on stage, I use a Snark SN-10 tuner pedal, and it always aligns perfectly with my Seiko tuner. The days of having everyone pass around the same tuner "just so we're all on the same page," passed long ago. That's a good thing, too, because it was a colossal waste of time and energy!😉
@@That70sGuitarist So, The days of having everyone "on the same page," passed long ago. That's why today's bands sound like shit a lot of the time. What we call 'bad improvements'
@@mal2ksc If there's a house piano, you have to tune to that. Also, everyone having different tuners ends up, nine out of ten, exactly the way you describe it. Everyone must tune up from one known, reliable machine. That's the only method that works. Anything less is amateur buffoonery
Back in the 70s (when electrocution amps were common) I would leave the high string untrimmed so I could brush it briefly against the mic. If it threw a spark I knew it was time to flip the amp polarity switch.
If it was in the UK, a removed Earth pin would cause the plug socket to not let the live and neutral pins to plug in. The Earth pin opens two doors thar cover the other two holes.
This is the single best "beginner" guitar video I have ever seen. I'm a long-time player, so I personally didn't see/hear about anything unknown to me, BUT I would vouch for EVERY concept and every word presented here. This advice is golden. Much of it are ideas that I've offered to my guitar students for decades. Also, there are no wasted words in this presentation. Excellent job.
I love that you mention using jealousy to create something positive, rather than making it toxic, or negative. An awesome outlook, takes practice, but it is such good advice! Thank you
This actually highlights the key difference between "jealousy" and "envy", IMHO. "Envy" is looking at something that somebody else has, and wishing you had it too. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It can lead you to work towards getting better, etc. "Jealousy" is feeling that somebody else shouldn't have what they have (and you should have it instead). That is very different. Jealousy is pretty much always toxic, but envy can sometimes be useful and productive, if directed in the right ways.
@@foogod4237 I like this way of viewing things. Thank you, I will use this phrasing in the future, as I really like it. English is not my native language, so picking up phrases like this is useful.
Dude, I had this tech who screwed up my board when I had him re-wire it. And he was SO adamant about me removing the ground cause it'll be better. Thanks for confirming he was full of it haha
I was jamming with friends, in HS. None of us had cut off our ground pin. But... apparently, we were on two separate circuits of the electrical system. I was playing bass, and I swung around, at the same moment our guitar player was swinging in the opposite direction. Our strings connected, and with a flash, spot welded together. We were both forced to change 4 strings.
Ahahah, I remember my naive teenage self and a buddy of mine getting shocked by lack of circuit awareness. I was at this guy's top floor suite of an old-looking house, we had our little amps plugged in on opposite sides of the room, one of us with a guitar and the other with a bass. While rocking out, my high-energy friend calls for us to quickly swap guitars. We both grab the necks of the others' instrument, suddenly I feel my guitar vibrating really fast, we see a spark fly between our strings and both feel a bit of a shock. Luckily we and our instruments survived.
You raise a lot of important points in this video. The ones that resonated the most with me were the fingernail thing and the amp ground pin. I always keep my fingernails trimmed so short that there's no visible white end, but I clip them first, then file the rest of the way. It's a lot quicker and easier than just filing them all the way down. Back when I was a busker, often playing as much as 8-10 hours a day (not including practicing and teaching) I always kept a tube of cyanoacrylate glue in my guitar case, but it wasn't necessarily just for the occasional fingernail peel situation. I would often get little rips or tears where the fingertip callous gave way to normal skin, and I'd use the superglue to create a seal over the little rip. It also acted as a sort of "instant callous," as I had a bad habit of gnawing on rough bits of skin on my fingertips. As for the grounding pin, I once knew an idiot who cut off his amp's grounding pin. He thought it improved his tone, until he got a bad shock and ended up in hospital from stepping on a wet spot on the stage at an outdoor concert. He got the power plug replaced after he got out of the hospital, some three days later and a whole lot wiser.🤣
My Dad was a Factory Inspector (Now referred to as an HSE Inspector). Most of the fatalities he was called to investigate were where people had bypassed the things that were there to keep them safe. Deaths from removing the Earth from an electric socket were quite common. Some other common causes of fatalities or severe injuries were: Using Duck Tape to cover bare wires; Jamming a spanner to disable the protective shield on cutting machinery, Scaffolding, being a farmer.......
A ground isolator in the signal path is the fundamentally correct way to eliminate system ground loop problems. A transformer does this by magnetically coupling the signal across an electrically insulated barrier. Ground loop problems are caused by small voltage differences that normally exist between the ‘grounds’ at the send and receive ends of a signal cable. In an unbalanced interface, this ground voltage difference directly adds to the signal. This generally produces hum or buzz in audio. In a balanced interface, the ground voltage difference may reveal inadequate common-mode rejection at the input stage of the equipment or other design defects.
Things which are connected via ground-referenced cabling should have grounding paths that connect to the earth through the same metal grounding stake. If two parts of a building are fed from different utility service entrances and have separate grounding stakes, a path from one grounding stake through a safety ground wire into a mixing board, through a ground-referenced audio cable, a player's amp, the amp's safety ground, and another ground stake may be annoying, but if anything the player might touch has a grounding connection to the same ground stake as the player's amp which is at least as solid as any connection it might have to the mixing board's ground stake, that would be far less dangerous than floating the player's amp ground. Doing that would eliminate hum, but also mean the player's body might provide the best available grounding path between something that's connected to what would be the player's amp's grounding stake and the mixing board's grounding stake.
As a bassist especially practicing with an amp it's very different as there's some SERIOUS air movement! Makes playing extremely different with all the air around you moving.
One I learned recently, if you played a gig or rehearsel where you sweat. Make sure to not put the guitar straight back into the case/bag. Let the sweat evaporate for a bit. Same with tube amps and quick changeovers, give tubes as much time to cool down before moving them after a gig.
I put airtags inside my guitars control cavity using a strong 3M double sided tape to stick it to the plastic cover. I also make sure the speaker is disconnected so that other people can't ping it. That way if the guitar gets removed from it's case or a thief thinks the airtag that's following them is in the case they have to work a little harder to find it. Also very much yes on the ear protection! It's not uncool or expensive to protect your ears!
The only time I feared losing my hearing completely was during a soundcheck when I was in the audience. An electric auto harp made the most howling feedback and I spent the night thinking the PA sucked. It was my favorite gig as a spectator besides that. The ringing in my ears cleared up after two and a half weeks.
12 years ago I invited another band to my rehearsal studio, their drummer hit the crash and china so hard all night and because we were crowded I was like a foot away from it. I definetily lost some hearing permanently that night and it still rings, but I got used to it and don't notice it unless I'm sleepless at night. But, a year ago I went to a Death Metal concert in a bar and everybody and their mother's dog had half and full stacks for a place where they literally only played for the 10 other musicians (there was no audience, since everybody forgot to promote it) and I was DEAF for two days, I was so, so, so scared that I would never be able to hear good enough again to do anything music related, but it cleared up. I swore never to attend extremely loud music events again.
thank you for mentioning the grounding pin, it's disturbing to know how much this gets recommended. especially cause most people will never know how dangerous it actually is.
That little tip about tuning. I feel like I've always done that, instinctively. Because when you tune down, you usually overshoot it and have to come back up anyway.
There is backlash in the gearing and the tension in the string wants to flatten the tuning. If you tune up you take out the backlash and the mechanism can only freely move a little sharp but the tension prevents that.
Re: selling to the guitar store, Any guitar store I ever knew/or worked for offered no more than 50% of what they could sell it for. Your old place at 60% sounds great! 😄
When I was 14 and got my first guitar, My mom, who doesnt play guitar or instruments at all, taught me to always tune up and not down and it will stick with me for my life. I have no idea why or how she knew this, but its nice to hear that she was totally right! Mother always knows best, love you mom :)
My guitar is basically at the same position sitting as it is standing, based on left hand wrist position. Does it look cool or slung real low while standing?...no, and I don't give a shit!
i absolutely agree with the tuning up one. i have a guitar with not so good tuners and whenever i tune down, pitch goes down even more but when i do it like he said, tuning is stronger and more stable.
The thing about selling to the store is valid, but at least they won't agree on $500 via email/dm/whatever, then show up at your house with $100 in nickels and dimes and whine at you when you tell them to fuck off. And then 6 months later, because you've gone through several variations of that, you still haven't moved the thing on.
Right. It's like trading in a car. Do you get full value? No. But it's a pain in the ass otherwise. If it's a cheap trade in, just turn it into a parts guitar or practice your soldering etc on it
Also make sure any gig space has ground on the microphones. Keith Richards was almost killed by a shock from an ungrounded microphone several decades ago. (This may be why he now cannot be killed by conventional means.)
On the "don't remove the ground" topic, I believe that's how Keith Relf died. He had been both the lead singer of the Yardbirds and a founder of Renaissance, whose original lineup was reuniting (under the name Illusion, since a different lineup of Renaissance was still active), and had to restructure after his death.
KEITH RELF was playing an electric guitar while taking a bath , which is dangerous ! Also the power standard for U.K. electricity is 220 volts @ 50 hertz compared to the U.S. standard of 120 volts @ 60 hertz . I don't think that the U.K. has an "earth ground" on their plugs as we do in the U.S. . I lived in Europe in the 1980's and there were no ground plugs on the sockets . If I recall correctly , there were no grounds on electrical sockets in the 1950's and it wasn't until the 1960's and 1970's that the "earth ground" was made as a standard safety feature in houses and commercial buildings .
I AM NOT KIDDING ! I would not have posted this if I was kidding ! I was born in America and I am an American Navy veteran and I lived in Rota , Spain in the province of Andalusia from June 1985 to July 1988 . I also traveled to Portugal , Germany , Italy , and Greece and I never noticed a ground connection ( no 3 prongs! ) on any of the European country's sockets ( all of them had only two prongs with no ground prong ). You might be relieved if you do some research on Europe's electrical power grid's history to verify my remarks . My command told me that you can't use an electric digital clock bought in the United States for use in Europe , because U.S. made clocks are made for the U.S. standard of 60 hertz ,whereas Europe's standard is 50 hertz . And like I said : verify Europe's electrical power grid as they may have added an "earth ground" prong since I left there 36 years ago.. @@o00nemesis00o
@@drbluzer The UK doesn't follow the same conventions as the rest of Europe, we've had grounded plugs since the 1920s. It's a point of pride that our plugs and sockets are very safe, as the covers on the live and neutral holes won't open without the ground pin going into its hole first, making it far harder for some kid to stick a fork in the socket and get zapped. As well as many other features
When you clip a fingernail it's like breaking a 2x4 piece of wood in half and it leaves small jagged edges along the cut. Make sure to file down your nails after cutting them creating a smooth surface preventing the cut nails tiny jaggies from catching and splitting the nail.
As sound engineer: use earplugs during the sound check. Feedback is the #1 worry, we are often looking for the edges deliberately to know where it is so occasional whistle is possible. Be prepared for it. We are also often troubleshooting behind the desk and since time is of the essence, that troubleshooting is quick and dirty, wires may be connected while hot. Nothing that breaks the gear but can make your ears ring if you aren't wearing protection. Everything that was said in that bit happens about every single soundcheck as a guarantee. And the millisecond drumset is set, you know what will happen next. The animal stays happy in its cage if it can do that one drum fill, so, wear earplugs.
Thanks for some great advice. However, your first piece (tuning up) needs a bit more. As a professional guitarist, teacher, and guitar maker, I always: first, as you said, tune UP. But THEN, I give it a bit of a pull around the octave area, THEN re-tune. THEN give it ANOTHER pull and again re-tune. REPEAT this until the string keeps it's pitch after pulling it! Also, although a guitar should NEVER be left in the trunk (I used to wrap my guitars in kid's sleeping bags, which insulates them and keeps them out of view thru windows). However, my wife and I are professional musicians, and on the road permanently, so I built an insulated vault in the back of our tow vehicle, so the guitars still get some extremes. It's more important to let them acclimate BEFORE opening the cases! As for humidity, well, I've had many very expensive vintage archtops that were well over 50 years old and never had humidification in their lives and survived just fine, but yes, it's still better to keep humidity stable IF POSSIBLE.
Hey SG, I do not play guitar and do not even care about playing guitars. I do care about you and you frequently give great general advice. Like this video. Thanks.
The explanation for the ground pin in the video isn't quite right. The ground pin is tied to the amp chassis, which should be electrically connected to anything else metal on the amp. When you plug your instrument in, your strings, tuners, etc are also connected to ground. If something goes wrong with your amp and a live wire comes into contact with the chassis, it will trip the breaker and prevent you from being shocked. Without a ground pin, the metal in your amp as well as your instrument are now hot. If you're touching your strings and touch anything else properly grounded, like a mic or another musician with a functional amp, you (or both of you) will be shocked.
very good video samurai sama. As a guitarrist, personally a don't like play guitar at parties or social gatherings, I don't wanna force myself to learn "popular" songs or play that song everyone plays at these kind of situations. 🤷
If your getting noise through the ground it's because the building has a wiring problem. carry a power conditioner with you. Sure it's more gear but it is worth it to save your amp.
60% for a used instrument from a guitar store is actually a deal. I sold a P-Bass once to a guitar store that had some major issues. Weeks later I found it listed by them as is for over 3 times the price they paid me. This was also the same place that offered me $300 for a Les Paul. The followig year I found some at a musicians flea market marked at over ten times the price.
@@thatoneguybones8036 But that assumes that the tension on both sides of the nut is always the same. That isn't necessarily the case. If you tune down then there is a risk that the tension between the nut and tuner will be higher than between the nut and the bridge, so you start playing and suddenly the string drops a little in pitch. Tuning up reduces the impact of the these problems, although it doesn't entirely eliminate them.
@@mandolinic Tuning up or down' tug on the string in-between time doing so. If sharp'tune down and then stretch the string, sneaking up on it until it's in tune. Either way' stretch the string while tuning.
As a recovering acoustic-guitar-at-the-function guy, I’ve had the fortune of being around people who were very chill with it, so it can depend on who you’re with. Main thing I’d say is Know The Vibe. If everyone’s just chilling and hanging out, it might be fine to bring your guitar and just provide a little background ambience. Maybe don’t tear into a complex and really flashy finger style piece if the vibe isn’t concert hall performance. Also understand what hangouts the guitar may be welcome at, vs. the times where it comes off kinda presumptuous to have brought your guitar with you in the first place. Social dynamics are hard, at the end of the day just don’t take it too personally. If you’re like me, over time you’ll just kinda laugh at yourself for having done it in the first place and move on.
I have pretty bad social anxiety. I'm getting a lot better, but it used to be horrible. I'd always inadvertently find myself at parties anyhow; craving for that social interaction. My guitar was always my safe space. So, I quickly became the background guitar guy. Never taking center stage unless someone asked me to play something (even then I'd play a song up to the end of the bridge/solo and then stop, because the rest of the song was the same as what came before the break; and I assumed they'd have been bored of hearing the same chord progressions =p). I got good at matching the vibe of the stories and conversations with my guitar; providing depth to the dialogue. I guess a more subtle lesson would be to not be the arrogant guitar guy. Know the piece you are, and where you fit in the puzzle of the gathering.
I sell gear at guitar stores a lot of the time, take the 50-60% of what they think they can sell it for, and I'm content with it. You get the money now, nobody wastes your time with lowball offers or failing to show up, no opportunity for scammers to try their crap on you. For a lot of items, paying half of its value to not have to deal with the hassles of finding a legit buyer is totally worth it.
When it comes to selling cheaper gear, 40% less than what you'd get selling it yourself is just the cost of not having to deal with the idiots on Facebook marketplace
By your comments, you seem to be attuned into harmony of life this will serve you well in life. 😊 The session is brilliant for everyone involved in getting into guitars . Best video I’ve seen on it all so far. Technical advice to, some people skills but when put together it’s golden advice that really needs to be followed if you want to get ahead with out hassles or death in case of tampering with power cords ( that’s just plain wrong). All very sound presentation about guitars I’d highly recommend. Cheers Colin.
But (unless the plug is moulded onto the cable) you can open the plug with a screwdriver, and remove the earth wire from the earth pin. That's actually far more dangerous because (a) the pin is still in place and gives no clue that the plug is modified, and (b) you have a loose earth wire inside the plug just waiting to hook up with the 240 volts live pin....
I'm guilty of not wearing ear protection, even though while working at a music studio I've been blessed with drummers testing out their kits while I'm mic-ing the kick drum!!!
Drummers don't have that house party issue. People are always thrilled if you arrive at a chill gathering and start blasting solo's on your 22-piece DW kit.
6:00 Imagine you have the thing that they have, which you want. Imagine how having that thing must make you feel. Imagine being them and having this same feeling whilst being them. Your joy is their joy. Let yourself embrace this moment of empathy. Let their joy be your joy, as joy is to be shared; never coveted or taken away. This is the practice of being happy for the successes of others.
The helpful guy who "Here let me plug that in for ya" and doesn't know you have an adaptor for the two prong socket helps out by breaking off the ground pin of the new cable which your Amp Tech installed on your vintage Fender last week.
The tuning tip at the beginning needs updated slightly. Any time you tune down, ANY TIME, first stretch the string some before tuning back up to pitch again. Tuning down releases some tension in the windings and if you skip stretching before going back up again, on the first bend or so you do on that string, you'll be right back to slightly flat again.
I only file my nails, never cut. And Flea uses tape and crazy glue on his slapping thumb! I use it on cracks in my hands or fingers if needed- I work in a kitchen and we've lost a few dishwashers recently.
Try to use gloves when washing dishes for long periods if possible. Dish soap can be quite harsh on skin. I've had a skin condition that took a long time to heal because of daily contact with dish soap. Took me a while to realise that it was making it worse.
Your second point, extremely valid. I'm an electrician here in the states. The equipment ground on ANY cord is put there for the safety of the consumer (as you stated in your video). If it's there by design, leave it alone!
Addendum: if you’re going to wear ear plugs at sound check, don’t keep telling the engineer to keep turning up your monitor. Better yet, invest in IEM’s.
I’ve been playing guitar since 1974. And I have always heard it sad never tune down always tune up not down. Yeah and I’ve also heard of people cutting the ground cord off of a plug. That is very deadly dangerous. Great advice. Thanks for the video.👍🏼👍🏼😁😎
@8:44 I felt like I needed to hear that. Most importantly because that can be applicable to other aspects of your life. Such as exercising, studying, getting through the shift of the day etc.
My grandma is usually imposing sonics wherever she goes if it is at the house she asks for a acoustic guitar, if we’re in a music store she has to show the clerks she can play violin it bugs everyone except me
Always tune UP. THANK YOU. I always tell people this, they never get it. It eliminates mechanical slop. Same for tightening wheels on a car or motorcycle, or anything. If you build an engine and the spec says 80 ft/lbs for a particular bolt, and you take it to 85 by mistake, you have to go below it first, then tighten.
I always felt the tune-up rule was pretty straightforward & common logic. Even without giving it thought, on some unlubed nuts, it forces you to cause the string sticks and finally breaks free, dropping it a whole step, forcing you to go back up.
Earplugs are a MUST. I played in a band years ago, and my amp was to my right. Guess which ear has tinnitus? It might seem cool that your ears are ringing after a gig, but let me tell you - Tinnitus is PERMANENT - Now I have to live with that sound the rest of my life. At 3 in the morning, when the world is quiet, that sound can be deafening. PLEASE - protect your ears!
I remember i went to a party. I played the guitar all the time, another dude smoked too much weed and barfed all over the floor and refused to clean after himself. Guess who wasnt invited to the party the 2nd time?
Yeah. After 15yo only bring your guitar anywhere if you are requested to do so, preferably paid also. I have a lot of friends who are AMAZING guitarists, myself included. I love to hear them play. But not when I'm chatting with other amazing friends.
I learned about grounding amps the fun way after picking up a second hand one where the plug was bad and wasn't grounding properly. Puts a new meaning to electric guitar .....
I miss playing live and last summer my sister moved and her new neighbors had a teenage son that could play and sing. So we played and entertained the campfire or just group of drunk people that wanted to sing something. The teenager moved away for college but I still wanted to jam around the campfire. Most the time it was on request, but I can admit sometimes I just wanted to play. Didn't force anyone to listen to me. Would even wander off and play away from the group. But I still totally felt like "that guy". I hate that feeling.
Yes! That last one (and the ‘don’t electrocute yourself’) is really important. I so bad with that last one, always needing just one more thing. Always. It never stops.
Super glue is amazing for finger cuts in general if you play guitar. I've split my entire fingertip working on my car and glued it and could play perfectly with not much pain at all. They use a medical grade version of it in hospitals on wounds that can't otherwise be stitched easily or the stitches would cause more scarring than they would help.
I heard a story that sealing wounds was actually what superglue was invented for. The other uses were just a happy accident. I don't know if it's true but it's too good a story to debunk.
I sliced off half the tip of my left index finger while cooking at home alone once, and I superglued it back on. when I got to the doctor she didn't even need to give me stitches, and it reattached perfectly. (there's obviously a slight scar, but the spot has perfect irrigation and even got back sensitivity!)
The correct way to deal with the hum problem is to fix your actual electrical problem which is (barring internal electrical problems or electronics degradation within the particular piece of equipment you're dealing with) the fact that you're building is ground for that particular line is probably bad. This is why it's incredibly important in recording studios and other type venues to make sure that every single outlet is independently grounded. If you fix your grounding issue, your hum problem usually goes away
Another Problem with compressed air (cans) that I know from handling electronics: it sometimes squirts out a bunch of fluids, especially when holding it wrong. Can mess with electronis and wood.
What if most of the people at the party would think the guy who plays Wonderwall is _that guy?_ The parties I've been to lean more towards prog, jazz, classical, soul, blues, rap, punk, funk, and metal. Certainly you could get the jazz band to play that or any song, but it's going to still be jazz. I do really enjoy a lot of pop music, but it's not "the thing" where I grew up.
You are very open when giving advice on jealousy. I just wanted to say that everyone should take that advice to heart and the world will be a much better place . Everyone has their own unique God given talent and no one is better than anyone else .
Great tips, thanks! I'm guilty of your last tip. I see so many guitarists on TH-cam that are way better than me. I usually think, "I'll be happy when I can play as well as that guy."
I made a 4 ohm resistor with a speaker jack to plug into my tube amp without a speaker so I could run it directly into a mixer. No more blown fuses on my tube amp.
I actually stretch the string if slightly too sharp, this helps remove any slack tension still in the string and then if that stretch makes it flat I use the tune up method.
Fun fact: Superglue was originally invented for surgical purposes. Modern dermabond is a better, safer alternative to superglue for wounds, but for something trivial like a nicked fingernail superglue should be fine.
I once bought a very, very nice bass at a very good price from a guy who played in a country band you’ve probably herd of. They toured a lot in the South, where there’s lots of humidity in some places and not so much in others. He wanted to switch to a Modulus bass with a carbon fiber neck so it would be more stable. Humidity changes can mess you up!
If the ground is connected to the metal housing or the frame of an amplifier then it is possible to create a ground-loop. This can produce a hum or a buzz in the sound, furthermore it is dangerous. If one apparatus becomes wet and the live wire get connected to ground, then normally all power is automatically switched off. But when there is a fault in the ground wire then everybody can "feel the power!" Therefore, all consumer electronics should NOT have a grounded metal housing, but a double isolation, the secondary part of the transformer should have absolutely NO galvanic connection to the mains.
Nail filing is generally better than nail clipping because nails consist of microscopic layers that can separate when cut. Or at least that's what an aunt who's a manicurist told me. (Hence: if you want strong nails for fingerpicking you never want to cut them, just file 'em every day.)
Agree about practicing with sound as close to gig as you can. I sing at home with a mic because that's super useful live. I wouldn't stay long in band that didn't rehearse with full PA
When bringing my guitar inside after about 15 minutes, depending on how long it's been outside, I barely crack the case open and don't take the guitar out until I can place my hand on the guitar and the finish doesn't fog up.
For fingernail separating, the best remedy is to just get a lower guage string pack. I atopped having that issue once I switched to 8s instead of playing w 10s which was doable, but not as comfortable
for fingernail pain, make sure to round off the side of left hand nails so it doesn't have a sharp corner to stick into the flesh if you get carried away by your mad bendz. I had bloody pouring from my left ring finger and it was agony (afterwards)
some good tips , some things you don't have options to not do as a touring band and tight time turnarounds, hot guitars go into cases and semi trucks and planes after gigs and get opened from freezing the next day , shit happens on the road, you do what you gotta do, one major one people forget is don't leave your strap on and place away if your a sweaty player as the salts in your sweat can leech into paint finishes like nitro and eat away and make it hazy, also wash your straps in with your cloths once a month or more if your real sweaty. always acclimatise your guitar as much as you can at each new venue, much like you said, but a guitar left in a case and pulled out late before a set can have detrimental tuning effects. ALWAYS carry gear from your van into your hotel/motel room, I don't care if your tired or its been a long drive, the one time you leave stuff in a van or trailer that looks like a band trailer it will get boosted, if you think its priceless you can carry it to your room, if you can afford to replace it you do you. also don't tune down or loosen your strings to fly, its all BS. leave it tuned at pitch. if your flying with a bunch of band gear call the airline ahead and notify them, they can often make your life and tour a whole lot more bearable by prewarning and not just turning up with 30 bits of gear that's all overweight .
Cutting the ground is pretty unlikely to shock or kill you. It COULD, but its MUCH more likely to fry the amp, the pre, or blow the cab in that order. It does depend on the particular amp. That being said, just get a power conditioner if you have ground hum from poor wiring in the building. Hell, get one even if you don't because odds are you'll need it eventually
I am an American that lived in Europe in the 1980's and there was no "earth ground" on the electrical sockets. They were all 2 prong 220 volt @ 50 hertz outlets .
0:55 Im just a mechanic & general tech enthusiast so i'm not exactly strictly electrical certified or anything BUT The power would never go through the guitar and into you, straight up impossible. 1. You touch wood and strings, the strings are connected via bridge, bolted into wood, and tuners also bolted into wood. There is at no point a circuit in the guitar involving you. The pickups are actually coiled magnets which magnetically interact with the strings, this creates an electrical signal within the pickup(hence the name pickup, and not microphone). What this means is that electricity won't go inside the pickups anyway, in fact, they create it, and it merely gets sent & amplified by the electronics on guitar to be sent into the amp for further more specitic amplification. 2. Lets say electricity COULD go the other way AND the strings are part of that circuit, well, the wiring in the guitar's electronics is so thin they would simply melt far before it ever damaged you. This could create a fire, sure, but won't electricute you. Still, VERY unsafe fire hazard. They put the ground pin there to reduce the chances of a house fire. I will also say, an active pickup system works different and does have electricity within, but not much, it is powered by a small 9v, NOT the amp's power. Further, they make microphonal pickups, but they are rare, and still are piezo-electric, meaning the vibration of sound creates electricity, so still technically no electricity coming in, and the wiring is still very very thin. Same goes for microphones on the thin wiring front.
Im new to playing guitar, but have worked in the Film industry for 16 years. I was doing a "Spec" commercial for Fender (based on a marketing idea "Live the Dream") as a film student. Fender lent me their "Newest" guitar a butterscotch Tele Hot Rod 52(the 7th one they made) and (real)Vintage '65 Twin Reverb Combo Amp to do the commercial. I got a band called "Scissors for Lefty" to play the guitar during a gig at the Key Club in Hollywood. When they were done they put the guitar next to the amp at the edge of the stage, and that was the last time I saw the guitar and amp. So yea, use those tracking devices. I never told Fender what happened. and they never asked.
I bend strings all the time,and I have never had that fingernail issue (Now watch it happen next time I bend a string, but I’ll know what to do) Pretty good list
The trick is not to avoid tension entirely. It's to train yourself to release tension while playing. You need some amount of tension to play certain techniques.
Oh man, it's been so many years since I've had that fingernail separation thing that I almost forgot how it feels like. It's even worse than the skin pain you get when starting out on a guitar.
The house I lived in before the one I own now was built in the 1800's and was renovated around WW2 (this was 16 years ago) none of the electrical outlets in the old house had outlets that had a third hole for a ground pin so for the entire time I lived there I had to either use adapters or yank the ground pins. Usually I just yanked the pins
I agree with all but the milestone point. If i didn't have milestones I wouldn't have been as committed as i became. Reasons for your milestones are what make or break you. Example. I wanted to be able to play improv lead. Now i can because it gave me something to work on as a rhythm player who had to step up in that role in my band. Then i wanted to play a combination of the two interchangeably. Now i can. If a milestone is selfish or about gear then yeah i agree with your point. I wasn't happy with my ability and setting milestones about skill level has given me confidence to carry my weight in my band.
8:40 Exactly ! You wan't the guitar of your dream ? Build it from a kit (or from scratch if you have the tools) - You're not sure of your skills ? Go very slowly : if you need a day to sand that little part down then enjoy your day (it's ways better to still have a little to much wood left than not enough wood being there for what you're aiming for) - Will it be perfect ? Probably not to the commercial standard, but every little imperfections will have a story for you. And I can guarantee you this guitar will be worth way more to your eyes than any shiny PRS. - Will it take time ? Hell yeah, that's the point. And the closer to your dream you want it to be, the longer it will take ! As the Samurai said, the PRS will get "normal" thus boring and thus not enough. That guitar of yours won't ever get normal. And don't break your amp grounding pin
I used to have this old solid state Guild amp. I loved it. Sounded unique and the spring reverb was so funky. But it didn't have a ground. It didn't even come with one. Just 2 plugs like a lamp or something. It electrocuted me more than once. I figured out how to mitigate it but eventually it started doing it all the time. And no one wanted to work on it because they'd have to charge me more than it's worth. I wanted to do it anyway, I loved the amp. But the guy basically said no. It would've been a pain. I gave it to this used gear shop owner who said he might know a guy who works on crazy weird old stuff. Then he moved and I never heard from him again.
8:50 I may be weird because I have the opposite experience, I'm only happy if I'm learning something new, even though I know I'm not necessarily going to get great pleasure from completing the learning process on that particular piece. It's OK playing and practicing the stuff I know, but I find it hard to get motivation to play at all if I'm not constantly learning a new tune.
For a bit longer save 50% off my new course Elevated Open Chords here: samuraiguitartheory.com/p/elevated-open-chords?coupon_code=launch50&product_id=5063529
Eye always do that
I don't know if you will see this but the timestamps are super messed up.
Played with a bassist who removed the ground pin from his amp. If he made contact with anyone else at any point while playing, we'd both get shocked. We banned that amp from rehearsal REAL quick.
That's a saw trap lol
Oof, and a bass player too lol.
Always the bassist
Yep. Seems like something the bass player would do.
Although you should never remove the ground pin that issue you describe is not caused by a missing ground pin and can occur on amps that have a ground pin. It's very dangerous even with a ground pin and is usually a fairly simple fix for an amp tech. There should never be current on the ground.
100% Samurai is right on ear plugs for soundchecks, especially when you start playing mid-tier and up venues. I had perfect hearing before I got big with my blues trio, and one show we did a soundcheck and my right ear was right next to a PA stack that was "muted" according to the soundguy. Next thing I know a sharp feedback hit me and I instantly lost some hearing, ear bled, and started me down the painful road of tinnitus. I was 23, and now at 31 I'm partially deaf in that ear and literally can't use ear plugs live cos I won't be able to make out definition in the music
Get a set of active earplugs (Etymotic makes them.) They drop the level by almost 30dB and have a control that allows more high frequencies in.
Years ago my band got to the mid-tier level and was invited to play the big showcase clubs, but never did :(. To fill these crowded mid level rooms we were pretty loud. I never turned my 100w Marshall past about 5 and only brought one cab to the gigs, a set up which was plenty loud enogh. We had the equipment to be really loud though!
Like everyone else back in the day I didn't wear earplugs.
We were always careful to position our speakers such that they weren't pointing in band members ears. It sort of worked over the five years that I played out. Even so, I've had mild tinnitus for fifty three years. Most of the time the "buzzing" is low enough so it isn't much of a bother although I have lost a bit of my high frequency hearing.
The bottom line is use ear plugs and save your hearing.
-dave
Absolutely correct on ear protection. Since unwelcome discovery of a horrendous feedback potential of my not so high powered pa system and not overly powerful amp, I have the great joy of partial deafness in one ear, and frequent ringing in my ears. This incident took place when I was 18, so, even given 50 years to get better, it hasn't.
Totally. That advice should be printed on guitar boxes and labels. It's crazy that kids are handed these ear destruction equipment without a clue.
Drunks yelling into your ear to be heard over the music don't help either.
One I would add: Never bring a piece of gear to a gig that you didn't use in practice. I had a bandmate bring a delay pedal to the biggest gig we'd ever played. As we were setting up, we got a microburst of rain and didn't get to sound check. In about the third song of our performance, he hit the pedal for a solo and it sent a burst of feedback that echoed throughout the gorgeous mountain setting that we were playing. We weren't invited back.
O.M.G.!!😄
My fave is seeing two guitars and a bass all tuning up from different brands of expensive tuner ... ignoring each other because they don't know any better. Oh, and those stupid things clipped to headstocks or, ow, my sides, music stands!
@@RideAcrossTheRiver Within fairly broad limits, 440 Hertz is still going to be 440 Hertz, regardless of manufacturer.
I keep a very sensitive Seiko chromatic tuner in my case, and always use it before going on stage. While on stage, I use a Snark SN-10 tuner pedal, and it always aligns perfectly with my Seiko tuner.
The days of having everyone pass around the same tuner "just so we're all on the same page," passed long ago. That's a good thing, too, because it was a colossal waste of time and energy!😉
@@That70sGuitarist So, The days of having everyone "on the same page," passed long ago. That's why today's bands sound like shit a lot of the time. What we call 'bad improvements'
@@mal2ksc If there's a house piano, you have to tune to that. Also, everyone having different tuners ends up, nine out of ten, exactly the way you describe it. Everyone must tune up from one known, reliable machine. That's the only method that works. Anything less is amateur buffoonery
Been shocked more than once with an amp that had it's ground prong broken off.
Back in the 70s (when electrocution amps were common) I would leave the high string untrimmed so I could brush it briefly against the mic. If it threw a spark I knew it was time to flip the amp polarity switch.
If it was in the UK, a removed Earth pin would cause the plug socket to not let the live and neutral pins to plug in. The Earth pin opens two doors thar cover the other two holes.
@@philbeausmart
@@pipespeeps5349 yeah American sockets are the most flimsy things I've ever seen. But then you have only 110 volt, so no need to bother...
@@TheHesseJames Here in Brazil, sometimes we don't even have grounding in houses or apartments.
This is the single best "beginner" guitar video I have ever seen. I'm a long-time player, so I personally didn't see/hear about anything unknown to me, BUT I would vouch for EVERY concept and every word presented here. This advice is golden. Much of it are ideas that I've offered to my guitar students for decades. Also, there are no wasted words in this presentation. Excellent job.
I love that you mention using jealousy to create something positive, rather than making it toxic, or negative.
An awesome outlook, takes practice, but it is such good advice!
Thank you
Not just that: the best way to elevate your playing is to play with people who are better than you are
This actually highlights the key difference between "jealousy" and "envy", IMHO.
"Envy" is looking at something that somebody else has, and wishing you had it too. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It can lead you to work towards getting better, etc.
"Jealousy" is feeling that somebody else shouldn't have what they have (and you should have it instead). That is very different.
Jealousy is pretty much always toxic, but envy can sometimes be useful and productive, if directed in the right ways.
@@foogod4237 I like this way of viewing things. Thank you, I will use this phrasing in the future, as I really like it.
English is not my native language, so picking up phrases like this is useful.
Dude, I had this tech who screwed up my board when I had him re-wire it. And he was SO adamant about me removing the ground cause it'll be better. Thanks for confirming he was full of it haha
I was jamming with friends, in HS. None of us had cut off our ground pin. But... apparently, we were on two separate circuits of the electrical system. I was playing bass, and I swung around, at the same moment our guitar player was swinging in the opposite direction. Our strings connected, and with a flash, spot welded together. We were both forced to change 4 strings.
Ahahah, I remember my naive teenage self and a buddy of mine getting shocked by lack of circuit awareness. I was at this guy's top floor suite of an old-looking house, we had our little amps plugged in on opposite sides of the room, one of us with a guitar and the other with a bass. While rocking out, my high-energy friend calls for us to quickly swap guitars. We both grab the necks of the others' instrument, suddenly I feel my guitar vibrating really fast, we see a spark fly between our strings and both feel a bit of a shock. Luckily we and our instruments survived.
Yeah everyone clapped on that one.
Sh*t that's horrifying!!
@@xjunkxyrdxdog89yeah buddy, i also clapped at your OW clips
@pemo2676 you replied to a 4 month old comment, to talk about videos uploaded 6 years ago? There are better hobbies than seeking attention online.
You raise a lot of important points in this video. The ones that resonated the most with me were the fingernail thing and the amp ground pin.
I always keep my fingernails trimmed so short that there's no visible white end, but I clip them first, then file the rest of the way. It's a lot quicker and easier than just filing them all the way down.
Back when I was a busker, often playing as much as 8-10 hours a day (not including practicing and teaching) I always kept a tube of cyanoacrylate glue in my guitar case, but it wasn't necessarily just for the occasional fingernail peel situation. I would often get little rips or tears where the fingertip callous gave way to normal skin, and I'd use the superglue to create a seal over the little rip.
It also acted as a sort of "instant callous," as I had a bad habit of gnawing on rough bits of skin on my fingertips.
As for the grounding pin, I once knew an idiot who cut off his amp's grounding pin. He thought it improved his tone, until he got a bad shock and ended up in hospital from stepping on a wet spot on the stage at an outdoor concert.
He got the power plug replaced after he got out of the hospital, some three days later and a whole lot wiser.🤣
My Dad was a Factory Inspector (Now referred to as an HSE Inspector). Most of the fatalities he was called to investigate were where people had bypassed the things that were there to keep them safe. Deaths from removing the Earth from an electric socket were quite common. Some other common causes of fatalities or severe injuries were: Using Duck Tape to cover bare wires; Jamming a spanner to disable the protective shield on cutting machinery, Scaffolding, being a farmer.......
Definitely wear ear plugs, for the snare and cymbals alone. bass tone hurts too if it's too loud.
Just in case someone was wondering about it, yes the tuning machine tip also applies to steel and nylon acoustic guitars.
And Basses... same truth to that.
@@marksteinemann4063 and Stradivaris.
A ground isolator in the signal path is the fundamentally correct way to eliminate system ground loop problems. A transformer does this by magnetically coupling the signal across an electrically insulated barrier.
Ground loop problems are caused by small voltage differences that normally exist between the ‘grounds’ at the send and receive ends of a signal cable. In an unbalanced interface, this ground voltage difference directly adds to the signal. This generally produces hum or buzz in audio. In a balanced interface, the ground voltage difference may reveal inadequate common-mode rejection at the input stage of the equipment or other design defects.
Things which are connected via ground-referenced cabling should have grounding paths that connect to the earth through the same metal grounding stake. If two parts of a building are fed from different utility service entrances and have separate grounding stakes, a path from one grounding stake through a safety ground wire into a mixing board, through a ground-referenced audio cable, a player's amp, the amp's safety ground, and another ground stake may be annoying, but if anything the player might touch has a grounding connection to the same ground stake as the player's amp which is at least as solid as any connection it might have to the mixing board's ground stake, that would be far less dangerous than floating the player's amp ground. Doing that would eliminate hum, but also mean the player's body might provide the best available grounding path between something that's connected to what would be the player's amp's grounding stake and the mixing board's grounding stake.
'Never tell yourself you'll be happy if..'
That's not only a guitar tip, but a life one lmao
I won't be happy
As a bassist especially practicing with an amp it's very different as there's some SERIOUS air movement! Makes playing extremely different with all the air around you moving.
One I learned recently, if you played a gig or rehearsel where you sweat. Make sure to not put the guitar straight back into the case/bag. Let the sweat evaporate for a bit. Same with tube amps and quick changeovers, give tubes as much time to cool down before moving them after a gig.
I put airtags inside my guitars control cavity using a strong 3M double sided tape to stick it to the plastic cover. I also make sure the speaker is disconnected so that other people can't ping it. That way if the guitar gets removed from it's case or a thief thinks the airtag that's following them is in the case they have to work a little harder to find it.
Also very much yes on the ear protection! It's not uncool or expensive to protect your ears!
The only time I feared losing my hearing completely was during a soundcheck when I was in the audience.
An electric auto harp made the most howling feedback and I spent the night thinking the PA sucked. It was my favorite gig as a spectator besides that. The ringing in my ears cleared up after two and a half weeks.
12 years ago I invited another band to my rehearsal studio, their drummer hit the crash and china so hard all night and because we were crowded I was like a foot away from it. I definetily lost some hearing permanently that night and it still rings, but I got used to it and don't notice it unless I'm sleepless at night. But, a year ago I went to a Death Metal concert in a bar and everybody and their mother's dog had half and full stacks for a place where they literally only played for the 10 other musicians (there was no audience, since everybody forgot to promote it) and I was DEAF for two days, I was so, so, so scared that I would never be able to hear good enough again to do anything music related, but it cleared up. I swore never to attend extremely loud music events again.
You were very extremely lucky the ring went away
thank you for mentioning the grounding pin, it's disturbing to know how much this gets recommended. especially cause most people will never know how dangerous it actually is.
That little tip about tuning. I feel like I've always done that, instinctively. Because when you tune down, you usually overshoot it and have to come back up anyway.
There is backlash in the gearing and the tension in the string wants to flatten the tuning. If you tune up you take out the backlash and the mechanism can only freely move a little sharp but the tension prevents that.
You can also tune down just a bit and then do big bend on that string
Re: selling to the guitar store, Any guitar store I ever knew/or worked for offered no more than 50% of what they could sell it for. Your old place at 60% sounds great! 😄
When I was 14 and got my first guitar, My mom, who doesnt play guitar or instruments at all, taught me to always tune up and not down and it will stick with me for my life. I have no idea why or how she knew this, but its nice to hear that she was totally right! Mother always knows best, love you mom :)
Don't only practice sitting down, unless you never plan on playing with a band, or doing a gig.
Exactly! Practise in the way you will be playing it live.
Steve Hackett, Jeff Healey, Robert Fripp, Jose Feliciano got a few gigs.
@@nullfieldadd Joe Pass to that list
I learn a song sitting down, then practice standing
My guitar is basically at the same position sitting as it is standing, based on left hand wrist position. Does it look cool or slung real low while standing?...no, and I don't give a shit!
i absolutely agree with the tuning up one. i have a guitar with not so good tuners and whenever i tune down, pitch goes down even more but when i do it like he said, tuning is stronger and more stable.
The thing about selling to the store is valid, but at least they won't agree on $500 via email/dm/whatever, then show up at your house with $100 in nickels and dimes and whine at you when you tell them to fuck off. And then 6 months later, because you've gone through several variations of that, you still haven't moved the thing on.
Right. It's like trading in a car. Do you get full value? No. But it's a pain in the ass otherwise. If it's a cheap trade in, just turn it into a parts guitar or practice your soldering etc on it
Also make sure any gig space has ground on the microphones. Keith Richards was almost killed by a shock from an ungrounded microphone several decades ago. (This may be why he now cannot be killed by conventional means.)
On the "don't remove the ground" topic, I believe that's how Keith Relf died. He had been both the lead singer of the Yardbirds and a founder of Renaissance, whose original lineup was reuniting (under the name Illusion, since a different lineup of Renaissance was still active), and had to restructure after his death.
KEITH RELF was playing an electric guitar while taking a bath , which is dangerous ! Also the power standard for U.K. electricity is 220 volts @ 50 hertz compared to the U.S. standard of 120 volts @ 60 hertz . I don't think that the U.K. has an "earth ground" on their plugs as we do in the U.S. . I lived in Europe in the 1980's and there were no ground plugs on the sockets .
If I recall correctly , there were no grounds on electrical sockets in the 1950's and it wasn't until the 1960's and 1970's that the "earth ground" was made as a standard safety feature in houses and commercial buildings .
@@drbluzer You kidding? We had earthing prongs on our plugs from the beginning, waiting for the yanks to catch up
I AM NOT KIDDING ! I would not have posted this if I was kidding ! I was born in America and I am an American Navy veteran and I lived in Rota , Spain in the province of Andalusia from June 1985 to July 1988 . I also traveled to Portugal , Germany , Italy , and Greece and I never noticed a ground connection ( no 3 prongs! ) on any of the European country's sockets ( all of them had only two prongs with no ground prong ). You might be relieved if you do some research on Europe's electrical power grid's history to verify my remarks . My command told me that you can't use an electric digital clock bought in the United States for use in Europe , because U.S. made clocks are made for the U.S. standard of 60 hertz ,whereas Europe's standard is 50 hertz . And like I said : verify Europe's electrical power grid as they may have added an "earth ground" prong since I left there 36 years ago.. @@o00nemesis00o
@@drbluzer The UK doesn't follow the same conventions as the rest of Europe, we've had grounded plugs since the 1920s. It's a point of pride that our plugs and sockets are very safe, as the covers on the live and neutral holes won't open without the ground pin going into its hole first, making it far harder for some kid to stick a fork in the socket and get zapped. As well as many other features
HEY !Thanks for the information .I could only respond as far as what I saw in Europe . I have never been to the UK .@@suffoc8
When you clip a fingernail it's like breaking a 2x4 piece of wood in half and it leaves small jagged edges along the cut. Make sure to file down your nails after cutting them creating a smooth surface preventing the cut nails tiny jaggies from catching and splitting the nail.
Use an emery board too; not metal file.
As sound engineer: use earplugs during the sound check. Feedback is the #1 worry, we are often looking for the edges deliberately to know where it is so occasional whistle is possible. Be prepared for it. We are also often troubleshooting behind the desk and since time is of the essence, that troubleshooting is quick and dirty, wires may be connected while hot. Nothing that breaks the gear but can make your ears ring if you aren't wearing protection. Everything that was said in that bit happens about every single soundcheck as a guarantee. And the millisecond drumset is set, you know what will happen next. The animal stays happy in its cage if it can do that one drum fill, so, wear earplugs.
Great advice (as ever) and great Open-chord course! 🙂 Thanks Sammy-G
Thanks for some great advice. However, your first piece (tuning up) needs a bit more. As a professional guitarist, teacher, and guitar maker, I always: first, as you said, tune UP. But THEN, I give it a bit of a pull around the octave area, THEN re-tune. THEN give it ANOTHER pull and again re-tune. REPEAT this until the string keeps it's pitch after pulling it!
Also, although a guitar should NEVER be left in the trunk (I used to wrap my guitars in kid's sleeping bags, which insulates them and keeps them out of view thru windows). However, my wife and I are professional musicians, and on the road permanently, so I built an insulated vault in the back of our tow vehicle, so the guitars still get some extremes. It's more important to let them acclimate BEFORE opening the cases!
As for humidity, well, I've had many very expensive vintage archtops that were well over 50 years old and never had humidification in their lives and survived just fine, but yes, it's still better to keep humidity stable IF POSSIBLE.
Hey SG, I do not play guitar and do not even care about playing guitars. I do care about you and you frequently give great general advice. Like this video. Thanks.
The explanation for the ground pin in the video isn't quite right. The ground pin is tied to the amp chassis, which should be electrically connected to anything else metal on the amp. When you plug your instrument in, your strings, tuners, etc are also connected to ground. If something goes wrong with your amp and a live wire comes into contact with the chassis, it will trip the breaker and prevent you from being shocked. Without a ground pin, the metal in your amp as well as your instrument are now hot. If you're touching your strings and touch anything else properly grounded, like a mic or another musician with a functional amp, you (or both of you) will be shocked.
The ground pin isn’t a issue in the uk because u can’t plug anything in without one
This is great stuff. Great insight into the guitar stuff and the life stuff! Thanks for sharing this!
I played my first chord yesterday and now I want a dumble. That’s a natural progression, right?
very good video samurai sama.
As a guitarrist, personally a don't like play guitar at parties or social gatherings, I don't wanna force myself to learn "popular" songs or play that song everyone plays at these kind of situations. 🤷
If your getting noise through the ground it's because the building has a wiring problem. carry a power conditioner with you. Sure it's more gear but it is worth it to save your amp.
60% for a used instrument from a guitar store is actually a deal. I sold a P-Bass once to a guitar store that had some major issues. Weeks later I found it listed by them as is for over 3 times the price they paid me. This was also the same place that offered me $300 for a Les Paul. The followig year I found some at a musicians flea market marked at over ten times the price.
Always tune up when the string is out of tune! Thank you! Finally someone said it
But my instrument was in tune when I bought it.
@@thatoneguybones8036 But that assumes that the tension on both sides of the nut is always the same. That isn't necessarily the case. If you tune down then there is a risk that the tension between the nut and tuner will be higher than between the nut and the bridge, so you start playing and suddenly the string drops a little in pitch. Tuning up reduces the impact of the these problems, although it doesn't entirely eliminate them.
@@mandolinic
Tuning up or down' tug on the string in-between time doing so. If sharp'tune down and then stretch the string, sneaking up on it until it's in tune. Either way' stretch the string while tuning.
@@BryanClark-gk6ie Good comment.
As a recovering acoustic-guitar-at-the-function guy, I’ve had the fortune of being around people who were very chill with it, so it can depend on who you’re with.
Main thing I’d say is Know The Vibe. If everyone’s just chilling and hanging out, it might be fine to bring your guitar and just provide a little background ambience. Maybe don’t tear into a complex and really flashy finger style piece if the vibe isn’t concert hall performance.
Also understand what hangouts the guitar may be welcome at, vs. the times where it comes off kinda presumptuous to have brought your guitar with you in the first place.
Social dynamics are hard, at the end of the day just don’t take it too personally. If you’re like me, over time you’ll just kinda laugh at yourself for having done it in the first place and move on.
I have pretty bad social anxiety. I'm getting a lot better, but it used to be horrible. I'd always inadvertently find myself at parties anyhow; craving for that social interaction. My guitar was always my safe space. So, I quickly became the background guitar guy. Never taking center stage unless someone asked me to play something (even then I'd play a song up to the end of the bridge/solo and then stop, because the rest of the song was the same as what came before the break; and I assumed they'd have been bored of hearing the same chord progressions =p). I got good at matching the vibe of the stories and conversations with my guitar; providing depth to the dialogue.
I guess a more subtle lesson would be to not be the arrogant guitar guy. Know the piece you are, and where you fit in the puzzle of the gathering.
I sell gear at guitar stores a lot of the time, take the 50-60% of what they think they can sell it for, and I'm content with it. You get the money now, nobody wastes your time with lowball offers or failing to show up, no opportunity for scammers to try their crap on you. For a lot of items, paying half of its value to not have to deal with the hassles of finding a legit buyer is totally worth it.
When it comes to selling cheaper gear, 40% less than what you'd get selling it yourself is just the cost of not having to deal with the idiots on Facebook marketplace
By your comments, you seem to be attuned into harmony of life this will serve you well in life. 😊
The session is brilliant for everyone involved in getting into guitars .
Best video I’ve seen on it all so far.
Technical advice to, some people skills but when put together it’s golden advice that really needs to be followed if you want to get ahead with out hassles or death in case of tampering with power cords ( that’s just plain wrong).
All very sound presentation about guitars I’d highly recommend.
Cheers Colin.
in the UK if you remove the ground pin, you cant use the plug. That pin pushes a switch (of sorts) that opens the slots for the other two pins.
But (unless the plug is moulded onto the cable) you can open the plug with a screwdriver, and remove the earth wire from the earth pin. That's actually far more dangerous because (a) the pin is still in place and gives no clue that the plug is modified, and (b) you have a loose earth wire inside the plug just waiting to hook up with the 240 volts live pin....
I'm guilty of not wearing ear protection, even though while working at a music studio I've been blessed with drummers testing out their kits while I'm mic-ing the kick drum!!!
Been playing for ages….still learned a bunch of good “don’ts”. Thanks Sammy!
Drummers don't have that house party issue. People are always thrilled if you arrive at a chill gathering and start blasting solo's on your 22-piece DW kit.
6:00 Imagine you have the thing that they have, which you want. Imagine how having that thing must make you feel. Imagine being them and having this same feeling whilst being them. Your joy is their joy. Let yourself embrace this moment of empathy. Let their joy be your joy, as joy is to be shared; never coveted or taken away.
This is the practice of being happy for the successes of others.
1:18 So when I showed to a party with my guitar and amp and cranked up Ace of Spades, that's why the people left?
The helpful guy who "Here let me plug that in for ya" and doesn't know you have an adaptor for the two prong socket helps out by breaking off the ground pin of the new cable which your Amp Tech installed on your vintage Fender last week.
The tuning tip at the beginning needs updated slightly. Any time you tune down, ANY TIME, first stretch the string some before tuning back up to pitch again. Tuning down releases some tension in the windings and if you skip stretching before going back up again, on the first bend or so you do on that string, you'll be right back to slightly flat again.
I only file my nails, never cut. And Flea uses tape and crazy glue on his slapping thumb! I use it on cracks in my hands or fingers if needed- I work in a kitchen and we've lost a few dishwashers recently.
Try to use gloves when washing dishes for long periods if possible. Dish soap can be quite harsh on skin. I've had a skin condition that took a long time to heal because of daily contact with dish soap. Took me a while to realise that it was making it worse.
Your second point, extremely valid. I'm an electrician here in the states. The equipment ground on ANY cord is put there for the safety of the consumer (as you stated in your video). If it's there by design, leave it alone!
Addendum: if you’re going to wear ear plugs at sound check, don’t keep telling the engineer to keep turning up your monitor. Better yet, invest in IEM’s.
I’ve been playing guitar since 1974. And I have always heard it sad never tune down always tune up not down. Yeah and I’ve also heard of people cutting the ground cord off of a plug. That is very deadly dangerous. Great advice. Thanks for the video.👍🏼👍🏼😁😎
@8:44 I felt like I needed to hear that. Most importantly because that can be applicable to other aspects of your life. Such as exercising, studying, getting through the shift of the day etc.
My grandma is usually imposing sonics wherever she goes if it is at the house she asks for a acoustic guitar, if we’re in a music store she has to show the clerks she can play violin it bugs everyone except me
that's cute
Always tune UP. THANK YOU. I always tell people this, they never get it. It eliminates mechanical slop. Same for tightening wheels on a car or motorcycle, or anything. If you build an engine and the spec says 80 ft/lbs for a particular bolt, and you take it to 85 by mistake, you have to go below it first, then tighten.
I always felt the tune-up rule was pretty straightforward & common logic.
Even without giving it thought, on some unlubed nuts, it forces you to cause the string sticks and finally breaks free, dropping it a whole step, forcing you to go back up.
Nailed it. I especially like the life lesson there at the end about the hedonic treadmill. Lots of wisdom from such a young feller.
Earplugs are a MUST. I played in a band years ago, and my amp was to my right. Guess which ear has tinnitus? It might seem cool that your ears are ringing after a gig, but let me tell you -
Tinnitus is PERMANENT - Now I have to live with that sound the rest of my life. At 3 in the morning, when the world is quiet, that sound can be deafening.
PLEASE - protect your ears!
I remember i went to a party. I played the guitar all the time, another dude smoked too much weed and barfed all over the floor and refused to clean after himself. Guess who wasnt invited to the party the 2nd time?
Great opportunity to write a song on the spot!
"Party foul man,
pretty please clean up your puke."
...or something lol
You were never invited back
Yeah. After 15yo only bring your guitar anywhere if you are requested to do so, preferably paid also. I have a lot of friends who are AMAZING guitarists, myself included. I love to hear them play. But not when I'm chatting with other amazing friends.
@@Woozy.0 correct
I learned about grounding amps the fun way after picking up a second hand one where the plug was bad and wasn't grounding properly. Puts a new meaning to electric guitar .....
I miss playing live and last summer my sister moved and her new neighbors had a teenage son that could play and sing. So we played and entertained the campfire or just group of drunk people that wanted to sing something. The teenager moved away for college but I still wanted to jam around the campfire. Most the time it was on request, but I can admit sometimes I just wanted to play. Didn't force anyone to listen to me. Would even wander off and play away from the group. But I still totally felt like "that guy". I hate that feeling.
Yes! That last one (and the ‘don’t electrocute yourself’) is really important. I so bad with that last one, always needing just one more thing. Always. It never stops.
What if I play my acoustic about every day? Should I still leave it in its case with the humidifiers?
Super glue is amazing for finger cuts in general if you play guitar. I've split my entire fingertip working on my car and glued it and could play perfectly with not much pain at all. They use a medical grade version of it in hospitals on wounds that can't otherwise be stitched easily or the stitches would cause more scarring than they would help.
I heard a story that sealing wounds was actually what superglue was invented for. The other uses were just a happy accident. I don't know if it's true but it's too good a story to debunk.
I sliced off half the tip of my left index finger while cooking at home alone once, and I superglued it back on. when I got to the doctor she didn't even need to give me stitches, and it reattached perfectly. (there's obviously a slight scar, but the spot has perfect irrigation and even got back sensitivity!)
@@Birkguitars just so, it's why "superglue doesent stick to anything but skin."
@@RaccoonHenry That's kind of amazing. Good eye for getting everything lined up!
The correct way to deal with the hum problem is to fix your actual electrical problem which is (barring internal electrical problems or electronics degradation within the particular piece of equipment you're dealing with) the fact that you're building is ground for that particular line is probably bad. This is why it's incredibly important in recording studios and other type venues to make sure that every single outlet is independently grounded. If you fix your grounding issue, your hum problem usually goes away
Another Problem with compressed air (cans) that I know from handling electronics: it sometimes squirts out a bunch of fluids, especially when holding it wrong. Can mess with electronis and wood.
What if most of the people at the party would think the guy who plays Wonderwall is _that guy?_
The parties I've been to lean more towards prog, jazz, classical, soul, blues, rap, punk, funk, and metal.
Certainly you could get the jazz band to play that or any song, but it's going to still be jazz.
I do really enjoy a lot of pop music, but it's not "the thing" where I grew up.
You are very open when giving advice on jealousy. I just wanted to say that everyone should take that advice to heart and the world will be a much better place . Everyone has their own unique God given talent and no one is better than anyone else .
Great tips, thanks! I'm guilty of your last tip. I see so many guitarists on TH-cam that are way better than me. I usually think, "I'll be happy when I can play as well as that guy."
I usually end up saying to my self “I wanna be able to play like that”
I made a 4 ohm resistor with a speaker jack to plug into my tube amp without a speaker so I could run it directly into a mixer. No more blown fuses on my tube amp.
I actually stretch the string if slightly too sharp, this helps remove any slack tension still in the string and then if that stretch makes it flat I use the tune up method.
Great video. Lots of subtle, well thought-out tips even for experienced players. Thanks!
Fun fact: Superglue was originally invented for surgical purposes. Modern dermabond is a better, safer alternative to superglue for wounds, but for something trivial like a nicked fingernail superglue should be fine.
I once bought a very, very nice bass at a very good price from a guy who played in a country band you’ve probably herd of. They toured a lot in the South, where there’s lots of humidity in some places and not so much in others. He wanted to switch to a Modulus bass with a carbon fiber neck so it would be more stable. Humidity changes can mess you up!
If the ground is connected to the metal housing or the frame of an amplifier then it is possible to create a ground-loop. This can produce a hum or a buzz in the sound, furthermore it is dangerous. If one apparatus becomes wet and the live wire get connected to ground, then normally all power is automatically switched off. But when there is a fault in the ground wire then everybody can "feel the power!" Therefore, all consumer electronics should NOT have a grounded metal housing, but a double isolation, the secondary part of the transformer should have absolutely NO galvanic connection to the mains.
Nail filing is generally better than nail clipping because nails consist of microscopic layers that can separate when cut. Or at least that's what an aunt who's a manicurist told me. (Hence: if you want strong nails for fingerpicking you never want to cut them, just file 'em every day.)
I cut my nails with a small scissors and then file them to set their appropriate length and end profile. Never had any problems.
-dave
I had a very old Ampeg guitar amp that didn't have a ground. If you touched a mic and your strings you'd get absolutely fried. Good times
Agree about practicing with sound as close to gig as you can. I sing at home with a mic because that's super useful live. I wouldn't stay long in band that didn't rehearse with full PA
When bringing my guitar inside after about 15 minutes, depending on how long it's been outside, I barely crack the case open and don't take the guitar out until I can place my hand on the guitar and the finish doesn't fog up.
For fingernail separating, the best remedy is to just get a lower guage string pack. I atopped having that issue once I switched to 8s instead of playing w 10s which was doable, but not as comfortable
for fingernail pain, make sure to round off the side of left hand nails so it doesn't have a sharp corner to stick into the flesh if you get carried away by your mad bendz. I had bloody pouring from my left ring finger and it was agony (afterwards)
some good tips , some things you don't have options to not do as a touring band and tight time turnarounds, hot guitars go into cases and semi trucks and planes after gigs and get opened from freezing the next day , shit happens on the road, you do what you gotta do, one major one people forget is don't leave your strap on and place away if your a sweaty player as the salts in your sweat can leech into paint finishes like nitro and eat away and make it hazy, also wash your straps in with your cloths once a month or more if your real sweaty. always acclimatise your guitar as much as you can at each new venue, much like you said, but a guitar left in a case and pulled out late before a set can have detrimental tuning effects. ALWAYS carry gear from your van into your hotel/motel room, I don't care if your tired or its been a long drive, the one time you leave stuff in a van or trailer that looks like a band trailer it will get boosted, if you think its priceless you can carry it to your room, if you can afford to replace it you do you. also don't tune down or loosen your strings to fly, its all BS. leave it tuned at pitch. if your flying with a bunch of band gear call the airline ahead and notify them, they can often make your life and tour a whole lot more bearable by prewarning and not just turning up with 30 bits of gear that's all overweight .
Cutting the ground is pretty unlikely to shock or kill you. It COULD, but its MUCH more likely to fry the amp, the pre, or blow the cab in that order. It does depend on the particular amp. That being said, just get a power conditioner if you have ground hum from poor wiring in the building. Hell, get one even if you don't because odds are you'll need it eventually
The amp grounding issue is very serious. Keith Relf from the Yardbirds was electrocuted by an ungrounded amp.
I am an American that lived in Europe in the 1980's and there was no "earth ground" on the electrical sockets. They were all 2 prong 220 volt @ 50 hertz outlets .
I find that tuning down makes the string vulnerable to bending, where a bend causes the string to detune even further.
0:55
Im just a mechanic & general tech enthusiast so i'm not exactly strictly electrical certified or anything BUT
The power would never go through the guitar and into you, straight up impossible.
1. You touch wood and strings, the strings are connected via bridge, bolted into wood, and tuners also bolted into wood. There is at no point a circuit in the guitar involving you. The pickups are actually coiled magnets which magnetically interact with the strings, this creates an electrical signal within the pickup(hence the name pickup, and not microphone). What this means is that electricity won't go inside the pickups anyway, in fact, they create it, and it merely gets sent & amplified by the electronics on guitar to be sent into the amp for further more specitic amplification.
2. Lets say electricity COULD go the other way AND the strings are part of that circuit, well, the wiring in the guitar's electronics is so thin they would simply melt far before it ever damaged you. This could create a fire, sure, but won't electricute you.
Still, VERY unsafe fire hazard. They put the ground pin there to reduce the chances of a house fire.
I will also say, an active pickup system works different and does have electricity within, but not much, it is powered by a small 9v, NOT the amp's power.
Further, they make microphonal pickups, but they are rare, and still are piezo-electric, meaning the vibration of sound creates electricity, so still technically no electricity coming in, and the wiring is still very very thin.
Same goes for microphones on the thin wiring front.
Im new to playing guitar, but have worked in the Film industry for 16 years.
I was doing a "Spec" commercial for Fender (based on a marketing idea "Live the Dream") as a film student.
Fender lent me their "Newest" guitar a butterscotch Tele Hot Rod 52(the 7th one they made) and (real)Vintage '65 Twin Reverb Combo Amp to do the commercial.
I got a band called "Scissors for Lefty" to play the guitar during a gig at the Key Club in Hollywood.
When they were done they put the guitar next to the amp at the edge of the stage, and that was the last time I saw the guitar and amp.
So yea, use those tracking devices.
I never told Fender what happened. and they never asked.
I bend strings all the time,and I have never had that fingernail issue
(Now watch it happen next time I bend a string, but I’ll know what to do)
Pretty good list
The trick is not to avoid tension entirely. It's to train yourself to release tension while playing. You need some amount of tension to play certain techniques.
Oh man, it's been so many years since I've had that fingernail separation thing that I almost forgot how it feels like. It's even worse than the skin pain you get when starting out on a guitar.
Never had that happen. Are these injuries caused by 13-56 gauge?
The house I lived in before the one I own now was built in the 1800's and was renovated around WW2 (this was 16 years ago) none of the electrical outlets in the old house had outlets that had a third hole for a ground pin so for the entire time I lived there I had to either use adapters or yank the ground pins. Usually I just yanked the pins
I agree with all but the milestone point. If i didn't have milestones I wouldn't have been as committed as i became.
Reasons for your milestones are what make or break you.
Example. I wanted to be able to play improv lead. Now i can because it gave me something to work on as a rhythm player who had to step up in that role in my band. Then i wanted to play a combination of the two interchangeably. Now i can.
If a milestone is selfish or about gear then yeah i agree with your point.
I wasn't happy with my ability and setting milestones about skill level has given me confidence to carry my weight in my band.
8:40 Exactly !
You wan't the guitar of your dream ? Build it from a kit (or from scratch if you have the tools)
- You're not sure of your skills ? Go very slowly : if you need a day to sand that little part down then enjoy your day (it's ways better to still have a little to much wood left than not enough wood being there for what you're aiming for)
- Will it be perfect ? Probably not to the commercial standard, but every little imperfections will have a story for you. And I can guarantee you this guitar will be worth way more to your eyes than any shiny PRS.
- Will it take time ? Hell yeah, that's the point. And the closer to your dream you want it to be, the longer it will take !
As the Samurai said, the PRS will get "normal" thus boring and thus not enough. That guitar of yours won't ever get normal.
And don't break your amp grounding pin
All old and very important information! 👍👍
Michael Bloomfield always used to say: keep those fingers loose;)
I used to have this old solid state Guild amp. I loved it. Sounded unique and the spring reverb was so funky. But it didn't have a ground. It didn't even come with one. Just 2 plugs like a lamp or something. It electrocuted me more than once. I figured out how to mitigate it but eventually it started doing it all the time. And no one wanted to work on it because they'd have to charge me more than it's worth. I wanted to do it anyway, I loved the amp. But the guy basically said no. It would've been a pain. I gave it to this used gear shop owner who said he might know a guy who works on crazy weird old stuff. Then he moved and I never heard from him again.
8:50 I may be weird because I have the opposite experience, I'm only happy if I'm learning something new, even though I know I'm not necessarily going to get great pleasure from completing the learning process on that particular piece.
It's OK playing and practicing the stuff I know, but I find it hard to get motivation to play at all if I'm not constantly learning a new tune.