GooseDave

Progress, at last! Moving back on to Classic Hard Rock Guitar Riff now. Been looking forward to this one.

@admin Will definitely do that. Thanks

OK. So I have now been practising Basic Rock Guitar Licks for a whole week. How many have I nailed? The first one (only). Sounds ridiculous, but I have been focusing on muting the other strings and playing correctly, every time. The problem I have is that I have nearly 50 years of bass muscle memory to 'forget' and an instrument that feels entirely different, including using a pick. Playing the Epiphone LP I am no longer getting the extreme pain that I was getting playing bass (why I have had to give up) - so all positives. I should hope to pick up the learning speed now. Everything is starting to feel natural now. Am I the slowest learner in the academy?

Added that back in. I am spending too much time on the bend and it is throwing the timing out. The bend is now just a hint, like in the lesson. Best I stick to the knitting.

Having a lot of fun with the first couple of Basic Rock Guitar Licks I'm doing a slight variation of lick one. When I bend the 3rd string of the 7th fret up, I'm also taking the 2nd string of the 7th fret up too, and missing out the next stroke of the 3rd string of the 7th. Sort of looser dirty blues feel, that to my ear sounds pretty cool. Loving the lesson.

After a couple of hours of practice, I am getting the feel of the Classic Hard Rock Guitar Riff. I'm still not happy with the OD sound I am getting. I have a Blues Driver, but actually the amp can dial in some pretty good OD sounds too, so going to persevere without a pedal for now. I am on the bridge pickup and have the volume at about 5 and the tone at about 7 - that gets it pretty close. With the amp OD and voicing on, with the gain at about 7 and the volume at about 3 it seems to be best at the moment - without being too harsh. I am on the Blackstar ISF American style setting (Fenderish) - I'm finding the British amp setting (Marshalish) a little too dark. If anyone spots any rookie mistakes, please let me know.

Hi - yes. It's a tube (hybrid) amp. Sounds pretty good. Just need to refine/memorise the settings to the various sound I want - getting there.

Well. The amp arrived today (it's pretty good) and started practicing my first HPCrazy lesson Classic Hard Rock Guitar Riff. I am sounding terrible - the transition from bass to guitar not as easy as I had hoped. But, without this foundation, I don't feel I should move on. Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect...

Been doing a slightly better setup on the guitar today, than came from the factory. Needed to anyway, as I have put on lighter gauge XLs. I straightened the neck and lowered the action slightly. Oiled the fretboard with some F-One, polished the frets, and top wrapped the strings after lowering the tail. It's feeling and playing much better already, with the intonation closer. Not a professional setup, by any stretch, but certainly an improvement.

So, to kick off my journey I bought a brand new Epiphone LP 50's. It's quite an impressive instrument for the price. But, my wife-imposed budget meant that I had to go easy on the amp pricing. I don't have the heart to sell my 1980 Aria Pro II SB-1000 bass, so, little by little I plan to build up my kit. That lead me to my first mistake. I bought the remarkably cheap, but well reviewed, Blackstar Fly3 and extension speaker. About GBP 100 with the separate power supply on Amazon. It's OK for travelling and thrashing, I guess, but nowhere near the clean or overdriven tones I am looking for. Awaiting delivery of the Blackstar HT1R MKII one watt tube hybrid amp now. Hopefully that brings me a little closer.