30 years playing but a beginner too. Seem to play a little then quit then come back a few years later. Can’t imagine how much better I could be if I actually stuck with it. Hoping I can stick with it longer this time
@@jimhimesjrspend at least 30 minutes a day. I play every day for an hour at least. I sometimes well exceed the hour by another 2 it’s a good time and it’s a good thing to do with your free time
I would add that guitarist should practice standing up as well. Especially, if you plan on playing in a live setting. I think Rob Flynn said Dimebag told him one time and I’m paraphrasing “ You wouldn’t go to war sitting down would you?”
Solid advice. Sorry for the length but I'd like to add some things to help if I may that the video time limit did not permit. Complainers: I am trying to help you, and it took me longer to write this than for you to read it. If you don't want to read the comment, skip it instead of complaining about the length. I have nearly 30 years experience and have been formally trained in music, having played guitar since 1996. I graduated from GIT in 2000. *On choosing guitars:* Metal tends to be a bright style favoring treble, upper mids, and a tight low end. This is the case even with mid scooped styles--the location of the mids and how much they are scooped only differ slightly in vintage British tone vs. modern American scooped tones. This tone can be achieved even with cheap, lightweight woods. Alder, poplar, maple, ash, and basswood are fine for bodies, especially solid colors like gloss black. Mahogany is much more expensive, not as bright, and tends to be used along with maple tops in guitars that have see through finishes like Les Pauls. The reason for this is alder, poplar, and basswood tend to not have pleasing grain lines and they absorb solid colors well, making them ideal for guitars where the wood grain does not show. With "tone wood," you are mostly paying for looks of a see through top. Bolt on guitar neck designs are fine for metal, especially lead guitar, as they produce brighter tones and faster transients. If the neck is damaged, it can be replaced, whereas set neck and thru neck designs will be much more difficult to repair. Set neck and neck thru designs are better for rhythm, as they produce a bit more resonance, sustain, and low end. However, much of this low end will be rolled off when mixing to make for tighter, more articulate picking. Thru neck designs are often used in guitars like Jackson Soloists because they have a smooth, narrow neck heel that allows better reach and access to the higher frets. *In short, don't be afraid to use a cheap, lightweight, bolt on guitar for metal. "Tone wood" might make the guitar sound marginally louder, fuller, and sustain longer when unplugged, but this will not be audible with a lot of distortion and effects added on.* I would suggest using a floating bridge guitar for solos and melodies and having a fixed bridge/tune-o-matic guitar for rhythms since fixed bridge guitars can be retuned quickly when songwriting and recording. For those who combine lead and rhythm techniques like Randy Rhodes and Alexi Laiho, often a floating bridge guitar is needed for every tuning. Aggressive metal guitar shapes look great but tend not to be ergonomic. For health reasons, I have to play sitting, and often Vs or pointy BC Rich style shapes will create neck drop in this position, or even when standing. I find an Explorer to be an ideal shape for sitting. Many players will practice or record in this position but perform standing. So, I went with Jackson's Kelly design, as it is essentially a Floyd Rose equipped Explorer with 25.5" scale length with various other improvements over the Gibson Explorer, such as closer pot and toggle switch placement for easier wiring. *The main takeaway is whatever looks cool may not be comfortable.* There is no substitute for trying a guitar in person, especially regarding neck thickness and profile. Mass produced guitars tend to be consistent, though. I have various Jackson Kellys from the 90s-2010s, under both Akai (Jackson Professional) and Fender (Jackson JS) ownership, and the changes have not been that drastic save changing paint schemes and nicer fretboard inlays becoming more common even on cheaper models. I would go for pickups with mounting rings for passive guitars and direct mount pickups for active guitars. The reason for this is you can use a Seymour Duncan Triple Shot on guitars with mounting rings, allowing series/split/parallel/phase wiring. Most active pickups are series only and do not allow complicated wiring options without special models or accessories. *On floating bridges and their aftermarket upgrades:* Cheaper guitars tend to use licensed Floyd Rose bridge designs, either their own brand in earlier years (Jackson, ESP/LTD, BC Rich) or Floyd Rose Specials now. These bridges are made of soft zinc and iron to keep costs down and do not flutter or maintain tuning as well as harder, more expensive metals. Usually a bridge and pickups are the first things that are upgraded on cheaper guitars. Kahler bridges are their own animal and offer many advantages over a Floyd Rose, but are also more complex to install and set up because they operate on a cam system. You will find them to be common on many vintage 80s guitars. They tend to make guitars sound more metallic and take away the warmth of the wood. Most people who try Kahlers either love them and prefer them over a Floyd for a Slayer or Children or Bodom type of aggressive use of the whammy bar or they dislike the Kahler because of its complexity. Floyd Rose's competing bridge, the FRX, has not been as successful as the Kahler for guitars converted from tune-o-matic to floating bridge designs. The crucial parts of a Floyd Rose bridge are the saddles, saddle blocks, knife edges where the bridge meets the bridge posts, and sustain block. All the metals in these areas are best if they are very hard so tuning is maintained. A heavier brass block increases flutter (a Slayer/Children of Bodom warbling technique made by pulling upward on the whammy bar's tip and quickly releasing), but going too heavy or large on the block makes the guitar sound bassier, makes the whammy bar harder to move, and limits the floating bridge's range of motion in a thin bodied guitar. Aftermarket parts makers will try to sell large sustain blocks made of heavier or exotic materials. *In my opinion, all this does is add more bass to the guitar (something we don't want in metal because we want tight, fast picking), makes the bar harder to move, decreases the range of the bar's motion, and makes the bridge more expensive. Skip the aftermarket titanium parts.* Iron and zinc are usually too soft and lightweight to add much tone or flutter. Brass is relatively cheap and is of sufficient weight. I usually go with 32mm blocks because they can fit in thinner guitars. Going to a 42mm ruthenium big block OFR did not make my LTD F-Type in Bb sound heavier. It did, however, mean I couldn't put the back cover on the spring claw cavity. Floyd Rose retrofits could fill a book. The main thing is to measure your guitar bridge and find an aftermarket bridge that most closely matches its measurements. For recessed trems, the Schaller 1302 (non-Lockmeister) fits many routes. The Schaller 1302 features removable knife edges, so you do not have to replace the entire bridge when the edges wear out, making the 1302 a great value. Original Floyd Rose bridges tend to be narrower and longer than the Schaller. If you detune, the OFR saddle bolts could stick out the back and prevent full pullups. Non-recessed trems are not as difficult to replace since they do not have to fit into a tight bridge route. On Japanese made and other imported guitars, an R8 locking nut is often used. It is shallower than the R2/R3 nut used on most Jacksons, ESP/LTDs, and BC Rich guitars. Schaller does not make an R8 nut but Floyd Rose does, and often Schaller bridges will work with Floyd Rose R8 nuts depending upon headstock and string break angle. You may get some slight buzzing at most. Schaller bridges being 10"-16" compound radius as opposed to Jackson's 12"-16" means the outer strings may have to be shimmed to make them level, but I like the slight arc low on the neck as this makes bending and barre chords easier. You can also find your low and high strings easily by height without having to look at your fretting hand. Most guitar companies will use Schaller, OFR, or Gotoh floating bridge designs. But Ibanez tend to use their proprietary Edge design, with Schaller, Original Floyd Rose, and Gotoh designs sometimes fitting them. I tend to stay away from Ibanez for this reason. Ibanez are hard to build partscasters with due to their insistence on proprietary bridge designs. But their fixed bridge and bass designs tend to be very solid. *When upgrading a floating bridge, often the import/licensed spring claw, bridge posts, and locking nut can be left in the guitar. Only the baseplate and saddles--the bridge itself--need to be replaced.* If you install a bridge and use all of its parts, you will often have to redrill the bridge post studs and screws and make spring claw screw holes a larger diameter. This is more trouble than it is worth. If your locking nut is not worn, you may not need to replace it. If you do, again, try an R8 nut size. You can measure the nut on the D string and your bridge itself with a digital caliper. Guitars with string trees/retainers like ESP/LTDs often maintain their tuning better than Jacksons and BC Rich guitars without string trees/retainers. If your Floyd is going out of tune and you have a retainer, try to tighten it for more stability.
One more thing to add. I don't mean this to take away from what Jamie says when he's emphasizing playing tight, but please, *sync to grid less.* One of the problems with metal made since 2000 or so is it is too sync'ed to grid, giving it a very stiff and mechanical sound. At the very least, try nudging beats about 1/32nd note off grid, either early or late, to give them a more human feel. Your picking will compensate accordingly, your music will breathe and sound more natural, and you will play with more feeling by having a bit of a pocket. Modern laptop metal sounds the way it does because of the way it is recorded and produced. Embrace the slight imperfections of the analog era. These imperfections make music musical.
Great video as always dude! If i could give one tip to the beginners it would be DON'T OVERTHINK! Obviously you need to pay attention to things but I delayed my picking hand progress for years by trying to be overly analytical with it. When I just started going for it and playing I found that my hand just kinda naturally corrected things I originally was stressing about!
recently bought a schecter demon 6, and I thought I should watch this to play on a higher level to get the most out of it, I can already play fast as hell, on time, and the right notes, but I havent mastered alot of the basics, like chords
Gear is important. That's true. I'm using LTD Viper 100fm with seymour duncan mayhem distortion set and VOX VT20X amp (I made a preset based on soldano emulation) and i really love it! But the most important thing is to enjoy playing the guitar, not to turn it into a routine. Good luck folks!
I'm 18, beeing playing for 2 years and just started playing metal for almost a year. I was kinda jealous of all my friends since they had me teaching them stuff and oh boy they improve so much quicker than I did lol. I started with a cheapo acoustic and was stuck with it for quite some time, that killed my progress but it made me a better player once I moved to an electric.
Wow you described my early years of guitar perfectly. I also started out with a squier, and I also didn't like the 22 frets (wanted to play the welcome to buckethead solo with 24), the tremolo would untune my guitar, loud humming noise, etc etc. haha The SHAPE of the strat though, it's still the most comfortable for me sitting down and playing.
I guess for beginners modelling amps are better like spider or others since with that you get basic pedals, noise gates and so many head options like all you recommended
Always struggle a bit with classical positions. The new Schecter sunset ghost at my place is definitely better for that position than the ltd ec 1000😂 but it still feels either as if th guitar is sliding down or it rests so much on the left lap I have to lean forward 🤷♂️. But I’ve seen old guitarists playin in rock position as well and getting through with it, may be me someday 😂🤘
Do you actually use the 23rd and 24th fret much? Looking to buy a metal guitar. Not looking to spend a lot and found an older Ibanez Korean model with an Ibanez locking trem. It’s only 22 fret though. The guitars I currently own are 22 fret and no Floyd/etc. Should I keep looking?
Yeah so I just watched your whole video. What the hell am I supposed to play though? I already own gear and know how to hold a pick. What do I play to sound metal? Are you supposed to palm mute while you chug? Am I just supposed to learn songs from heavy bands and play that? Actually kind of confused. Thanks bro.
Just to help depends on tuning. Standard E I typically work on playing the whole of Master of Puppets for downpicking and Blackened too. Drop C and standard D Killswitch songs are underrated for practicing. Hope that’s some food for thought.
First you need somebody who shows you how to use a DAW... In every video they start with the waveform from the signal allready visible, i don't even get that far despite all connection's are correct...🙄
Been playing 35 odd years now, still a beginner, however, absolute Ninja blackbelt in buying new and old gear
30 years playing but a beginner too. Seem to play a little then quit then come back a few years later. Can’t imagine how much better I could be if I actually stuck with it. Hoping I can stick with it longer this time
Lol, I'm so much better at buying guitars than playing them.
@@jimhimesjrspend at least 30 minutes a day. I play every day for an hour at least. I sometimes well exceed the hour by another 2 it’s a good time and it’s a good thing to do with your free time
zakk wylde uses the 10-60 set for drop c# and a 11-70 set for drop c, the dude is a beast
I would add that guitarist should practice standing up as well. Especially, if you plan on playing in a live setting.
I think Rob Flynn said Dimebag told him one time and I’m paraphrasing “ You wouldn’t go to war sitting down would you?”
100%!!
Solid advice. Sorry for the length but I'd like to add some things to help if I may that the video time limit did not permit.
Complainers: I am trying to help you, and it took me longer to write this than for you to read it. If you don't want to read the comment, skip it instead of complaining about the length.
I have nearly 30 years experience and have been formally trained in music, having played guitar since 1996. I graduated from GIT in 2000.
*On choosing guitars:*
Metal tends to be a bright style favoring treble, upper mids, and a tight low end. This is the case even with mid scooped styles--the location of the mids and how much they are scooped only differ slightly in vintage British tone vs. modern American scooped tones.
This tone can be achieved even with cheap, lightweight woods. Alder, poplar, maple, ash, and basswood are fine for bodies, especially solid colors like gloss black. Mahogany is much more expensive, not as bright, and tends to be used along with maple tops in guitars that have see through finishes like Les Pauls. The reason for this is alder, poplar, and basswood tend to not have pleasing grain lines and they absorb solid colors well, making them ideal for guitars where the wood grain does not show. With "tone wood," you are mostly paying for looks of a see through top.
Bolt on guitar neck designs are fine for metal, especially lead guitar, as they produce brighter tones and faster transients. If the neck is damaged, it can be replaced, whereas set neck and thru neck designs will be much more difficult to repair.
Set neck and neck thru designs are better for rhythm, as they produce a bit more resonance, sustain, and low end. However, much of this low end will be rolled off when mixing to make for tighter, more articulate picking. Thru neck designs are often used in guitars like Jackson Soloists because they have a smooth, narrow neck heel that allows better reach and access to the higher frets.
*In short, don't be afraid to use a cheap, lightweight, bolt on guitar for metal. "Tone wood" might make the guitar sound marginally louder, fuller, and sustain longer when unplugged, but this will not be audible with a lot of distortion and effects added on.*
I would suggest using a floating bridge guitar for solos and melodies and having a fixed bridge/tune-o-matic guitar for rhythms since fixed bridge guitars can be retuned quickly when songwriting and recording. For those who combine lead and rhythm techniques like Randy Rhodes and Alexi Laiho, often a floating bridge guitar is needed for every tuning.
Aggressive metal guitar shapes look great but tend not to be ergonomic. For health reasons, I have to play sitting, and often Vs or pointy BC Rich style shapes will create neck drop in this position, or even when standing. I find an Explorer to be an ideal shape for sitting. Many players will practice or record in this position but perform standing.
So, I went with Jackson's Kelly design, as it is essentially a Floyd Rose equipped Explorer with 25.5" scale length with various other improvements over the Gibson Explorer, such as closer pot and toggle switch placement for easier wiring.
*The main takeaway is whatever looks cool may not be comfortable.*
There is no substitute for trying a guitar in person, especially regarding neck thickness and profile. Mass produced guitars tend to be consistent, though. I have various Jackson Kellys from the 90s-2010s, under both Akai (Jackson Professional) and Fender (Jackson JS) ownership, and the changes have not been that drastic save changing paint schemes and nicer fretboard inlays becoming more common even on cheaper models.
I would go for pickups with mounting rings for passive guitars and direct mount pickups for active guitars. The reason for this is you can use a Seymour Duncan Triple Shot on guitars with mounting rings, allowing series/split/parallel/phase wiring. Most active pickups are series only and do not allow complicated wiring options without special models or accessories.
*On floating bridges and their aftermarket upgrades:*
Cheaper guitars tend to use licensed Floyd Rose bridge designs, either their own brand in earlier years (Jackson, ESP/LTD, BC Rich) or Floyd Rose Specials now. These bridges are made of soft zinc and iron to keep costs down and do not flutter or maintain tuning as well as harder, more expensive metals. Usually a bridge and pickups are the first things that are upgraded on cheaper guitars.
Kahler bridges are their own animal and offer many advantages over a Floyd Rose, but are also more complex to install and set up because they operate on a cam system. You will find them to be common on many vintage 80s guitars. They tend to make guitars sound more metallic and take away the warmth of the wood.
Most people who try Kahlers either love them and prefer them over a Floyd for a Slayer or Children or Bodom type of aggressive use of the whammy bar or they dislike the Kahler because of its complexity. Floyd Rose's competing bridge, the FRX, has not been as successful as the Kahler for guitars converted from tune-o-matic to floating bridge designs.
The crucial parts of a Floyd Rose bridge are the saddles, saddle blocks, knife edges where the bridge meets the bridge posts, and sustain block. All the metals in these areas are best if they are very hard so tuning is maintained. A heavier brass block increases flutter (a Slayer/Children of Bodom warbling technique made by pulling upward on the whammy bar's tip and quickly releasing), but going too heavy or large on the block makes the guitar sound bassier, makes the whammy bar harder to move, and limits the floating bridge's range of motion in a thin bodied guitar.
Aftermarket parts makers will try to sell large sustain blocks made of heavier or exotic materials. *In my opinion, all this does is add more bass to the guitar (something we don't want in metal because we want tight, fast picking), makes the bar harder to move, decreases the range of the bar's motion, and makes the bridge more expensive. Skip the aftermarket titanium parts.*
Iron and zinc are usually too soft and lightweight to add much tone or flutter. Brass is relatively cheap and is of sufficient weight. I usually go with 32mm blocks because they can fit in thinner guitars. Going to a 42mm ruthenium big block OFR did not make my LTD F-Type in Bb sound heavier. It did, however, mean I couldn't put the back cover on the spring claw cavity.
Floyd Rose retrofits could fill a book. The main thing is to measure your guitar bridge and find an aftermarket bridge that most closely matches its measurements.
For recessed trems, the Schaller 1302 (non-Lockmeister) fits many routes. The Schaller 1302 features removable knife edges, so you do not have to replace the entire bridge when the edges wear out, making the 1302 a great value. Original Floyd Rose bridges tend to be narrower and longer than the Schaller. If you detune, the OFR saddle bolts could stick out the back and prevent full pullups. Non-recessed trems are not as difficult to replace since they do not have to fit into a tight bridge route.
On Japanese made and other imported guitars, an R8 locking nut is often used. It is shallower than the R2/R3 nut used on most Jacksons, ESP/LTDs, and BC Rich guitars. Schaller does not make an R8 nut but Floyd Rose does, and often Schaller bridges will work with Floyd Rose R8 nuts depending upon headstock and string break angle. You may get some slight buzzing at most.
Schaller bridges being 10"-16" compound radius as opposed to Jackson's 12"-16" means the outer strings may have to be shimmed to make them level, but I like the slight arc low on the neck as this makes bending and barre chords easier. You can also find your low and high strings easily by height without having to look at your fretting hand.
Most guitar companies will use Schaller, OFR, or Gotoh floating bridge designs. But Ibanez tend to use their proprietary Edge design, with Schaller, Original Floyd Rose, and Gotoh designs sometimes fitting them. I tend to stay away from Ibanez for this reason. Ibanez are hard to build partscasters with due to their insistence on proprietary bridge designs. But their fixed bridge and bass designs tend to be very solid.
*When upgrading a floating bridge, often the import/licensed spring claw, bridge posts, and locking nut can be left in the guitar. Only the baseplate and saddles--the bridge itself--need to be replaced.* If you install a bridge and use all of its parts, you will often have to redrill the bridge post studs and screws and make spring claw screw holes a larger diameter. This is more trouble than it is worth. If your locking nut is not worn, you may not need to replace it. If you do, again, try an R8 nut size. You can measure the nut on the D string and your bridge itself with a digital caliper.
Guitars with string trees/retainers like ESP/LTDs often maintain their tuning better than Jacksons and BC Rich guitars without string trees/retainers. If your Floyd is going out of tune and you have a retainer, try to tighten it for more stability.
One more thing to add. I don't mean this to take away from what Jamie says when he's emphasizing playing tight, but please, *sync to grid less.*
One of the problems with metal made since 2000 or so is it is too sync'ed to grid, giving it a very stiff and mechanical sound.
At the very least, try nudging beats about 1/32nd note off grid, either early or late, to give them a more human feel. Your picking will compensate accordingly, your music will breathe and sound more natural, and you will play with more feeling by having a bit of a pocket.
Modern laptop metal sounds the way it does because of the way it is recorded and produced. Embrace the slight imperfections of the analog era. These imperfections make music musical.
if your a beginner, listen to this man, he knows his shit!!
Great video as always dude! If i could give one tip to the beginners it would be DON'T OVERTHINK! Obviously you need to pay attention to things but I delayed my picking hand progress for years by trying to be overly analytical with it. When I just started going for it and playing I found that my hand just kinda naturally corrected things I originally was stressing about!
recently bought a schecter demon 6, and I thought I should watch this to play on a higher level to get the most out of it, I can already play fast as hell, on time, and the right notes, but I havent mastered alot of the basics, like chords
Good advices for beginners thank you for'em !
Got his Metallica course when it first came out! Highly recommend for beginners 🤘
Excellent Knowledge Time Crunch! Thanks, Jamie!
This is awesome, great advice!
Back to basics with Jamie.
Kool. \m/
@@miserychannel69 yayyyyyy 🎉
thank you, this is going to help a lot!
Gear is important. That's true. I'm using LTD Viper 100fm with seymour duncan mayhem distortion set and VOX VT20X amp (I made a preset based on soldano emulation) and i really love it!
But the most important thing is to enjoy playing the guitar, not to turn it into a routine.
Good luck folks!
I'm 18, beeing playing for 2 years and just started playing metal for almost a year.
I was kinda jealous of all my friends since they had me teaching them stuff and oh boy they improve so much quicker than I did lol.
I started with a cheapo acoustic and was stuck with it for quite some time, that killed my progress but it made me a better player once I moved to an electric.
Got a Cort x100 great budget guitar fret work is top notch slapped some 10s on and she's great
Have fun is the best advice, otherwise you'll end up hating it and giving up
Wow you described my early years of guitar perfectly. I also started out with a squier, and I also didn't like the 22 frets (wanted to play the welcome to buckethead solo with 24), the tremolo would untune my guitar, loud humming noise, etc etc. haha The SHAPE of the strat though, it's still the most comfortable for me sitting down and playing.
Yeh!! Totally me too
Artist Guitars also have some pretty affordable beasts, I bought a gnosis 6 for roughly $250~ aud and it's been my go-to guitar ever since
Great great video
I guess for beginners modelling amps are better like spider or others since with that you get basic pedals, noise gates and so many head options like all you recommended
agree
Always struggle a bit with classical positions. The new Schecter sunset ghost at my place is definitely better for that position than the ltd ec 1000😂 but it still feels either as if th guitar is sliding down or it rests so much on the left lap I have to lean forward 🤷♂️.
But I’ve seen old guitarists playin in rock position as well and getting through with it, may be me someday 😂🤘
Do you actually use the 23rd and 24th fret much? Looking to buy a metal guitar. Not looking to spend a lot and found an older Ibanez Korean model with an Ibanez locking trem. It’s only 22 fret though. The guitars I currently own are 22 fret and no Floyd/etc. Should I keep looking?
For me depends if you want to learn a lot of solos. If not 22 frets is fine. Everything else sounds great tho.
how cool brits were i never thought:D
GodSpeed🤘
🙇♂️
Yeah so I just watched your whole video. What the hell am I supposed to play though? I already own gear and know how to hold a pick. What do I play to sound metal? Are you supposed to palm mute while you chug? Am I just supposed to learn songs from heavy bands and play that? Actually kind of confused. Thanks bro.
Well damn, thats older than me
When I was poor cuff,cuff still 😂😂😂 I subscribed to guitar world magazine and I didn't have a guitar
Have you got any riffs that you find enjoyable that also help practise techniques - at an intermediate level
Just to help depends on tuning. Standard E I typically work on playing the whole of Master of Puppets for downpicking and Blackened too. Drop C and standard D Killswitch songs are underrated for practicing. Hope that’s some food for thought.
First you need somebody who shows you how to use a DAW...
In every video they start with the waveform from the signal allready visible, i don't even get that far despite all connection's are correct...🙄
I’m gonna look to do videos about this!
Eeh..! What about speakers? Real or maybe IR. 🤔
Is peavy vyper good
Yehhhh my friend in the band guilt trip uses one. Sounds huge