www.thomann.de
Those Cuntz are expensiveWhile I'm not a fan of playing acoustics I did some research into those Blueridges and the sound clips do sound good. I did however find this brand of guitar which I feel an instant affiliation with:
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Interesting! Never heard of Gabriel. My mate has a Recording King slope shoulder jumbo - loves it. I wondered if they were made in the same factory as the Blueridge.
Ebay are Robbers. Had my eyes taken out selling a Hagstrom for £450, ended up paying around 27% fees to Ebay. NEVER AGAIN.
I'd usually start with some "boring" warmup stuff to build strength and co-ordination, then some scales, then some fun stuff like improvised jamming along to some backing tracks (trying to incorporate different scales and modes in amongst my comfort-zone go-to licks), and then focus on a specific technique or song I'm trying to master.
The warmup exercise I play for strength, I consider to be one of the most important parts of my regime, despite being technically a "boring" 1234-type thing. I learned this one from a John Petrucci video many years ago, and I still swear by it as a great warmup.
I'll start around the 7th fret and play the E-A-D-G strings on frets 7-8-9-10 as a slow-picked arpeggio (this is NOT a speed exercise, it's a strength exercise, so it works better if you leave say a second in between notes), holding down all the notes so that they ring out as a chord, paying close attention to making sure every note sounds "beautiful", rings out properly, and none of the notes get muted by your other fingers.
After a few seconds of it ringing out, swap the two middle fingers around, so that you're playing 7-9-8-10 across the same four strings. Again, make sure every note sounds "beautiful", with no accidental muting, and that all four notes ring out properly.
Next, swap around the outer two fingers, so you're playing 10-9-8-7 across the same four strings, the same way again.
Then swap around the middle fingers again, so you're playing 10-8-9-7.
So, to recap, across the E-A-D-G strings, that's:
7-8-9-10
7-9-8-10
10-9-8-7
10-8-9-7
Now move the whole thing down a string to the A-D-G-B strings and repeat.
Then move the whole thing down a string again to the D-G-B-E strings and repeat.
I'll play this a few times until I can feel my hand muscles starting to warm up, then rub the middle of my palm for a few seconds for relief, then start the whole thing again from the E-A-D-G strings again, but this time with a 1-fret gap introduced:
7-9-10-11
7-10-9-11
11-10-9-7
11-9-10-7
...repeating on the A-D-G-B strings, repeating on the D-G-B-E strings...
And then move the gap:
7-8-10-11
7-10-8-11
11-10-8-7
11-9-10-7
...again repeating on the A-D-G-B and D-G-B-E strings...
And then move the gap again:
7-8-9-11
7-9-8-11
11-9-8-7
11-8-9-7
After a bit more palm-rubbing I'll do the whole thing again but with TWO 1-fret gaps...
7-9-11-12
7-11-9-12
12-11-9-7
12-9-11-7
...repeat on the A-D-G-B and D-G-B-E strings then move the gap...
7-9-10-12
7-10-9-12
12-10-9-7
12-9-10-7
...repeat on the A-D-G-B and D-G-B-E strings then move the gap...
7-8-10-12
7-10-8-12
12-10-8-7
12-8-10-7
More palm rubbing.
Finally, usually with great pain at this point, repeat the pattern one last time, with THREE 1-fret gaps:
7-9-11-13
7-11-9-13
13-11-9-7
13-9-11-7
.....and relax, go make a cup of tea, cradle the aching/burning hand for ten minutes or so before starting on my co-ordination exercises (the also-boring 1234 up the neck and diagonally across the strings exercises that I think I've shown you before). Then onto scales. (I usually do the 7 modes of the major scale as 3-notes-per-string exercises. If I'm feeling brave I might do 4-notes-then-3-notes-per-string so that I cover 3 whole octaves across the 6 strings.)
I'm bored reading it!
I need to branch out in terms of scales etc. And some new licksIt's one of those that's much easier to show someone in person than to describe on a forum, tbh.
Feels amazing on the hands though. It'll have your fretting hand feeling like it's going to fall off. (In a good way).
I kna. I just wanna get into summit a bit meatier in terms of actual playing.
Seriously considering getting him one of these. Loads of positive comments and the only negative I can see is that there's no tuner which is nowt really.Have a look at this one.
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It has got a built in tuner mate - I play that guitar. Mines a few years old so maybe they have put new electronics on them.
Heard reviewers saying that it doesn't come with a tuner.
www.thomann.de
I had the rosewood version of that years ago (AC3R) and it had a tuner built in. Very nice sounding guitar and decent sound when plugged in, which is definitely not always the case (especially with piezo pickup's). You have to remember when comparing with the likes of Martin's, as well as comparing build quality you are comparing historic branding (which comes into play if you end up selling it). You will generally always take a hit on the price you pay (even for a Martin) but the price will hold up better and increase in value at some point. I have Martin's these days and I would say the main things I notice compared to an Eastern manufacturer is the finer points on the build quality and usually the weight of the guitar. I noticed with Eastman (a highly regarded Chinese manufacturer) - it looked great and sounded good but it was so much heavier than the equivalent Martin. I tried an Alvarez OM which looked like a Martin 000-18 and it seemed fine until I looked a little closer and started spotting a lot of glue (small points but it's the finer details really which make a guitar worth more I think).
Thanks for that mate.
Check the specs mate some are Rosewood back and sides some are mahoganyThanks for that mate.
The tuner isn't really a consideration in the big scheme of things.
I'm just wondering why guitarguitar have what looks like the same guitar for £1099 when Thomann have it a couple of hundred pound cheaper. They must be different versions of the same guitar
uk.yamaha.com
It'll be the same model (I noticed it mentioned tuner on the GG specs). Thomann are often cheaper - they are a massive European (German?) company so must buy in massive bulk quantities. I've bought from them in the past (before we left the EU) and it was all good. Go and try it in GG (check they have it in stock at the branch you go to - they will order it in for you if not for a £50 deposit and refund no quibbles). GG only price match UK authorised sellers of the brand so no chance of them matching Thomann unfortunately.Thanks for that mate.
The tuner isn't really a consideration in the big scheme of things.
I'm just wondering why guitarguitar have what looks like the same guitar for £1099 when Thomann have it a couple of hundred pound cheaper. They must be different versions of the same guitar
