Totally agree, my dial tone is not E either.

correct :/ poor lirva

Yeah, but Lirv lives in some backasswoods town in Nebraska or some ****, so it wouldn't surprise me if his dial tone is in Drop D or some ****.

I live in the same state as LirvA (Oklahoma) and I can confirm that the dial tone here is the same as everywhere else in the USA.

sards, you're with me aren't you? It's a ****ing E!


IT'S A ****ING E!

I also play using the "claw" method as mentioned. It is effective for playing a blues type of style that I play.

I am in a hotel, and it definitely isn't an E. Been out of the States for so long though that I haven't heard a US dial tone in forever.

Had my guitar for a week now, I almost know a chord or two. But today, or maybe I only noticed today, (not sure how I would have missed it before), thing is buzzing like a swarm of bees.

Seems to be within the first few frets, and basically every string. For a tuner, just using Guitar Toolkit on iPhone. It tells me things are in tune.

Open high E has the buzzing sound. All other open strings sound okay.

But then it all takes a ****. Basically all 6 strings, when using the first three frets, they all have this buzzing sound. I would say 85% of the buzzing when in the first fret.

Again, just something I notice today. Guitar hasn't been dropped or banged against anything. What's wrong with this thing?

It needs a setup. A shop will straighten out the neck and adjust the nut, string height & intonation for you. Just pick a set of strings you want to use and keep using the same kind for and after setup. Most guitars off the shelf need it.

For more money you can get a fret level and more fine-tuned work from a real pro, but a general setup (if done well) is good enough.

There is plenty of info out there about how to do it yourself, but if you aren't comfortable with it, I would definitely take it to a professional. Personally, I like very little relief in the neck, so I find I have to make slight adjustments frequently, especially when the guitar travels. Moving from Amsterdam to Las Vegas, I had to make adjustments, most likely because of the huge difference in humidity. I also had to hit the fingerboard with some lemon oil because of the dryness here, which will cause the fingerboard to shrink slightly. This will sometimes cause the fret tang to become slightly exposed on the sides of the fingerboard, and you have to slightly file them to smooth them down flat with the side of the fingerboard.

Michael
professional luthier

I can't make my fingers do the frickin' F chord. AAARRRGGHHH!!!

try it up higher on the neck (move every finger like 7 frets higher) then move down as it gets more comfortable/familiar

that irks me

people aren't equals

Show me a guy that couldn't learn guitar because the size of his fingers, then I'll believe you. The fact is having fatass sausage fingers will make it more difficult, but it's not impossible, and 99% of the people yapping that their fingers are too large to play a chord without bumping into another string actually fall into the normal size hand group.

I knew a guy that was a bodybuilder since he was 12. By the time I met him he was 35, and the tips of his fingers were nearly twice the size of the rest of his fingers. Him and his other bodybuilder friend said they thought it was from always carry a ton of weight in his hands as he was developing.

When he told me he played guitar, I tried not to laugh because I thought there would be no way he could play with fingertips twice the size of what people would consider a large hand. I figured he would sound like an ape smashing strings all muted and ****. Nope. What I saw was a freakishly huge guy playing smooth and silky Albert Lee lines.

Everyone can learn to play chords. We all muted strings when trying to play chords in the beginning. I have never seen fingertips as large as this guy (on anyone - musician or not), yet he could wail no problem.

at starting at guitar, they basically are. they also ALL try the "hmm it must be my defectively sized hands, i'm a special snow-flake" routine when it turns out to not be as easy as it looks. it's like 99% never the hand size.

Ok I concede I concede. All hands are blessed with musical talent. Everyone will be a musician if they please. You guys are right.

...You think gifted musicians have the talent in their hands? lolz.

the human brain how does it work

anyways, i guess i should rephrase. i wasn't really meaning to say anyone can play guitar. but if you are typing (and not using a speech to text program to post here, or one of those machines that reads what your eye movements mean) then you have the physical ability to move your fingers correctly (or you have super pointy elbows) and therefore the "grrr my hands just aren't perfectly sized like everyone else who plays guitar, that's why i'm failing at it" excuse just doesn't fly.

practice, stop expecting things to come easily to you, and practice more.


btw there are a very few small amount of people (young children, hobbits, maybe some women) where that excuse does apply and they do make slimmer necked guitars. i've just never met anyone who that applied to and I taught guitar for 6 years (which included a lot of girls).

Sometimes young kids press between strings on the guitar. You tell them to press the 1st fret of the 1st string, but the tip of their finger is pressing the wood between the 1st and 2nd strings, so they don't get a clear sound despite pressing twice as hard as they need to (if they were centered over the string). Would you consider that lack of musical talent, or just someone that needs to be shown where to place their finger correctly? It really is the same for anyone that thinks their fingers are too big, or all the other load of excuses novices come up with to avoid putting the hours in.

Some people pick it up easier than others, sure. One thing is common - everyone thinks they pick it up slower than the average person. No one picks up a guitar and says, "Damn, this is easy. I'm really musically inclined. No wonder all those long-haired freaks play guitar."

The point is everyone can finger a chord correctly (perhaps Andre the Giant would have required a classical guitar). That's not where the musical talent comes in, but we'll save that for another time.

If you want it, take it. I've never met anyone incapable of learning the guitar (in the basic sense), and I met one guy that had essential tremor, which would cause his hands to violently shake when fretting a chord. ****, if he could play without muting strings, anyone can.

Anyway, I know it's easier to just say you don't have talent or whatever, so just disregard everything we are saying as that may mean you have to work at something that's supposed to be fun, and who wants to do that?

Some people are very unlikely to excel.

What is your point?

Like I said earlier, 99% of people actually have hands that fall in the normal size range, and 99% of the 1% that don't fall in the normal size range are still capable of being able to play chords cleanly.

None of that has any bearing on who is able to excel or not.

Someone said his hands are too big to be able to play chords. GT said it doesn't matter. You said it does. We say it doesn't and illustrate why, and now you say some people are very unlikely to excel.

Yes, that's true, but the overwhelming reason is because people are too lazy. I've met tons of people that should play sports instead of music as they don't have a shred of musical ability, but that didn't stop them from putting in the time and succeeding on some level on guitar.

Can they hear a 5 second lick and automatically play it back to you on the guitar? Nope, and they never will because they are effectively tone-deaf, but that didn't stop them from excelling as a soloist as they spent hours upon hours each day memorizing licks that are proven to work. Get enough licks down, stitch them into songs, and you've got a guy that sounds like he knows what he's doing yet he can't figure out Oh Come to Jesus in whole notes.

Yes, in fact, most people are very unlikely to excel at the guitar. Most people are lazy, too. Stop thinking that's just a coincidence.

Are your mother's hands perfectly suitable to play the guitar?

Is this an elaborate yo mama joke, or are you seriously trying to make a point?

yo mama joke

Well, she's dead, but her hands were quite small, yet she was able to play classical guitar (you know, big neck and wide string spacing) with no issue. She did have a highly unusual form of absolute pitch, though, so that probably led to her being able to stretch her fingers across the neck.