ParlourMan

Bing bong BK. That was rather decent, mate. Repetitive hand collision aimed in your direction ;)

I like tights.... and secretary's shoes.

Indeeed!

I'm from the UK too but I'm currently a political prisoner in mainland Europe. Welcome aboard

Seemed a bit hurried there, Jason. Couple of bits seemed to be running away from you. Perhaps you should knock it down a few BPM.

Last time I was crippled inside I'd taken a handful of Mogadon (now banned) and fought off sleep.... It was awesome! All motor-neuron skills had the plug pulled.

You, Sir, are a hero. You and the fake 'deaf signer' at Mandela's shindig are my favorite people this week.

Very good point, undoubtedly there is a premium on the brands mentioned given the legacy, infamy, notoriety etc... I do agree with your point though, you can find as well built a guitar with high quality materials for less especially if you're looking for a Martinesque model/sound, they do seem to be the template for the majority of the industry. Some even have the look down to a tee, perhaps this is where Gibson fares better in that they tend to look a lot better than their copies/clones/tributes. But you can get perfectly good and even great instruments outside of 2-3 American builders... Some of the Japanese Gretsch stuff is ridiculously good for the archtop fans, some European acoustic makers can rival anything from the big three but can't charge anywhere near as much. ...and again, it's only going to be as good as what you do with it, whiffy skills, whiffy sounding guitar no matter what the headstock or price-tag says.

I'll freely admit I've never owned one, but played more than a few, a mate likes them so have tried his, have tried shop ones, have tried the budget jobs and the pricier ones. As I said above, no real damning critique of them, they're just not to my taste in sound and in modern looking appointments, so I'd never go down that road. I guess I should never say 'never' but I would be awfully surprised if I did...

It's a slick machine and well marketed. It's about the only excuse for their success. I'd like to like them, but simply never played one that I would consider at less than half the price. Not really a critic of what they do, I simply know they're not for me.

Too much sob in the story for me... I'm homeless but I have this guitar blah blah... It's like the stories you get off beggars at bus stations. Selling a guitar of that level of interest to a crowd should be done professionally rather than bu a poor me story. It's just trying too hard.. Makes me sense a ratty whiff.

No finish is better than a bad finish, especially if it's a burst.... pfox springs to mind. Wowsers. Esteban could have made a better job......

That's the ones I had tried, I wasn't too into them to be honest, I much preferred the slick picks.

I know the type you're speaking about, Nick... I wasn't too mad on them, when I decided to get thumbpicks I ordered about a dozen different types, then of the ones I thought were possibles I then ordered a few different thickness's. In the end the one I've returned to again & again is the Fred Kelly Slick Picks... the dunlops felt like too thick a loop for my comfort, the slicks have a slightly narrower loop without being too narrow and I found them comfy and usable. A few others were quite cool too but I was tending to prefer the others, the ones I wasn't so keen on I gave them away to other players / colleagues to try out.

oh... and couldn't agree with the above more... 40 notes for a pick is not for me.

Cheers Del, Yeah there is some upstroke fumbling there masked by the sounds of the 2nd guitar and the cajon. What I've found works best for me... it's difficult to explain but I'll try.. thus far I've found the most success by holding the thumbpick differently than when I play a more usual thumbpick style, ie, hybrid.. I'm holding it almost like it was a normal pick, so I'm supporting the bottom of it too, I suppose I'm pretending that it isn't looped over my thumb. From there it's stiffer than a normal pick but I can get a almost normal pick style usage from it. it's hard and it's like a new technique for me, but with the hand in a hybrid pose, the upstrokes don't work and and some strums leave the pick a bit wonky, like it was slightly yanked off... by supporting it like a normal pick I can get the upstrokes without messing with the thumpicks position on the thumb but obviously the thumb is a little less free feeling as it's covered by the loop of plastic. I'd normally play those tunes with a standard flat pick, but used the rehearsal as a practice session with the thumbpick, I'm quite happy with the results in terms of increasing the time with the thumbpick, but I do notice moments where it's not as free as a normal rendition with the flatpick... practice makes perfect though. I'll persist with it hoping the longer I use it the better the technique will get, it'll loosen up and be a bit more free sounding. Thus far I've only played the rinky-dink style tunes with the thumbpick like the gary davis stuff I posted before etc... so this was a wee dip into something slightly different. hopefully I'll be able to blend the two styles soon, as moving from the strumming positions to the hybrid positions was tricky and those clips I didn't bother posting, haha.

Yes on those tunes, that's correct, the point was just to improve thumbpick skills, it's not too easy to get some strumming together with them. I'd normally use a normal pick on these but I'm trying to get the thumbpick strumming improved. Switching between the strumming to normal operation for a thumbpick isn't too clever yet, I kind of hold the thumbpick like it was a normal pick, it's a weird feeling...

Cheers Nick, I'm using a Recording King ROS-627 there. Cheers FB, yes all standard tuning... There was a third track, here it's here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gGLZQOyo0s

Always a bit difficult I know... but thought I'd offer my first ventures in to trying to use the thumbpick for songs that have quite a bit of strumming. I'm going for a holding the bottom section of a thumbpick like it was a normal pick type of approach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN-IX-FEx-Q and another http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocPpCEfLF-E #workInProgress

The best hummingbird I've played, and best by a country mile, was an older model with the Adj bridge.... I was even tempted by a reissue of that model I'd seen on Thomann in the hope it'd sound like the one I'd tried. Didn't pursue it though... It needn't be the red flag it's made out to be.

Whey-hey, more rinky-dinking... chapeau, mon ami.

I've never had a lesson by a professional teacher either, my first guitar came with a chord book, the rest I've hacked together from listening and watching. I'm fairly sure I'd be operating at a higher level of mediocrity than I am now if had gone down a more structured route. I'd say being forced to do the boring stuff, scales & modes really pays off in the longrun. When you see those who've been down the more structured path they do tend to be miles and miles ahead. Faster, slicker and more aware. I don't depend on it to eat though, so my motivations are at hobby/interest levels. If I was depending on it to fill my belly on a daily basis I guess I'd considerably more motivated.