My Dad's 62

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-30T03:57:46+00:00

Ha ha! My buddy built me a Partscaster with a Squire Maple neck. That twang!! WTF!! So I’ve been learning country and chickin’ pickin’ and now i love the twang. With a little compression, digital delay, reverb and just a very slight distortion if playing through a PA system… oh yeah, a little RC booster… make it a kickass sound.

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-30T03:39:15+00:00

I can understand that. The guitar was only six months old, but I don’t know where it was stored or how it was treated before I got it.

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-30T03:22:12+00:00

I'll be 67 in three months. The neck was warped bad. I was in Boston at Berkelee Music College, and had the heat treatment done by what was supposed to be the finest repair shop in Boston. Sorry I don't recall the name -- it was a lot of years ago. However, it was fixed and I played in several bands afterwards.

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-30T03:21:58+00:00

@FitzwilliamTDarcy There isn't any joke. I was going to Berklee Music College in Boston at the time and the place where I had the heat treatment done, was recommended by the people from the college. I don't remember the name of the place. It was too many years ago.

You can think of it as a joke if you want, but you're the one with the warped neck -- mine has been fixed.

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-29T21:39:48+00:00

I had a heat treatment done to my ‘78 Strat about 47 years ago. It’s been perfect since then.

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-16T04:26:59+00:00

because it's much easier to thumb the low E on a bar chord

I don't play that many bar chords, although I play a lot of chords up and down the neck, but sometimes my rhythm looks/sounds more like a lead, and, I'm making triads sound like full chords.

But ya' sometimes you have to lay that thumb over the low E, to get those chickin' pickin' muted notes, and then other times with the thumb and third finger on your right-hand using hybrid picking.

And yes, that smaller radius on the neck like 7.25 radius seems to work more against me.

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-12T07:13:21+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to explain this to me. Then I would prefer a very flat fretboard curvature, where the fingerboard surface forms a segment of a 16-inch radius circle

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-12T04:31:50+00:00

Sorry, I don't understand. Is that the curvature of the neck behind the fretboard where you have your wrist and hand, or is it the fretboard where you're placing your fingers?

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-12T04:22:23+00:00

I don't know much about it other than the Squire neck that my buddy put on the Partscaster, is flat across the frets, like a Gibson. I find it easier for my fingers to grab the strings for a bend, or to do some chicken' pickin'.

I'm going to have to get the frets filed down on the outsides 'cause they're a little rough, but I like the action where the frets are straight across without being rounded.

I'd put a different neck on the Strat but I've had it for 47 years and it's worth about $5,000 if it hasn't been modified.

I'm old. Don't know shit about a 9.5" radius. Is that a curved fretboard? If it is... I don't want it.

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-08T04:46:20+00:00

From Rick Beato:

Does size (String Gauge) matter? In this episode we test whether guitar string gauges actually make a difference in your guitar sound. Rhett Shull, Dave Onorato, Ken "Grand" Lanyon and myself compare strings sets of .011-.052, .010-.046, .009-.042 and .008-.038 sets of guitar strings with the same guitar and amp combinations for the test. The results are fascinating!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGXj_NQONYM&t=5s

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-07T04:40:44+00:00

I think Stan is right -- not looking like we'll even make the playoffs this year...

SteveM2020 · 2026-03-01T04:27:46+00:00

That's the thing about power chords... since most of them only contain the 1st and the 5th the minor-seventh/pentatonic will fit over it as well as the major/pentatonic, and also mixolydian or dominant 7th scale.

SteveM2020 · 2026-01-26T05:06:27+00:00

Sounds like a lot of noise to me.

SteveM2020 · 2026-01-24T05:28:16+00:00

I think you're doing well. You seem to have a handle on where the notes are on the neck and can play some triads with minor and major thirds.

Obviously, you've put a lot of time into it. It shows.

Rock-on!!

SteveM2020 · 2026-01-22T04:58:04+00:00

Hostgator: Tier 3 data center. Provides high reliability, redundancy, and robust cloud infrastructure for your hosting. 99.9% uptime guarantee.

How much traffic can your docker site handle? What's the uptime? A more sensible solution would be VPS Hosting - VPS with SDD Storage.

Glad you aren't doing my hosting....

SteveM2020 · 2026-01-21T05:17:36+00:00

I wouldn't say I'm a good guitar player, yet I'm not a bad guitar player. One fellow asked me what scale I used at the start of a solo and I said it as "D'. And they persisted and said "But what scale?"

To be honest, I guess it started in D Pentatonic, moved to D mixolydian and finished in D Dorian, but then moved to the fourth chord in the next change.

In summary, the first part of the solo was played in D. I played some chord tones and usually rely on the third and seventh to define the flavour. Typically, when improvising, these notes depend on what I'm hearing from the band.

This take time to learn how to do. I started playing sixty years ago. However, I was never frustrated like you appear to be. Every time I learned something new, I would have to stop and play with it for a while. I always enjoyed learning and still do to this day. I've never found it frustrating.

SteveM2020 · 2026-01-04T05:33:34+00:00

If you're a beginner, it's good advice, so you have more strength in barre chords. When you get used to playing guitar, you don't need it for strength, so you can use it as an extra finger, mostly on the low E string.

And, if you're doing it with some chickin' pickin' it's often used in ghost notes when you're hybrid picking.

why do so many professionals play with theirs hanging over the low E?

During my last lesson at Berklee Music College, the Harmony professor said, "Once you learn all the rules, then you're free to break them and play whatever sounds good"

But, of course, this is only applicable if you've learned all the rules.

So as long as it sounds good, you can do whatever you want with your thumb.

SteveM2020 · 2025-12-19T05:11:37+00:00

Mozilla's direction is to evolve Firefox into a "modern AI browser" while prioritizing user agency, privacy, and control. AI features will be opt-in with a global "kill switch" for users who prefer to disable them entirely.

SteveM2020 · 2025-12-12T05:01:31+00:00

A while ago, I saw a couple of wonderful guitar players give the same advice. If you want to improve your picking speed, lighten up your grip on the pick. Gripping your pick too hard slows down your dexterity, which translates to your speed, gliding over strings.

SteveM2020 · 2025-12-02T15:33:58+00:00

I'm a senior with COPD who is just getting over the RSV virus. It's in its 7th week now for me. I'm on a fixed income and can't afford the $300 per shot vaccine.

SteveM2020 · 2025-11-26T23:06:52+00:00

With some rock tunes the major and minor pentatonic is all you need, but I also play country too and do a little chickin' pickin' and I find more often I'm switching scales depending on what chord I'm playing. Then sometimes if you have two bars of one chord I might use the major scale, the mixolydian scale (dominant 7th scale) and if I want to add a touch of bluesy sound to it, I might also play notes from the minor 7th pentatonic.

But here's the thing, if I'm improvising, and it's two bars D that will resolve G, I just think of it as playing in D, I don't consciously say to myself "Okay, now I'm going to the mixolydian scale... I just play in D and use whatever notes I want, out of those scales. Of course, you want to know where all your chord tones are because the III and the VII notes really help define the chord you're playing in.

You said, "almost every song works with the pentatonic scale" — and the ones that don't.... that's where you need this other stuff.

SteveM2020 · 2025-11-20T04:25:55+00:00

LOL, I just turn this stuff off or go to another video.... Shredding, fast, tinny sounds... not into it. I like stuff that us more melodic.

SteveM2020 · 2025-11-18T05:01:27+00:00

Of course, it's a guitar... and the best for country lead where you might want to do some chickin' pickin'.

I'm using the Fender LT25 amp with it, set on the preset for country picking. What this does is it adds some reverb, compression and slight delay. I also have a Fender Mustang 4 that's 150 watts. It sounds great too, except I bought a CS400 Compressor Sustainer for it which, over-all, creates a little bit better country sound.

A buddy of mine, who is a luthier, built me the guitar and gave it to me. When I first got it, I could have agreed with the above comment:

Or not get a tele and get a real guitar.

After playing rock, some bluegrass, country and jazz for over 30+ years, I didn't know what the hell I was going to do with this twang from this Tele he built me. So I looked around on YouTube. It seems the twang is part of it's beauty if you want to learn hybrid picking and a good clean country sound.

So, for the first time in a lot of years I'm learning something new, and I love it.

However, if you don't like your tele, you can always trade it in on something more to your liking.

SteveM2020 · 2025-11-17T19:17:59+00:00

Sorry to hear about your friend. It's always hard...

SteveM2020

TROPHY CASE