Shopping Smart for a Cheap Gibson Guitar

Guest post by Jake McCormick, Sam Ash Direct

Check out this article for tips on searching for used Gibson Guitars online.

The Internet has comprehensively changed the music industry; from instrument acquisition to listening mediums, and everything in between.

Songs, instruments, recording technology, and accessories are at your fingertips for pennies on the dollar, if not completely free for the taking through illicit channels.

The Internet has created a vast marketplace of discount or used gear you would never get at your local guitar shop. Unfortunately, a bigger sales floor makes it easier for scam artists to set up shop. As such, online guitar shopping must be thorough and diligent if you’re looking for the best deal, particularly if you’re searching for a cheap Gibson Les Paul.

Here are a few rules to follow when you’re looking for an affordable Les Paul guitar online:

Decide On A Guitar, Set A Budget

What type of guitar do you want? What are your standards for wear and tear? How much are you willing to pay? These are pretty obvious starting points, but they still bear mentioning if you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck out of a used Gibson. Any guitar is an investment and plays a huge role in your identity as a musician, so lay the foundation before putting up the drywall.

Learn What A Counterfeit Looks Like

Due to their popularity, there are tons of fake Gibson guitars online. If you’re not buying from an authorized dealer, conduct some research to learn what a fake Gibson would look like. Sam Ash has a picture-heavy guide to spotting counterfeit Gibsons that can help, but you should always ask questions and verify any photographs with Gibson’s website before purchasing. If you end up buying a fake Gibson, you’re stuck with it. Gibson and their authorized dealers don’t give sympathy buy-backs for forged guitars.

Use Search Engines

If you have an Internet connection, any piece of information you want on a guitar is available to you 24/7. Start with a simple Google search using a term such as “used Gibson Les Paul” or “cheap Gibson Studio guitar” and go from there. At the very least, it’ll give you an idea of what the marketplace looks like, and if it fits your budget. 

However, a wider net means more risk for falling victim to a forgery. Google and Bing have gotten much better at weeding out bad websites from its results, but scam postings on Craigslist or eBay are still prevalent.

One underrated way to use search engines for research is their increasing reliance on displaying location-based results. What I mean by that is, if you search for “used Gibson guitar” and include your city/state, you’ll get some local dealers that may have used guitars for sale. Local shops are just as knowledgeable about counterfeit guitars and general guitar value as bigger stores.

Look at Non-Dealer Sites

Seasoned guitarists will not purchase an instrument they haven’t tested, especially if it’s used. With new guitars, it’s very easy to head to a local shop and play around on a Les Paul Standard, Deluxe, Studio, etc., and then shop online for a cheaper price. 

In the case of a used guitar, scout out your local Craigslist sites, and ask to test the guitar before buying. eBay can be a bit riskier, but it’s very dependable as a resource for bargain Gibsons, as long as you pay attention to the Seller’s reputation and their selling history. As always, ask questions, including ones about return policies and any experience they may have with the guitar.

Authorized Dealers

If you’re not interested in extensive online research, most on and offline retailers that are authorized to sell Gibson products have a section of their store/website devoted to used guitars and equipment. Check those companies’ Twitter and Facebook accounts, as most will regularly feature new additions to their used inventory. 

For example, Sam Ash has a large collection of used guitars at SamAshMusic.com. They also utilize social media to highlight a “Used Guitar Of The Day” across their social media accounts. Authorized dealers will never sell a counterfeit guitar, and they usually offer warranties on used instruments.

The bottom line for anyone seeking a bargain price on a Gibson guitar is to make sure you’re 100% certain you are getting a product worth your money. 

Follow the above rules when shopping for cheap Gibson guitars online, and you won’t be disappointed.

Guest post by Jake McCormick, Sam Ash Direct – Jake works in the marketing and copyrighting department for SamAsh, one of the largest family-owned music stores in the United States. You can get in touch with him at jmccormick@rocketclicks.com

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Full Lesson

Guitar Practice: Looking Under the Hood of a Broad Practice Strategy

The way you organize and arrange your practice strategy can be as uniform or as free range as you want it to be. Some people do better with a stringent plan in place, while others do better flying by the seat of their pants.

Categorizing practice strategies can be beneficial to either style, since we're just establishing what is under the hood of the more broad concepts..

The goal is to be able to know the specifics of what it means to practice these concepts.

What We're Practicing

When you're practicing guitar, you should know the broad concepts that you can practice on the guitar, and what the actual practice topics boil down to:

Guitar Practice Topics [Broad]

1. Chords -- 
2. Scales --
3. Exercises -- 
4. Modes -- 
5. Theory -- 
6. Speed Building -- 

Every time you pick up a guitar, you'll likely be working on one of these topics.

Within each of these items, you'll have a nearly endless amount of variation and specificity, depending on how detailed you want to be.

We don't have to drill down terribly far, but let's get a little more specific about some of the sub-categories of each of these concepts.

Chords

So we're answering the question: When we're practicing "chords" what are we actually doing?

The answer is thorough, but also simpler than you might think. If you're practicing chords, you could be working on any of the following things:

1. Chord clarity -- 
2. Note clarity -- 
3. Power chords -- 
4. Barre chords -- 
5. Strength building -- 
6. Chord progressions --
7. Dexterity --  

What we should notice right away, is that a lot of these practice items could apply to topics other than just chords.

For example, we could agree that strength building and dexterity could happen in situations where we're not just practicing chords. Perhaps scales, modes or more obviously, exercises could pertain to those two items.

Let's look at a couple more.

Scales

When practicing scales, one or more of the following practice activities will likely be occurring:

1. Note Clarity -- 
2. Dexterity -- 
3. Improving Speed -- 
4. Music Theory -- 
5. Single Note to Note Progression -- 
6. Improving our Ear --

The point is that when you think about "practicing chords" or "practicing scales" you also need to start to recognize and think about the things that are going on underneath the hood.

Underneath the Hood

For me it's always more beneficial to hear lessons on "Note Clarity" or "Single Note Progression" than it is to listen to someone talk about "how to play chords on the guitar".

In spite of all material covering it, playing chords along isn't that tough. It's the specifics of that process that guitar players get bogged down in.

Know your broad concepts, sure; but try to dig down into what exactly you are doing when you're practicing these broad concepts.

It'll be a lot easier when you have to hone your skills on the guitar.


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Full Lesson

Advanced Jazz Guitar Chords: Major and Minor

I've already written a post on the simpler jazz guitar chords in the sixth, fifth and fourth string forms. This time we're going to narrow things down a little more and focus on just the major and minor jazz chords.

They'll still all be in C, since each chord is movable and can apply to any fret on the fretboard.

For both the minor and major chords we'll cover the 6th and 7th version of each chords, so you'll get the following:

• Major 6th -- 
• Major 7th -- 
• Minor 6th -- 
• Minor 7th -- 

It sounds kind of involved and complex, but these chords aren't terribly difficult if you can handle basic bar chord shapes, and perhaps a little bit of extra stretching.

Major 6th Jazz Chords

Cmaj6 - 10th Fret Form

Cmaj6 - 2nd Fret Form

Cmaj6 - 7th Fret Form

Every chord is a C chord, but just because of its place on the fretboard. If you want to change the note of the chord, simply move the entire chord (transpose it) to another fret.

Major 7th Jazz Chords

Cmaj7 - 10th Fret Form

Cmaj7 - 3rd Fret Form

Cmaj7 - 8th Fret Form

The seventh chords are going to be little simpler than the sixth, since there's less stretching required for your ring and pinky finger.

Minor 6th Jazz Chords

Minor 7th Jazz Chords

Cmin7 - 10th Fret Form

Cmin7 - 3rd Fret Form

Cmin7 - 8th Fret Form

There are a few other major and minor jazz chords, including 9th and 11th variations. We've also got the dominant and diminished chords to contend with, which I'll cover in another post.

These jazz chords do involve some tough stretching in some cases, but since they're all movable, you'll have a lot at your finger tips if you learn these and the basic jazz chords that I mentioned earlier.

I've talked a lot about how to practice chords, and this is going to be pretty much the same procedure.

Just be sure to work on moving each chord, especially if jazz guitar chords are new to you, as they'll be more difficult to move than the chords that you're used to.


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Full Lesson

How to Find Cheap Gibson Guitars Online

We'd all like to get our hands on a real-deal Gibson guitar, but unfortunately a lot of us only have the budget for something from the Epiphone line -- Wouldn't it be great if we could get the Gibson tag for under $1000?

Well, you can, and it's not that there's anything wrong with Epiphone (they're actually really great guitars), but let's face facts: Gibson has the upper hand in terms of reputation.

Finding a Gibson for Under $1000 Dollars

Most Gibson guitars are priced pretty high, well into the two or three thousand dollar range, but if you want to get one for three figures, you do have a couple different ways of going about it.

Discounted

There are a variety of ways to get your hands on the $1500 and up Gibsons for a discounted price. These are simply guitars that have the high price tag but are being sold for a variety of reasons.

Some of these reasons can include:

• Used -- 
• Scratch and dent items -- 
• Private sale discounts --

These are all valid ways to get your guitar for cheaper, but what might be encouraging to know is that they aren't the only way that you can end up with a Gibson at a decent price.

Going Rate

A lot of Gibson guitars are actually just priced cheaper. It's still true that you get what you pay for, but even the "lower end" Gibsons are tremendous instruments and shouldn't be looked upon as a cheap solution. You just need to know which ones to target.

Where to Shop for Discounts

To start off, we'll look at where and how to shop for discounted Gibson guitars that are marked down in price for whatever reason.

Back in October of 2012, I wrote a post on the where to shop for guitar gear (and where not to), so feel free to check that out if you want a little background.

Otherwise, we'll start with Craigslist as our first template.

Craigslist.org

Craigslist is essentially a guitar player's dream come true in terms of buying gear. It's always the first place you should look, as long as you don't mind the risk and uncertainty involved in a person to person deal.

Though usually the risk is minimal, and if you're careful, you've got nothing to worry about. No one has to sell you a guitar and you don't have to pay anyone until both parties mutually agree.

Once you're there, your best option is going to be to search local, in the hope that you'll find something where you can meet the person face to face and make the exchange.

Since this is an article about guitars, we're using the Nashville Tennessee Craigslist page as an example.

Searching Tips for Craigslist

What you need to keep in mind about Craigslist is that it's a fluid shopping place. You won't always find the same thing, so you need to check frequently and hope you get lucky.

So a few ground rules would include:

• Have patience -- 
• Search once or twice a day for several days -- 
• Don't waste too much time browsing older posts --

New I did a little experimenting and I wanted to show you what I got in return. I used a few different search terms and got varying results. We'll take it one search term at a time -- keep in mind this was done on May 14th 2013.

Search for "Gibson Guitar" (with quotes) --

So we've got 13 local results and one more thrown in to make us feel better. There's not much to pick from here, although it does turn up a 1983 Gibson Invader for $800.

Now let's try another search.

Search for Gibson Guitar (without quotes) --

So when we leave out the quotes, the results are much more promising. In fact, there are far too many results to display the same way we did up top, but as you can imagine, there's a lot of non-Gibson results being turned up here.

Since Craigslist is looking for anything with the words "Gibson" or "guitar" in it, you've got a jumbled mess on your hands.

Let's try and narrow it down a bit.

Narrowed Search for Gibson Guitar (without quotes) --

Now we're still searching the same text, but this time we're using the following settings with the Craigslist search engine:

1. In: -- Set to music instr
2. Price: -- Set to $500 - $1000  
3. Has Image box is checked

When we run the search, we've got dramatically different results.

In this case, we've only got 58 results to work with, but they're tremendously more narrowed than our other two searches. I've put a red check mark next to some promising links.

Just for kicks, here's some of the fruit of our labor.

Gibson SG Standard ($900)

1998 Gibson SG Standard Ebony with 57 classics - $800

Gibson Thunderbird Bass Guitar - $900

Gibson Les Paul Special TV Yellow - $1000

There were actually plenty more that I didn't list, and while it will depend on the day and where you're searching, I've found this method to turn up the best results on a consistent basis.

Amazon

If you frequent this site, you're no stranger to my advocacy of Amazon as a great place to find guitar gear. They just have everything and the nicest thing about it is that you'll almost always have more than a few used options to choose from.

The links in here are all affiliate links, but they're no different than any other doorway that you might use to get to Amazon.

Finding gear on Amazon is really just a matter of being thorough,
and there's less of the "right place right time" game that you have to play with Craigslist.

So simply knowing what to look for and how to search for it can help you get your hands on a three-figure Gibson.

We'll go through some of the tactics I used to find the goods.

Searching Tips for Amazon

With Amazon we don't have any options to do an advanced search, unless we're looking in something like books, DVDs or music, which is a tremendous oversight on Amazon's part, but I digress.

There are however some search string methods we can use to alter our Amazon search -- for example:

Searching for Gibson Les Paul will turn up different results than "Gibson Les Paul" where the only difference is searching the term with or without quotes. Keep this in mind for later.


You can also select the category you want to search for, which does include an entry for musical instruments.

Most people know this, but it's easy to miss, even if you're used to searching Amazon for products. You don't necessarily need to use it every time, and I'd only recommend switching categories if you're having trouble finding what you're looking for in the "All" category.

Let's try a few search terms.

Search Terms

So in this case, I've tried the following three entries:

Click each link to run searches automatically in a new window...

1. Gibson Les Paul
2. "Gibson Les Paul"
3. Gibson "Les Paul"

I  honestly can't explain this, but number three turned up the best results.

I have no idea why, but that's the case. The first one (without quotes) wasn't a good search because I ended up with a lot of Epiphone Les Pauls in my search results.

So let's go with the third search term, since it seems to be the most focused of the three.

Now, your results for that search will turn up a few guitars and a lot of parts, but the bright side is that all the guitars are Gibsons, though not necessarily in your price range.

Amazon allows us to narrow our search down to a certain price, though they hide it rather well. On the left side of the screen, scroll all the way down until you see the following fields:

In the search field, type $400 and $1000 respectively. Then run the search again.


Since guitar parts typically don't cost $400, you should end up with nearly all guitars in your search. I did, and they were still mostly Gibsons (a few Epiphones here and there), only this time I didn't have to sift through the items that weren't guitars and there wasn't a single Gibson over $1000.

Here are a few of the highlights.

If you want to get the Epiphone options out of your search results, you can change the search to "Gibson Les Paul" and search for the entire term.

Both worked with the $400-$1000 search scope, but I found the Gibson "Les Paul" search term to be much more inclusive, while still keeping the non-Gibson results to a minimum.

To be certain, you can apply this logic to whatever type of Gibson (SG, LP etc.) or guitar that you want. I'm more or less just using Gibson as a template because of its high price tag and popularity.

Going Rate

What a lot of people don't realize, but what you might have started to notice from browsing Amazon, is that there are certain Gibson guitars that are just cheaper.

Not every line is over the $2000 mark and you can actually get some great guitars for around the $800 to $900 ballpark.

When you're looking to buy a new Gibson go to musiciansfriend to the guitars section and select Gibson as the brand. Once you get to that screen, check the pricing options on the left-hand side.

It might be a little hard to see in the picture, but the check mark off to the left is checked for the $750-$1000 mark, and there are 20 different options.


That's a lot of guitars to pick from, so I'm willing to be that you can find something you'd like in that pile. If you want to spend more you always can. Just keep in mind that you don't have to!

This one was a lot fun one to write, so thanks for reading!
 
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Full Lesson

Organic Guitar Playing: Building Chops on an Acoustic Guitar without Electricity

There's a lot of gear involved with playing guitar, which is usually a good thing and hasn't really changed that much over the years.

Yet with all this gear comes a certain level of deviation from pure and simple guitar playing. We live in a digital world, therefore our guitar playing has been heavily digitized, sampled and sterilized. That sterilization is making us sound better, and I wouldn't argue against.

However I would submit that it might be helpful to get back to basics; to once in awhile take the "organic" approach to playing guitar.

What is that? Here's what I would include:

• An acoustic guitar -- 
• A pick (or our fingers) -- 
• No amp --
• No effects -- 
• No electricity -- 

Now put yourself in that scenario, and try to play all of the things you play on a regular basis. It gets a lot tougher, and that's understandable.

The challenge is to strip all of the extra stuff away and just learn to master a piece of wood, some strings and your own hands.

When it's all said and done, that's what guitar playing actually is.

So here, I want to work on one thing: Improving our chops. However, I want to do it on an acoustic guitar, without electricity or any kind of digital assistance. We're just going to play the thing straight up.

These lessons (parts II and III to be added soon) will be a series of chop building exercises and conceptual discussions about how an acoustic guitar can strengthen our hands and improve our playing.

Where should our speed come from?

Our immediate response to this might be, "our hands" or "our fingers", and while that's correct, our speed (especially when playing an electric guitar) come from, or are is at least assisted by, a variety of sources. To name just a few...

• Compression -- 
• Distortion -- 
• String gauge -- 
• Fret size -- 
• Effects pedals --

All these factors can potentially effect our ability to play quickly and clearly, and may I point out that there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's how the game is meant to be played. You find the string gauge you like, the pedals you want to use and you make your own guitar gear "niche" in a sense.

So don't hear me saying that these things are bad or guitar players should cast them aside. That's ridiculous.

All I'm saying is that when we're learning, it's beneficial to not be helped or assisted by any of those things, and the best way to make sure of that is to temporarily set them aside and just work on our fingers and hands.

So to answer the question, we were right to begin with: Our speed should in fact come from our hands and fingers.

Acoustic Guitar Sessions (Circuits)

If you're used to the electric guitar, playing an acoustic guitar is going to feel a bit difficult at first, but stick with it through this lesson and just ignore the extra difficulty as best you can.

The whole point is to improve, and if it's difficult, than you know you're improving.

We're going to go through what I'll call sessions, or more appropriately, circuits.

Each circuit will be composed of three parts:

1. Chord progression --
2. Mode or scale pattern -- 
3. Exercise pattern --

The amount of time you spend playing them is up to you. It's not really important at this point whether or not to practice 30 minutes or an hour. Aside from just taking your time and not rushing through, how much you linger on each session is your call.

There won't be any diagrams, just tab sheets. Let's get started.

Circuit #1

Chord Progression
E|----------------
B|----------------
G|----------------
D|--7--9--11--14--
A|--5--7--9---12--
E|--3--5--7---10--

Mode
E|------------------------------------------------------------
B|------------------------------------------------------------
G|------------------------------------------------------------
D|--------------7-----11----------14--11----------------------
A|-----------5-----9----------12----------12------9-----------
E|--3--5--7---------------10------------------10-----7--5--3--

Exercise Pattern
E|---------------------------------------------------
B|---------------------------------------------------
G|---------------------------------------------------
D|--------7-----7----------------14------14----------
A|-----5-----5-----5---------12------12------12------
E|--3-----------------3--10----------------------10--[repetitive]

The original chord you're playing is tough on an acoustic guitar, and that's a good thing. This will stretch your fingers and challenge you in areas where you might have thought that you were good to go, but find more difficult on an acoustic guitar. Try to play through each tab slowly, and avoid speeding up.

Circuit #2

Chord Progression
E|--3--10--
B|--3--10--
G|--4--11--
D|--5--12--
A|--5--12--
E|--3--10--

Mode
E|-----------------3----------------------10--
B|--------------3---------------------10------
G|-----------4--------------------11----------
D|--------5-------------------12--------------
A|-----5------------------12------------------
E|--3-----------------10----------------------


Exercise Pattern
E|-----------------3----------------------10--
B|--------------3---------------------10------
G|-----4------------------11------------------
D|--------5-------------------12--------------
A|-----------5--------------------12----------
E|--3-----------------10----------------------

Note that the original chord is barred and the rest of the tabs are simply based off of that pattern. It's a challenging movement on an acoustic, but try and make sure all your notes are coming out clean.

Circuit #3

Chord Progression
E|-----3-----
B|--1--3--3--
G|--0--0--2--
D|--2-----0--
A|--3--------
E|-----3-----


Mode
E|-----------------------------------------------------
B|-----------------------------3-----3-----3-----------
G|-----2-----2-----2-----2--------------------2--------
D|--------------0-----------------------0--------------
A|--3-----------------3-----3--------------------3-----
E|--------3-----------------------3-----------------3--


Exercise Pattern
E|--------------------3--------------------
B|--------0--------------3--------3--------
G|-----------------------------2-----2-----
D|-----2-----2-----------------------------
A|--3--------------2--------5-----------3--
E|--------------3--------------------------

In this case we're dealing with an open chord progression, which is a bit easier than the previous two configurations. I'm simply targeting movements that might be somewhat easy on an electric guitar, but that jump in difficulty when you migrate to an acoustic.

Take whatever time you want with those and feel free to even come up with your own. If you've gone through it and you feel pretty comfy, let's move on to some specifics.

Lead Guitar Segments

I want to drill down and practice some specific lead guitar pieces that take will usually be more difficult to play without electricity.

When you're playing these, try and accomplish the following:

• Smooth and clear transitions (and slides) between notes -- 
• Bends that dont break off or buzz -- 
• Hammer-ons and Pull-offs that ring clean --
• All notes come out clean without buzzing --

When you're playing lead on an acoustic guitar, this gets a lot tougher, but for inspiration, check out Monte Montgomery playing little wing on his acoustic.



Montgomery definitely has some chops, and he does it all on acoustic. I'm not saying that we need to all try and be like him (although I'm sure not too many of us would mind that), or that we should play acoustic all the time.

Rather I'm simply making the point that it can be done.

With that inspiration in front of us, let's look at a few lead patterns and take them one piece at a time. I'll give the tab first and then break them up into smaller pieces.

E|--------------------------------------------------------
B|--15----------------------------------------------------
G|--14b15--14--12~~-----------------------------------12--
D|------------------14--13--12------------------------12--
A|------------------------------12p10h12--------------11--
E|----------------------------------------10--11--12--12--

E|--14b15--14------12------------------------------------
B|-------------15------15--12--14------------------------
G|-----------------------------14--12h14p12--------------
D|-------------------------------------------14/10b12~~--
A|-------------------------------------------------------
E|-------------------------------------------------------

1st Segment

At the beginning of the pattern you're playing a two-note chord and bending the 14th fret up to the 15th. It's pretty simple on paper, but playing this bend on an acoustic guitar will build chops on its own.

E|-------------
B|--15---------
G|--14b15--14--
D|-------------
A|-------------
E|-------------

2nd Segment

The next "bump in the road" we come to is the hammer-on and pull-off that occurs between the 10th and 12th frets on the fifth (A) string. This is best tackled with your ring finger and pointer finger.

1. Anchor the 10th fret with pointer -- 
2. Pull the note off the 12th fret with ring -- 
3. Let the 10th fret ring -- 
4. Hammer the note back onto the 12th fret with ring --

E|------------
B|------------
G|------------
D|------------
A|--12p10h12--
E|------------

3rd Segment

Towards the end of the lick, we come to a section where you're sliding down the fretboard from the 14th fret to the 10th fret and then hammering back up to the 12th while adding vibrato (as indicated by the "~~").

1. Slide down from the 14th fret to the 10th fret with pointer -- 
2. Hammer up to the 12th fret and apply vibrato with ring -- 

E|--------------
B|--------------
G|--------------
D|--14/10h12~~--
A|--------------
E|--------------

Take Away

These are all exercises you can do that when played on an acoustic guitar will build your chops and strengthen your hands for when you're playing them on an electric guitar. While you're going through each exercise, try and keep your standards of clarity high:

• Don't settle for buzzing notes -- 
• Try to keep your transitions quick -- 
• Get us much sustain out of your acoustic as possible -- 

I'm not saying you have to nail it the first time through, but do your best to play through this material with those standards in mind. The better you do on the acoustic, the easier things will be whenever you pick up your electric guitar.

Keep an eye out for parts II and III of this article.

Thanks for reading!

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Full Lesson

Squier Telecaster Custom II Review

Guest post by Jake McCormick, Sam Ash Direct

Do you remember the last time you played a Squier guitar?

If the answer was “never” or “sure…when I still had braces and was thrilled to learn Smoke On The Water,” then we were in the same boat. I say “were” because I took a swan dive into Squier Lake about six months ago. On the recommendation of a friend, I bought a brand-spanking new Squier Telecaster Custom II.

Squiers are to guitar jokes as Uranus is to planetary jokes, so I was understandably skeptical that a $279.99 guitar would find itself regularly connected to my Fender Mustang III (an underrated amp for the casual distortion-lover, by the way). Oh, how wrong I was.

Considering the specs, tune and sound, and durability, the Squier Tele Custom II is one of the best bargain guitars available on the market today. For readability’s sake, here are my impressions broken out by the four categories above:

Specs

The Tele Custom II features a bolt-on maple neck with a very lightweight agathis body that resonates surprisingly well. Two Duncan Designed P-90 pickups (one at the bridge, one greeting the maple fingerboard) are nestled within the pickguard, which also stretches around two volume and two tone control knobs. The guitar also features a three-way switch near the upper-most strap peg, and 22 medium-jumbo frets.

It looks and feels like a typical Fender Telecaster, and I’ve had no problems adjusting the volume, tone, or toggle switch in mid-song. The low set medium-jumbo frets may be an adjustment for some players accustomed to “easy fretting,” but it’s hard to call this guitar anything but playable and maneuverable, whether you prefer standing in place or thrashing around (I’m in the latter category, for what it’s worth).

Tune and Sound

Two words: Mind. Blown. The twin P-90s are incredibly generous stock pickups, capable of transforming the Tele Custom II’s sound from crisp and clear to a crunchy growl at a moment’s notice. I could use at least 15 other adjectives to describe this guitar’s capabilities, but whatever your style (country, blues, jazz, rock and roll, even metal), this guitar has a sound that will fit without giving you a headache with feedback and buzzing.

Most of what I play fits in the punk genre and its subgenres; paired with the Mustang II, this Squier Tele has proven capable of hitting the crisp highs and dark lows that come with this fast-paced style.

One of the biggest concerns people have with cheap guitars is their inability to stay in tune through constant use. Obviously, you’ll have to weather an early storm as the Tele gets acclimated to regular work, broken strings, etc., but for the price and construction, this guitar is very dependable in the intonation department.

Durability

This is where the Telecaster Custom II’s Squier starts showing a bit. Even with all the benefits listed above, it is still constructed of lesser parts than your standard Fender Telecaster. Just prepare to make checking the bolt screws, volume and tone knobs, and tuner screws a routine part of your guitar maintenance.

Also, based on my experience with other bargain guitars (Epiphone SG, Ibanez GRG250DX), if one of the P-90s starts cutting out on you, it’s because a wire or two has broken loose. This has yet to happen to my Tele Custom II, but it’s a fair warning and sobering reminder that, no matter how good this guitar sounds, it still isn’t as well-built as its bigger brothers/cousins.

Final Takeaways

From beginner to advanced levels, there’s something for everyone in this guitar. The Tele Custom II certainly has its share of expected drawbacks, but the benefits afforded at such a low price point make those cons seem like nit-picking critiques. For the price, I’m completely satisfied and looking forward to slinging this guitar for a long time.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5

Guest post by Jake McCormick, Sam Ash Direct – Jake works in the marketing and copyrighting department for SamAsh, one of the largest family-owned music stores in the United States. You can get in touch with him at jmccormick@rocketclicks.com

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Full Lesson

Steve Vai Practice Tabs: Practice Methods Using Vai's Guitar Playing

Steve Vai is without a doubt one of the most technically advanced guitar players on the planet. His speed and musical ability are nearly unparallelled putting him in a lofty class by himself, without a lot of company aside from perhaps Joe Satriani and John Petrucci.

Steve Vai at G3 (2003)

It's not just Vai's speed that impresses, but his musical touch and his ability to commandeer the fretboard.

He has absolute control of the frets and over what he's playing, which is the task set in front of every guitar player from the beginning. We're to master the fretboard and make sure that we're controlling it, instead of allowing it to control us.

Since Vai is good at that, I think it would be valuable for us to practice in such a way that emulates Vai's actual tracks. What I mean is that we simply follow these two steps:

1. Identify a small piece of tablature from Vai's music -- 
2. Learn that piece and use it as an exercise to increase our technical ability and speed --

It might help to also point out what we're not doing. We're not just playing one of his songs and we're also not just muddling through a fretboard exercise. Instead we're combining the two and coming up with what will hopefully be a much more fulfilling and entertaining way to build chops.

Steve Vai -- I Know You're Here -- Live at G3

Excerpt #1 -- From I Know You're Here

E|-----------------9~~--
B|-------------12~~-----
G|---------13~~---------
D|-----11~~-------------
A|--9~~-----------------
E|----------------------

This is just a simple chord that Vai breaks up into a short arpeggio. You don't really need to hear it, but we're just using it to get used to the patterns and stretches that Vai needs to do to play the lick.

What we can do now is break it up into exercises:

Practice Tab I
E|-------------9---------------------9----------
B|----------------12--------------------12------
G|---------13---------13---------13---------13--
D|-----11--------------------11-----------------
A|--9---------------------9---------------------
E|----------------------------------------------

Practice Tab II
E|--------------------------------
B|--------------------------------
G|------13-----13------13-----13--
D|--11-------------11-------------
A|----------9--------------9------
E|--------------------------------

Practice Tab III
E|------9------9------9------9--
B|--12------------12------------
G|---------13------------13-----
D|------------------------------
A|------------------------------
E|------------------------------

The riff, though simple, presents us with some opportunities to stretch our fingers and improve our dexterity: All we need to do is pull it apart.

Excerpt #2 -- From Tender Surrender

Steve Vai -- Alien Love Secrets

E|--------10--7-------------------
B|--------8------------8----------
G|---------------7-----7----------
D|------------------7--7h9p7------
A|----------------------------10--
E|--0--0--------------------------

Here we have a great piece that we've pulled from Tender Surrender, one of Vai's slightly softer tracks. We have a few different chord to single-note transitions that we can work with, so we'll focus on those.

Practice Tab I
E|--------------------------------
B|-----8--8-----------8--8--------
G|-----7-----7--------7-----7-----
D|--7--7--------7--7--7--------7--
A|--------------------------------
E|--------------------------------

Practice Tab II
E|--------7--10-----------7--10--------------7--10--
B|-----8---------------8------------------8---------
G|--------------------------------------------------
D|-------------------------------------9------------
A|------------------7---------------7---------------
E|--0------------0---------------0------------------

Practice Tab III
E|------------10------------10--
B|-----8-------------8----------
G|--7-------------7-------------
D|------------------------------
A|--------10------------10------
E|------------------------------

I've always noticed that Vai is really good at making jumps from lower notes to higher notes on the fretboard. These tabs help practice that by breaking up the chords and moving you from the higher to the lower strings and vice versa.

Excerpt #3 -- From Tender Surrender

E|--------7--10----------9--12--
B|-----8-------------10---------
G|--9------------11-------------
D|------------------------------
A|------------------------------
E|------------------------------

In this part of Tender Surrender, Vai is sweep picking through this pattern, which is actually kind of an exercise in and of itself, so play it through a few times and get used to the lick as much as you can. We won't change it too much, but let's stick with the sweep picking idea and move it around to other spots on the fretboard.

Practice Tab I
E|--------3--6--------5--8--------------------------
B|-----4-----------6--------------------------------
G|--5-----------7-----------------------------------
D|--------------------------------3--6--------5--8--
A|-----------------------------4-----------6--------
E|--------------------------5-----------7-----------

Practice Tab II
E|---------------------------------------------------8--11--
B|-------------------------------------8--11------9---------
G|-----------------------8--11------9---------10------------
D|---------8--11------9---------10--------------------------
A|------9---------10----------------------------------------
E|--10------------------------------------------------------

Practice Tab III
E|--------------------------------------------------
B|--------------------------------------------------
G|--------------------------11--13----------12--14--
D|----------10--13------12--------------13----------
A|------11----------13--------------14--------------
E|--12----------------------------------------------

Practicing and Learning Songs

I'm a big believer in taking elements of other guitar players' styles and using them not to plagiarize but to improve our own playing and enhance our own creativity. That's all we're doing here. If the end goal is play like Vai, than why not use what he plays as a tool to develop our practice strategy and improve upon our own methods?

There's really no end to what you could do with these tabs, and personally, I find them a lot more interesting than most of the exercises out there.

I'll make it a point to post more of these "practice tabs" write-ups in the near future. Thanks for reading and feel free to post questions below.

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Full Lesson

12 of the Simplest Jazz Guitar Chords

I'm not a jazz guy, which is something I think you've got the right to know before reading the material I'm writing on the very topic. That being said, I am a decent guitar player and I've made it a point to put together useful information on this site for a variety of guitar playing topics.

All I want to do here, is show you where to start, because when I hear the words "jazz" and "guitar" in the same sentence, my first inclination is to think, "Where do I even start with jazz?"

This is what I've come up with.

Learning Chords

The first step to learning jazz guitar, is to pull out and examine what we'll call the basic jazz chords. Since jazz is a foundational genre, we'll probably find that we knew some of these chords without even realizing that they could be categorized as jazz chords.

Better late than never. Let's get started.

Categories

For starters, we're going to cover four basic categories of jazz chords based on the string that the root note of the chord is located on. Which means we'll only worry about the bottom three strings.

• E string root chords -- 
• A string root chords -- 
• D string root chords -- 

We'll separate them by each of these categories. Keep in mind that the chords are moveable and can be moved to any fret to represent different notes.

Chords will all be presented as C chords and separated by root notes on the 6th, 5th and 4th strings (E, A, D).

Basic Jazz Chords

Sixth String Root Notes

Cmaj7

C7

Cm7

Fifth String Root Notes

Cmaj7

C7

Cm7

Cmaj7

C7

Cm7

Fourth String Root Notes

Cmaj7

Cadd9

Cm7

Learning More

These are only the most basic jazz chord shapes, and if you want to pursue the genre further, there are a lot more advanced chords that you can pick up and add to your chord vocabulary.

While you're learning these, keep in mind that they're moveable, so the notes I've given for each one (in this case C) isn't the most important part. Memorize them by which string their root note is on so that you can eventually move on to the major, minor, dominant and diminished jazz chords.

If you want to move on before I write more posts on the topic, check out Jazz Guitar Online. I used it as a reference for this post, and they've got plenty more material on their site that relates to jazz guitar.

Best of luck, and thanks for the reads!

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Full Lesson