Dumb things you did when you first started playing guitar.

  • Thread starter Thread starter MetalThrasher
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Asked for a 'bad horsie' wah as a Christmas gift when I was in high school, though it made me an amazing lead player, until a few years later someone thankfully told me to stop using it.

When my first band did our first 'album' I brought my Line 6 spider 2x12 in to record the solos, instead of using the 5150 that I owned, or the DSL100 that was sitting at the studio.

My grandmother found a vintage ludwig club drum kit in an attic she cleaned out, and gave it to me. I traded it for a turd of an MIM strat, because I was certain I'd never be able afford the missing hardware, front kick drum head, or a couple of cymbals to make it usable.

Overall, I was very fortunate as a young player, a few years in I got into a jazz guitar program with a brilliant teacher who forced me to quickly weed out a ton of bad habits and stupid ideas. Most of my idiotic guitar-related decisions came later on, when I couldn't blame them on being a beginner.
 
My first guitar was a Flying V Cort picked up in a pawn shop. It had a Floyd Rose type bridge. I thought that by dipping or raising the bar it gave a whole new tuning (dropped down or tuned up). I would try to dip the bar down and hold it steady as I picked. Of course it all went out of tune and sounded like shit, I just thought I wasn’t doing it right.
After a little while I figured out what the whammy bar was supposed to be used for.
 
- Not knowing that changing speakers and pickups has the biggest affect on tone.
- Not knowing that changing amp heads usually isn't the answer.
- Thinking the tone you hear standing and adjusting your amp is what mic is picking up.
- Not knowing venue speakers are usually, always terrible.
 
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I was about 13-14 when I made my first distortion pedal according to the schematic. I connected it through a hifi amp and speakers and was totally disgusted that the guitar didn't sound like the album. I decided the schematic was no good and trashed the pedal.
 
Had a really mint Blackface Fender Twin Reverb I got from my guitar teacher.
Take it to band practice.
Put a Bass guitar in one channel and two guitars in the other.:bash:
Loud as fuck.
The look on the drummer's face was priceless as he is pointing at the amp that was smoking like a Bong with a sack of weed in it.

Dad was a bit pissed . But did take it to an electronics place to get fixed.
 
Masked my horrible playing in excessive amounts of reverb and delay.

Bought a Metal Zone and thought that was the tone of the gods through my Peavey Rage 158.

Ran a Rocktron Gainiac in front of a 30watt solid state Marshall for a couple years and thought that eclipsed the Metal Zone tone of the gods.

I also started out holding the pick with my middle finger and thumb because that was comfortable/natural for me. A buddy of mine who had been playing for several years before I started always gave me crap about "holding it the wrong way". Tried it the conventional way, and never really liked it. Then morphed into what I later discovered was exactly how Lynch holds his pick - and been playing that way for over 20 years now. Then found out the original way I held the pick was how Eddie did it frequently.
 
I was a kid, single digits, in the mid 80s. Trying to playing songs instead of learning the instrument. My dad says I made great progress learning the instrument for a year, then my teacher changed and the new one let me try songs instead of learning the instrument further. I didn't sound like the songs I was trying to play, both from technique and gear at the time. So I lost interest and switched to drums. I still played guitar passively but didn't pick it up again seriously until late high school and college.
 
Aristocat said:
I removed the pick guard from my Strat and took a dremel to the cavity thinking I could turn it into an acoustic if the cavity was rounded out.
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Not sure if this deserve the 🏆 of the entire thread or a very very slow clap 😂

DAAAAAYUUUUUM!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!
 
Exo-metal said:
I insisted on using my pinky on my fret hand while playing electric guitar and placed my thumb on the back of the neck. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this stupid habit but not having my thumb over the neck and using my ring finger like amost every rock guitarist held me back in a major way. Now my dexterity in my pinky is excellent and it helps that I did that when I was learning but it has it's place and using different positioning is not an issue now but had I been open to using my ring finger and wrapping my thumb over the neck I would have advanced much faster.
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Very interesting. I did the same thing as well, although I never considered it a shortcoming per se. Even now, my left hand very often looks like that of a classical guitarist when I play, but I shift to more of a thumb-over "blues" position for certain bends and things like that.

In retrospect, it probably was a frustrating way to do things because I had to first develop individual finger strength rather leveraging the wrist strength I already had. On the other hand, I think I probably had an easier time than others when I got to college and started studying classical guitar.

Kinda fun to think back about some of these things.
 
Racerxrated said:
Not practicing.

I'd sit and wonder 'why is that one kid so damn good?'
School and music came pretty easy for me....which of course meant I didn't have to study or practice like most. Ugh.
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this is mine. and add being too focused on 1 genre of music and never listening to country or jazz players. In all fairness, i was just 13sh, tell any kid back then "don't listen to Metallica and Megadeth, instead, here's some Chet Atkins and Herb Ellis!"

***edit - also: never learning songs, instead, let's learn the intro to 50 songs and never learn the rest! one more for the road - never singing and figuring out how to sing bgv's\harmony
 
I moved all the saddles in a straight line as I thought it didn’t look correct (had no idea what intonation was).

Broke a string while tuning a double locked tremolo without loosening at the nut. I’m thinking “why isn’t this responding?” 🤣
 
abrackas said:
Broke a string while tuning a double locked tremolo without loosening at the nut. I’m thinking “why isn’t this responding?” 🤣
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Did this a couple times back in my stoner days as well lol.
 
Aristocat said:
I really, really wanted an acoustic. And in my infinite wisdom at 15 YO, I decided this was the way.

I think I discovered weight relieving before Gibson made it cool :ROFLMAO:
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you *reeeeeeeeeeeally* wanted an acoustic - this is magnificent - awesome man, I'm still giggling about this one.
 
I 'upgraded' a Hondo Strat Copy with a Double Eagle Locking Tremolo. Eye-balled where I thought the posts should go with zero awareness of the concept of intonation. Strings sat 1/8" (maybe 1/4"?) off the neck. Trem plate sat directly on the body so when you depressed the bar, the plate dug into the body - would maybe drop the pitch 1 full step before bottoming out??

But by GOD I had a locking tremolo on there!!!
 
PDC said:
I 'upgraded' a Hondo Strat Copy with a Double Eagle Locking Tremolo. Eye-balled where I thought the posts should go with zero awareness of the concept of intonation. Strings sat 1/8" (maybe 1/4"?) off the neck. Trem plate sat directly on the body so when you depressed the bar, the plate dug into the body - would maybe drop the pitch 1 full step before bottoming out??

But by GOD I had a locking tremolo on there!!!
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Roflmao
 
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Ventura said:
you *reeeeeeeeeeeally* wanted an acoustic - this is magnificent - awesome man, I'm still giggling about this one.
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Dude, I had GAS before I even knew what that was.

I opened a Guitar World magazine (around the Acousti-Strat period) one day because Slash was the story for that month and here he is sitting in the middle of about 100 vintage Les Paul's.

I'm like; wow someday that'll be me.

Then I decided I also needed vintage Mockingbirds, Strats and on on. Just so much gear whoring over the years.

I don't regret it. Although, I wish I didn't sell my 71 SLP or my M Zero OD.
 
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