Video Question: new used guitar

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Date: April 28th, 2008 | Length: 2.21 | Instructor: David MacKenzie

Dallas says, "Bought a used schecter diamond series elite7 string.had esp ltd and still have. been playing 6months and I'm 48yrs old. Is this a good guitar to practice on or should i get more experience. neck is wider and i have to stretch more on chords plus i have to play up a string. makes me concentrate more.also is the 7th string tuned in B?" Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

Other Video Responses:

Mustang vs. Jaguar - April 1st, 2008 (1 minutes, 26 seconds)

Laurenb asks, "Hi, I am about to buy a short-scale guitar and have played both the Fender Mustang and Jaguar in the shop and liked both. If any of the instructors have played or know about these guitars could you please tell me if you think one is better than the other in regards to tone, body shape, maintenance and overall quality? Are there any problems with either guitar in your opinion? I don't want to have to spend extra on upgrades and constant maintenance. Any advice would be much appreciated. Oh, I live in Japan so both guitars are Japan-made re-issues. Thanks, Lauren" View Response

A Shaped Barre Chords - November 2nd, 2007 (17 minutes, 11 seconds)

Mav67 asks: "I am facing a major obstacle whilst trying to get down these God forsaken A shaped barre chords. My ring finger will not bend at the top knuckle making it impossible to utilise conventional fingering that most other players use. The only way I can get it is to fret an A chord using fingers 2 3 and 4, then using the index finger for the barre. This is uncomfortable and difficult to move in and out of during chord movements. Can any of you please look into your vast vessels of knowledge and shed some guiding light to help me out? Thank you." View Response

Callus - April 23rd, 2008 (1 minutes, 21 seconds)

Jdemail78 says, "I've been taking Steve's lessons for the past month and during the first week, my finger tips hurt each day I played but I kept on playing because I knew that eventually I'd build up callus on the ends of my fingers and the pain would go away. Sure enough, that happened for the most part but recently they've been starting to hurt again. Not as much when I'm done playing, more when I start playing. After I play for a little while, the pain goes away (like a numb sorta feeling) and then by the time I'm done, they are hurting again. I guess what I'm wondering is how long does this go on for? I can tell that I have callus on my fingers but some of the pain is still there. Does it ever go away completely or do you eventually just get used to it? Thanks." View Response

Strumming Patterns and Timing - April 21st, 2009 (4 minutes, 24 seconds)

Lucasholland asked "Hello, I'm following Steve's lessons and am practicing 2 chord progressions (G, Em, C, D7, and G, Em, Am, D7) using the 5 strumming patterns he teaches with my metronome. This works fine for all the strumming patterns except pattern D (d, d, u, pause, up, down, up / d, d, u, u, pause, u,d,u). The problem is (I think) that I only have beats per measure. So I start the first down-strum on the first beat. The up-strum should be before the second beat, right? So... what I think is confusing me is that I also have strum on the offbeat... Could you show me how to practice the 2 variations on the strumming pattern (variation 1: d, d, u, pause, up, down, up; variation 2: d, d, u, u, pause, u,d,u)) with a metronome (e.g. on which beat to strum etc.)? Thanks! Lucas." View Response

Scales and Improvisation - October 10th, 2007 (2 minutes, 43 seconds)

KevinT says, "HI, I checked out Brads scales lesson and have a question. I always warm up with minor pentatonic 1st position so I know it blindfolded, I am working on the others. My question is that when I just start messing around with improv it always ends up still sounding like scales. How do I get away from that? Thanks" View Response