Home studio unit 1 lesson 1: guitars

On this page, I’m offering my take on the Your Guitar Academy home studio lesson 1 of Unit 1. See the bibliography below for details.

Synopsis

The first point made here is that one should set up one’s practice space with a view to minimizing any obstacles which might get in the way of playing. That is, one is much more likely to practice, even when time is short, when the experience resembles enter, plug-and-play, unplug, exit, rather than something more convoluted which might generate an ‘I can’t be bothered just now’ reaction.

The second teaching item is to consider types of guitars; a short (and basic) explanation is given for each of four types:

1. Single coil—the guitar is equipped with pick-ups comprised of a single core and wire wind, typically producing a ‘thin’ sound
2. Humbucker—the pick-ups on such a guitar will each have two (2) coils rather than one, for a fuller type of sound^[1]The lesson does not mention the ‘hum bucking’ intent of the design, however. Perhaps this will come up later.
3. Bass—self-explanatory; typically a four-string instrument with thicker strings pitched at a lower range
4. Acoustic—pluggable or not, for those times when it’s not about electric sound.

In a broad home studio set-up, one should aim at having at least one representative of each group in order to cover the bases. Of course, personal taste and goals (not to mention budget!) will influence choices, and it’s certainly not necessary to acquire everything at once!

Application

My practice area is a steel shed which also serves as a tractor and tool depot, so hanging guitars on the wall for easy grabbing isn’t particularly practical in my case. They’d be likely to get dirty or damaged! So instead, I’ve placed the cases in a row, closed (to keep dirt out) but unlatched. The amps are sitting on either side of the room, unplugged, and I have a music stand with laptop on it where I can run appropriate software, notably, Rocksmith 2014 🙂

Photo legend:

• front
  • left: Vox AC 30 handwired amplifier
  • centre: Epiphone Sheraton II Pro guitar, wine red
  • right: Ampeg PF-50 bass amp
• back, left to right
  • Vox Mark III bass, sea foam
  • Mexican Stratocaster, black
  • Epiphone Inspired by John Lennon 1965 Casino, sunburst.((And you can see the snowblower attachment for my tractor and my tool organizer, among other things, in the background.

As one can see from the table, I have the recommended spread pretty well covered. I don’t have an actual acoustic guitar (in the proper sense), but I’ve found the Casino (which is fully hollow) to perform sufficiently well in the category, at least for the foreseeable future.

References