Clacky vs. non-clacky guitar picks
"Clacky pick" = the now-classic Fender 351 celluloid in heavy thickness ("351" refers to the shape), although it doesn't have to be made by Fender specifically. The picks in the photo by the way are older-style Gibson Standard "USA" picks from the 1990s that a friend sent me, found at a flea market which is why they're all scratched up.
A 351 heavy pick with no texture does literally clack against the strings when you play with one. For years I played nothing but Tortex .88mm picks (which are made of delrin and textured) and still do, but in 2012 and on into 2013 I started trying other picks. This started with Fender heavy celluloids, and then I tried medium Fender celluloids, and then recently the Gibson heavy picks.
Oddly enough, the Gibson Standard picks are the clackiest of the bunch as they are just ever-so slightly thicker than the Fender heavies and have slightly rounder edges. There is no way to tell the difference between a Fender and a Gibson heavy just by looking at them; you have to take each in your hand and bend the pick to feel the difference. And I have no idea if modern Gibson heavies are made the same way they were in the 90s. No clue. I'm assuming the construction is the same.
Are there times when clack is better?
Yes, absolutely.
Basically, you use 351 celluloids whenever more audible pick clack is needed electrically or acoustically.
On the electric side, the clack is good for blues to rockabilly to metal and everything in between.
On the acoustic side, I'm not referring to acoustic guitars but rather the acoustic sound of your electric. For example, when at home or in the studio doing the recording thing, hearing more pick clack is good so you can hear the notes you're picking in two ways instead of just one. Pick clack can be loud enough to be heard outside of headphones or ear buds as long as the headset you're wearing isn't blaring with volume.
With the Gibson Standard picks, I've personally found they work really well for hybrid picking (fingers + pick) because I like having that extra clack in there.
What does an "offset" guitar mean?
A guitar described as being "offset" refers to the guitar body and literally means the upper and lower halves of the body are offset from each other. With the Fender Jaguar and Squier Jaguar for example, you can see that the body "leans forward"; this is altogether different from the Stratocaster or Telecaster.
The easiest way to spot an offset body shape is to look at the bridge in relation to the body. When you look at the Jag, it appears that the bridge is not placed in the vertical center, but in fact it is. The offset body gives the illusion that the bridge isn't centered vertically because the top of the body isn't directly above the bridge but rather "leaned" slightly forward; this is part of the reason the offset shape is so interesting to begin with.
The idea behind the offset body was to make for a more comfortable guitar when played in the seated position, although it can obviously be played in standing position just as easily.
Speaking specifically about Fender/Squier models, yes they do have a distinctly different tone compared to Strats or Teles. There are several types of offsets Fender makes, but I'm going to specifically concentrate on the traditional style Jaguar and Jazzmaster. I'm also going to specifically feature Squier versions since those are the ones most people can afford.
Quick question answered: Is the Mustang an offset? Yes.
Short-scale 24-inch neck, Jaguar pickups (which are different from Strat single-coils), very "involved" electronics for pickup switching. GET THE MANUAL if you buy one of these, because you'll need it to figure out how all the controls work.
Standard-scale 25.5-inch neck, big huge Jazzmaster single-coil pickups, also with very "involved" electronics for pickup switching, but not as complicated as the Jag is. It still has those wonky upper controls near the top horn, but on the bottom is a simple three-way toggle selector instead of the on/off switching the Jag has in the lower area. Like the Jag, GET THE MANUAL for this one as well to figure out how the top controls work.
Which of the two is easier to play?
Jazzmaster. It has the standard scale neck, so the string tension is similar to a Strat or Tele and it has familiar fret spacing, and it has easier controls.
What most people do with the Jag is use a thicker string because the shorter scale makes the strings feel more "floppy". You'll notice this immediately as you'll be able to bend the strings really easily. Almost too easily. If you use .009 to .042 strings on a Jag and want a tension that feels more Strat-like, you switch to .0095 gauge or .010 gauge.
"Is the vibrato system as bad as I've heard?"
Fender calls the vibrato system a "non-locking floating vibrato", which means yes, the system "floats" and it takes a lot of getting used to.
If you don't know what a "floating" system means, here's a primer: On a Strat, if you took off the back plate and then loosened the two big claw screws going into the body, you would see that the bridge would "hover" and not be flush to the body, even with the strings tuned to standard tuning. That hovering is what's known as "floating". On the Strat, you can tighten the claw screws into the body so that the bridge never floats, which is commonly known as "decking a bridge" on a Stratocaster guitar. Jags and Jazzes however are meant to have vibrato systems that always float just because of the nature of how they work.
Typically, most Jag/Jazz players will instantly swap out the bridge for a Mustang bridge just so it stays put, but then encounter the issue of knocking the strings out of their saddle grooves constantly.
This is not to say the bridge/vibrato system is bad, but you'll spend time getting used to it. Floating vibrato systems are annoying to deal with when you want to keep your strings in tune at first - however - once you learn how they work, you'll find the "slow vibrato" is something only the Jag and Jazz can do right. When you want those oh-so perfect single semitone bends, the vibrato on the Jag/Jazz is perfect for that.
The first thing I'd tell anyone who hasn't played a Jag or Jazz before but is intent on getting one is this: DO NOT use a hard pick or you will knock strings out of the saddle grooves constantly. Use a bendable thin pick until you get accustomed to how the guitar plays (you'll knock strings out a whole lot less, if at all), and then switch over to a medium or heavy pick if that's what you prefer.
The second thing I tell newcomers to the Jag and Jazz is to use the vibrato system often, because the guitar "likes it" when you use it. I know that doesn't sound very technical, but you'll understand what I mean once you start playing around with it. On Strats, most players avoid the tremolo system altogether. You don't have to do that on the Jag/Jazz. Grab that long bar and do some bends. Experiment with it. You'll find that the more you use it, the faster your strings will stretch out and stay in tune better. Yes, this is pretty much the exact opposite of how you play a Strat, but it's a fun learning experience and you'll get some cool tones out of it.
"Should I get the Jaguar or the Jazzmaster?"
If you like really bright single-coil sound and a short-scale neck, get the Jaguar.
If you prefer a more Strat-like neck and a more "growly" P90-like sound, get the Jazzmaster.
Most of you out there, said honestly, would probably prefer the Jazz over the Jag. But don't take my word for it. Try both. You may really love that short-scale neck on the Jag and prefer that one instead.
Why does the Road Worn Stratocaster still exist?
I think it's safe to say that the trend of "relic" Strats is officially over, because whenever you mention "relic" these days, players get pretty disgusted by it, as in, "Oh, another one of those fake-old things. Yeah, whatever."
And yet, Fender still churns out Road Worn Strats.
Are players really still buying these things?
The difference between 250K and 500K pots in electric guitars
I got a request to write this one.
With volume and tone controls on your guitar, the two most-used potentiometer types are 250K and 500K. While there are 1 meg pots out there, the vast majority of electrics use either 250 or 500.
Yes, it is typical you will find 250K pots used on nearly all traditional Strat 3-single-coil "SSS" configurations and 500K pots used on nearly all 2-humbucker "HH" configurations.
First, I wanted to make something really clear up front. 500K is not an "upgrade" from 250K. Not at all. Some players see the bigger number and think a 500 is "better". Wrong. There is nothing better or worse between a 250 and a 500.
The K for a pot is a resistance value, and in plain English, the higher the resistance value, the more treble response you will hear, as in a "brighter" sound.
As to why that is, it basically all comes down to how much a pot will "bleed."
With a 250K pot, a good amount of the high frequencies are actually diverted to the ground wire(s) and that's the "bleed" part. Whatever is bled to ground doesn't make its way to the pickups and therefore results in a sound with less treble response, i.e. a "warmer" sound.
With a 500K pot, there is much less bleed because the pot doesn't allow nearly as much of the higher frequencies to be diverted to ground, resulting in more treble response, i.e. a "brighter" sound.
Is there a HUGE difference in the sound you get depending on whether you use 250K or 500K pots?
I wouldn't say there's a huge difference in the sound you get, but it is noticeable.
With the SSS Strat pickup configuration, 250K pots are normally used. If you swapped those out with 500K pots, there will be more treble response, and for some that may be desirable - however - if it's a standard Strat wiring setup where the bridge pickup is not connected to a tone control, then oh yes, that bridge pickup will "screech" something awful and/or sound "shrill" if wired to a 500K volume control pot.
Conversely, if you took out the 500K pots from a Les Paul and put in 250K pots, the loss of treble "on top" can make the guitar sound "muddy."
The general rule of thumb for which pots to use is...
For single-coil, which includes Strat-style and P90, use 250K.
For dual-coil (humbucker) where you need extra treble response, use 500K.
"I have a guitar with humbuckers in it, and it sounds 'too bright' no matter where I set the tone knob"
Some humbuckers have a high treble response to the point where no matter what the tone knob is set to, there's just too much treble present and it bothers the player (you).
In that instance, switching from 500K to 250K may set a "ceiling" for the treble that better agrees to your ears.
Remember however that switching from 500K to 250K or vice versa is not going to guarantee you a sound you will like.
But it is cheap enough to try out a different potentiometer resistance. Pots are really cheap whether 250K or 500K and easy to wire in, so it doesn't cost a lot of money to try it out.
Even if after you bought the pots and the sound you get after wiring them in wasn't quite what you had in mind, that's fine because then at that point you've got spare parts to build/rebuild another guitar with, so nothing is really lost. (Good spare parts are good to have!)
How to avoid getting bored when practicing guitar
Boredom is something that happens to every guitar player at some point. You've played everything you can possibly think of, become disinterested, put the guitar down and go do something else.
This is totally normal.
I don't play guitar every day. In fact, there are times I'll go almost a whole week without playing at all. Then I'll pick it back up again, play for a while, then for a few more days or weeks and then put the guitar down for a week again.
Again, totally normal, at least for me.
I find I have a really hard time believing anyone who says "I play guitar every day" because there are times when you just need to step away from the instrument and take a break if for no other reason than to let the skin on your fret hand's fingertips grow back. Even though I've been playing for a long time, yeah, my fingertips get wrecked sometimes I need to take a break so they can heal up. And even if I switched to half-round or flatwound strings, my fingertips would still get wrecked just from the constant indentations put into the fingertips from pressing down strings on the frets. No matter how soft one's touch is on the strings, indentations on the fingertips happen and that's just the way it is.
Anyway, this article isn't about combating guitar player fatigue but rather guitar player boredom.
Here are four ways to combat the boredom.
1. Take a break
You don't have to play every day. It's just like I said above, there are times where I personally won't play a single note for an entire week. I'm not saying that will work for you, but it works for me.
2. Play more riffs and less solos
There are way too many players that do nothing but solo, solo, solo and solo some more whenever they sit and practice. And that gets boring REAL quick.
Riffs are easier to play and easier to learn. For example, in just one hour you could probably learn the riffs to play at least 5 songs if not more. But to get just one solo from a song learned perfectly, that will take up the whole hour if not longer. And when you're working on the same thing for a solid hour straight and get frustrated, you get bored.
3. Figure out how to do the same thing anywhere on the neck
Chances are there's one type of "mini-solo," which is just a simple note progression, that you know how to do really well. Maybe a harmonic, maybe a hammer-on/off, maybe a trill sound, whatever. But you probably always play it on the same part of the neck using the same notes.
Take that one thing you know well and try it in different places. Try it 3 frets higher or lower. Try it high on the neck. Try it low on the neck. Try it everywhere.
And when you find there's a certain part of the neck where you can't make it work, there's your new challenge. Make it work. Find alternatives. They're there if you look.
Some of the best chords I've ever come up with were from trying them on different parts of the neck where they "didn't work," so I had to come up with something else that sounded mostly like where it was before, creating a whole new-sounding chord. I've had the same thing happen with little progressions and soloing as well.
4. "Reverse" a riff
Take any song you like, learn the riff, then play it "backwards." If the riff is E, A, B, play it as B, A, E.
Many guitar players over the years have come up with their best riffs by "stealing" from popular songs they like and then reversing the way it's played. Doesn't work for solos very well, but works great for chords.
Less soloing is the most important
For whatever reason there are so many players that say to themselves "I must be good at soloing and I must learn how to do it."
Why?
Who said you had to be a great soloist? Who said you had to solo at all? If it annoys you to sit and learn soloing, here's an idea: DON'T DO IT.
I can't for the life of me understand why any guitar player would play anything that he or she considers annoying to play - especially when you basically have nothing to show for it but wrecked fingertips.
Why do you play guitar? Because it's fun. When you play stuff that's annoying to play, that's not fun. Avoid the un-fun stuff altogether. And if that means not soloing, then like I said, don't do it. Write riffs instead.