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Rocksmith 2014 Remastered |OT| From Guitar Zero To Hero

Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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CthulhuSars said:
Can someone suggest a guitar any really for a good entry level to this game.
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Depends on how much you are looking to spend and a lot of personal preference. About the only thing I've heard about guitars and Rocksmith is that note detection with humbuckers is slightly better than single coil pickups, but it's not that big of a deal.

Also relevant, Guitar OT.
 
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Infernostew

Infernostew

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Oct 25, 2017
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I guess it depends on what you're looking for but I love my entry Ibanez (although the specific guitar I have is now discontinued) but I also hear that Epiphone has a really great line of starter guitars. I'm guessing you're looking to spend somewhere between $150-200.
 
31GhostsIV

31GhostsIV

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Oct 26, 2017
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While I can't speak for the six-string versions, my Fender Squier bass was inexpensive and it's great. At the turn of the millennium I had a Yamaha Pacifica Strat copy, that was a good guitar for the money too.
 
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Infernostew

Infernostew

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31GhostsIV said:
While I can't speak for the six-string versions, my Fender Squier bass was inexpensive and it's great. At the turn of the millennium I had a Yamaha Pacifica Strat copy, that was a good guitar for the money too.
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I can echo that my Squier P-Bass is great. I acquired a Squier Bullet Strat from a friend a couple years back and I hate it. It feels like shit, sounds like shit... just really a waste overall unless you're getting it for free. I'm actually planning on giving it to my friend for free soon since getting the Telecaster.
 
Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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I've been happy with my Pacifica 120. The budget mentioned in the guitar thread was $500 though so they could get something better, especially going used.

10 hours into my revived efforts with Rocksmith. Progress is slow but undeniable.

The most optimal way to go about learning probably varies, but I've settled on a method for now. Start with some new songs I've never played before, and play them until they become uncomfortably difficult*. Sometimes that's just playing it once, sometimes it's several times. If there is a section I feel I can really learn from specifically I'll riff repeat it for a while with level up off. Then I go back to prior songs. That's where I feel the progress, something that felt too difficult the day before is now doable and I can make a bit more progress in the song. Most of the improvement seems like it's just coming from the gradual development of muscle memory. Picking and fretting the right strings when swapping without having to check my fingers and pick to make sure they're right. I try to alternate pick but I'll work more on that once just hitting the correct string with both hands comes more naturally.

Chords are currently a problem I need to figure out how to tackle. Probably need to mix in some rhythm in with the leads I've been doing.

Pushing yourself a bit is part of improving, but there is a point where forcing yourself to do more than you're capable of either doesn't help at all or actively establishes bad habits. I've already caught some of those habits (specifically, fretting with the front of the finger and not the tip) and am actively working to avoid them.
 
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Infernostew

Infernostew

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Starting out is such an annoying grind since there's so many things that you can work on. I'd pretty much suggest you keep doing what you're doing. Play some songs, get comfortable with the guitar from fretting and shift. Being able to move up and down the neck and between strings with ease is really your main goal. I'd say don't worry too much about alt picking for now but it's not a bad idea to try and get in the habit of throwing it in there. Single string stuff is great but eventually when you're going to actually want to play songs.. and while lead stuff is fun, it's all about rhythm guitar. Chords can be a super bitch to learn, even the easy ones because even if you have a simple 3 finger power chord down, you have to hit that next chord on time. Chord transitions took me hours and hours to get down quick and I still struggle with some (damn you Dm!). Picking up your guitar and fucking around with it outside of Rocksmith will only help as well but getting the basics down is really the key. I know it's tempting to move quick and start trying to learn major and minor chords but it's better to do what you're doing before getting overwhelmed. I hate to say it but your going to hit a bunch of brick walls... hell, I thought I would never be able to play Barre Chords and now they're like second nature to me. Also, start trying to memorize chord names... it comes in handy when you're playing with friends so you don't sound like an idiot as I have on many occasions. Keep plugging along... also, learning how to restring your guitar (if you haven't already) is vital and will save you a ton of money in the long run.

If you're looking to tackle chords in the future... besides the 2 and 3 finger power chords (just play a bunch of blink-182 songs)... I'd suggest start out with the easier ones first and learning to move quickly between them. So, A Am E and Em would be the easiest IMO. Then more importantly tackling C D and G... eventually moving on to F (and other barre chords) and B and Dm. Then suffering through all the weird chord shapes and stretchy stuff which I currently suck at...

As for a $500 guitar mentioned... I don't really know what to suggest. Maybe check out a local guitar shop and see what they say and get your hands on a few and see what feels and sounds more to your liking. Unless they already picked something out. I don't really frequent the guitar OT... I really should.

edit: Also, out of curiosity from everyone here... Do you guys play a rock G major or a cowboy G major? (rock being fingers on B and low E on 3rd fret and cowboy is just a finger on low E on 3rd)
 
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Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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I have the Stray Cat Strut DLC and am far enough in that song it's throwing a barre at me in the lead arrangement. Pretty much done with that song for now, it's not even a "hard" barre chord but I'm nowhere close to being able to barre necessary strings without muting them and reach the other note at the same time. And doing it in time with the song? Lol.

I do have a cheaper guitar from when I was a kid that was kept in my parents garage for years. Has essentially no value and I doubt I'll ever want to seriously play it, but it's functional and good material to learn things like restringing, adjusting the truss rod, and otherwise modifying the instrument. Was thinking about buying some of those dirt cheap monoprice strings to try to restring it since it still has the ~15 year old original, rusty strings on it. Don't need good strings for it, just something to work with.

Have a bass too but I'm not dabbling in that yet. Maybe once my fingers are calloused and don't limit my practice time I can tinker with it too. Need to take it to the local luthier for a good setup, but I'll probably wear in the stock strings a bit since he'll replace them anyway.
 
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Infernostew

Infernostew

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I really enjoy playing bass on Rocksmith but I don't really play it all that much since I'm mostly focusing my time on guitar. One thing I would recommend with practicing bass, at least for me, was that it helped greatly with alt picking single strings which becomes imperative after a little while. I found it to be a lot easier to get a hold of on the thicker bass strings and it translated really well to electric guitar after some practice. Yes, I'm a heathen and I play bass with a pick but it's worth giving that a try if you're trying to tackle single string alt picking... also, alt strumming chords will help with single string alt picking unless you plan on down strumming everything like Joey Ramone (don't do this lol). Although the bigger frets on bass can kind of screw up your guitar muscle memory a bit but if you're just trying it out for fun it can definitely help in certain areas, at least it did for me.
 
31GhostsIV

31GhostsIV

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I'm currently nursing one hell of a hangover after watching Massive Attack's Mezzanine XXI homecoming show in Bristol last night. One of my favourite albums of all time... but the show left me really cold. Literally and figuratively. The song Angel would be a good RS fit. And yes to more Cure, I agree.

Alone by Heart could definitely find a place in the 80's cheese section of my RS library though.
 
Dynedom

Dynedom

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Nov 1, 2017
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toymachinesh said:
Variety Pack XXI – $9.99

* Clutch "The Regulator"|Lead/Bass [Drop D] Rhythm [Custom Tuning: DADFAd] –
* Fuel "Shimmer"|Lead/Rhythm [E Standard] | Bass [Drop D] –
* Gin Blossoms "Found Out About You"|Lead/Rhythm/Bass [E Standard] –
* Warren Zevon "Werewolves of London"|Lead/Rhythm/Bass [E Standard] –

https://theriffrepeater.com/rocksmi...ossoms-guitar-bass-the-walking-dead-nebraska/
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Might need to grab Shimmer. Loved that song and it has a fun bass line.
 
Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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Spent a lot of time on Chimney from RS1 on rhythm today, lots of moving between D, G, and low E, and a little A. Was a perfect track to work on bouncing between strings.

Chords are so hard. A double whammy of my lack of finger dexterity and not knowing them well enough to know where my fingers are supposed to go without carefully examining the visual chord in the game and slowly placing my fingers in the right place. Something you don't have time to do in a song in real time. For songs with repetitive open chords I'd pause it as I come to them and try to and from the chord with the others in the song. Then I try (and utterly fail) at swapping during the song. For songs with barre chords I quit the song and play something else, lol.
 
III-V

III-V

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Oct 25, 2017
18,827
Chaosblade said:
Spent a lot of time on Chimney from RS1 on rhythm today, lots of moving between D, G, and low E, and a little A. Was a perfect track to work on bouncing between strings.

Chords are so hard. A double whammy of my lack of finger dexterity and not knowing them well enough to know where my fingers are supposed to go without carefully examining the visual chord in the game and slowly placing my fingers in the right place. Something you don't have time to do in a song in real time. For songs with repetitive open chords I'd pause it as I come to them and try to and from the chord with the others in the song. Then I try (and utterly fail) at swapping during the song. For songs with barre chords I quit the song and play something else, lol.
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Focus on the chords and rhythm guitar playing at this point.

Your finger dexterity for open chords comes with time, and after that it's like riding a bike.
 
31GhostsIV

31GhostsIV

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Oct 26, 2017
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Night Ranger

• Sister Christian
• ???
• ???

I know Sister Christian from Alfred Molina's scene in Boogie Nights. Pack doesn't interest me though.
 
31GhostsIV

31GhostsIV

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You know Ubi has pulled a shit pack out of the bag when Friday goes by and nobody even bothers to acknowledge it.
 
Chaosblade

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Didn't really get to play over the weekend and the regression was real. But I did successful form an F chord yesterday and all the notes rang out. Probably need to just go ahead and start working on barre chords since I figured out how to do the barre part right. Just the other notes are hard to do at the same time, lack of flexibility.

Put together a list of songs I want to try last night, want to get a song list to work on instead of bouncing all over. Might try the suggestion of using riff repeater on max difficulty and slowing it down a lot. I also haven't touched the mini games. Lots to do this afternoon and tomorrow while I'm off.
 
III-V

III-V

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Oct 25, 2017
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Chaosblade said:
Didn't really get to play over the weekend and the regression was real. But I did successful form an F chord yesterday and all the notes rang out. Probably need to just go ahead and start working on barre chords since I figured out how to do the barre part right. Just the other notes are hard to do at the same time, lack of flexibility.

Put together a list of songs I want to try last night, want to get a song list to work on instead of bouncing all over. Might try the suggestion of using riff repeater on max difficulty and slowing it down a lot. I also haven't touched the mini games. Lots to do this afternoon and tomorrow while I'm off.
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Grab a $5 string action gauge from Amazon and measure your string height at the nut. It shouldn't be difficult to barre frets. It does take a bit of practice, but if you feel you are pushing down hard, you may want to get a guitar set-up (or DIY like i do).
 
Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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III-V said:
Grab a $5 string action gauge from Amazon and measure your string height at the nut. It shouldn't be difficult to barre frets. It does take a bit of practice, but if you feel you are pushing down hard, you may want to get a guitar set-up (or DIY like i do).
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I'll see how things go with time. It's uncomfortable, but I chalk that up to not being used to doing it. Realized the biggest thing is using the right part of the finger to do it. Just hard to reach anything while I'm doing it, just reaching two frets (like on F) is difficult, I imagine something requires a longer reach. But reaching is a huge weak point in general and something I need to work out, need to pay attention to my hand position because that's probably a factor.

More Guitar OT stuff, but I already had a setup done after I bought it, now I'm undecided on whether I want to take it back to get my strings changed or do it myself. Attempted on my old guitar and it could have gone better. Broke the first string trying to work out the "locking" thing, gave up on that and did the others without it but I'm not confident I wrapped them enough, and the wraps are pretty sloppy. But I think I learned from it and should be able to do better, and in the long term I definitely need to do it myself. I have a second set of strings, might just string the old guitar a second time and see if I feel more confident (and to have all 6 strings on it). Not like strings are particularly expensive, especially compared to paying someone else to do it.


I just decided to go ahead and use those strings to try again. Feeling MUCH better about the second go.

https://i.imgur.com/Sj14bwC.jpg
 
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31GhostsIV

31GhostsIV

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Oct 26, 2017
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As you're hosting the clue, I don't expect any spoilers... but what's the likelihood I'm interested in the answer this week?
 
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Infernostew

Infernostew

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Oct 25, 2017
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31GhostsIV said:
As you're hosting the clue, I don't expect any spoilers... but what's the likelihood I'm interested in the answer this week?
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I'd like to know this too.

Also, drove 6 hours to chill with some friends and play music for 3 days straight last weekend. Man, it feels so damn good for friends to comment how you've progressed and being able to adapt and play along with song I haven't learned. We did some pretty awesome work on this Oasis b-side and then busked drunk in historical Williamsburg although it was like 10pm and no one was around...
 
31GhostsIV

31GhostsIV

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Oct 26, 2017
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Maggot Brain?? Finally. I'm in!

Can't wait for the pack to be rounded out with some dreck that nobody asked for ;-)

Infernostew said:
I'd like to know this too.

Also, drove 6 hours to chill with some friends and play music for 3 days straight last weekend. Man, it feels so damn good for friends to comment how you've progressed and being able to adapt and play along with song I haven't learned. We did some pretty awesome work on this Oasis b-side and then busked drunk in historical Williamsburg although it was like 10pm and no one was around...
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This sounds awesome.
 
Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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Hopefully I'm done being busy and am back to actually working on this every day.

Played a bunch of different songs over the last couple days. Threw some out of my list to work on, added some different ones.

Guitarcade games seem hit and miss.

String Skip Saloon is really good for working you with the RS string interface. Most of my mistakes in that game come from wishing the interface was inverted (happens in songs too). And sometimes it just doesn't detect my low E for some reason.
Ducks Redux is awesome for building muscle memory for where frets are. Basically the only way to get good at that game is to get that down. Slide Ninja is similar but worse IMO.
Temple of Bends seems like it's probably good for teaching bends but I only tried it a couple times.

I just wish those games were longer. Some of the other ones were longer or less punishing but I didn't find them nearly as good. I didn't like either chord game, unfortunately.
 
XShagrath

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Chaosblade said:
String Skip Saloon is really good for working you with the RS string interface. Most of my mistakes in that game come from wishing the interface was inverted (happens in songs too).
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There's an option in the settings to invert the strings.

The way it's set up initially is intuitive for their interface (for most players), as it's like looking in a mirror. However, I can see how inverting the strings would work well for someone who had spent a lot of time reading tabs over the years.
 
Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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XShagrath said:
There's an option in the settings to invert the strings.

The way it's set up initially is intuitive for their interface (for most players), as it's like looking in a mirror. However, I can see how inverting the strings would work well for someone who had spent a lot of time reading tabs over the years.
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I'll have to look again, I didn't see it when I looked before. I've never read tabs but inverted would probably still feel more natural to me, I struggled a lot with that when first starting because the default felt wrong. I don't know if it's because I have read sheet music before and subconsciously think low notes = bottom or what. Changing now will be a mess since I've kind of adapted, but I'll try it anyway.
 
Chaosblade

Chaosblade

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So, inverting the strings. First go at string skip saloon broke my previous high score by a good margin. Nearly doubled it. Thanks for letting me know about that setting, no idea how I missed that settings group when I looked before.

Will have to give Long Cool Woman a listen, but the other two might go on my DLC wishlist.
 
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Infernostew

Infernostew

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Another thing I've done guitar related that a few years ago I thought would never be possible.... submitting my 1st tab to Ultimate Guitar.

edit: Here's the song if anyone's curious... it's a banger!
 
31GhostsIV

31GhostsIV

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Ooh... i'm In,

Jigsaw though? In Rainbows is one of my favourite albums and that is hardly the strongest song on it. That would be Reckoner.

I'm going to guess Knives Out and The Bends for the other two. Would prefer the aforementioned Reckoner and either Let Down or In limbo though.
 
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Infernostew

Infernostew

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Not that much of a Radiohead guy but they're songs are fun to play. I have everything available by them on Rocksmith so there not much of a reason not to continue... so... I'm in.
 
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