Baxter and Jonathan give you the their top 10 most annoying thats guitar players do. Do you do any of these? List your biggest pet peeves below in the comments!
Ha! That happened to me once playing the opening to Tesla's Love Song, and someone else starts playing it, but better. So what is that about? People go to guitar stores to show others up? I should have decked him 😃
One of my old friends was the opposite of #2. He heard some dude playing the solo to Pearl Jam's 'Alive'. Dude was playing it perfectly, sounded just like the record. Well, my buddy was convinced that the guy was playing it wrong and that he could do it better. So he starts just butchering the solo, and to make matters worse, my friend starts leaning his shoulder in and making an 'I'm better than you' face. I didn't want to be his friend anymore.
Props.Some just shave their heads, but that IS the ultimate I don't GAF hairstyle.Dready, with the actual locks.How to get strangers to cross the street without the facial tats.
I do that too. I will comment on something that catches my ear and then watch through and realize they address it or that there is something else I wanna bring up but don’t wanna comment twice because it’s embarrassing. I see videos with 7 comments and 5 are from the same person. Lol. I try so hard to listen to the whole video but these days I forget what I wanted to say and have to take notes to remember.
Amen brutha, I’m a bassist, so I never had this problem myself, plenty of guitarists I’ve played with basically got me to teach them the songs at rehearsal though.
@@kevinmcguinness1113 I mean bass parts in general are easier to learn, so generally speaking it takes the guitarist longer to learn parts. This wasn't meant to be a slight on every guitarist on earth, just some of the more useless ones I've played with. Take a chill pill Kev!
@@georgedavidson2024 😁👍 all good my friend. 100% agree with the OP though - when you're paying for rehearsal space, you want to get best use out of it, which shouldn't include having to teach other band members the songs, whichever role they have. Agree goals for the rehearsal time beforehand and then everyone should come prepared 🤟🤟
1-The guitarist who plays at Royal Albert Hall volume level when it’s a strip mall pub. 2-The every song gets the same “Crazy Train type distortion whether it’s needs it or not” guitarist. 3-The “I’ve played this riff the same wrong way for 15 years so everybody else who plays it correctly is wrong” guitarist.
Hearing a song playing with your friends, and somehow working into the conversation, “I know how to play this.” Yup, had to work hard to cure myself of this one.
Speaking of noodling, a few months ago I was on a boring Zoom meeting so I picked up a nearby guitar and started noodling. My mic wasn't muted so my boss asked if I was playing guitar. Oops! But, I guess there are worse things that happen in Zoom meetings these days.
@@markferguson3745 there's a place for shredding but it needs to be implemented tastefully. A solo should be played with the same approach of how a song is written. The masters pull this off and shredding can definitely add a texture to a solo that undoubtedly enhances the experience of the observer
@@matthewhorizon6050 oh yeah 100% agree! Right now I'm trying to learn how to shred more musically instead of it sounding really robotic and boring, I found adding bends and slides between runs can help add emotion and texture...using a floyd helps even though they can be a pain :,)
Spending months and months watching UA-cam videos comparing single coil, humbuckers or P90 pickups to help you decide which new guitar you want to buy instead of playing one of the five guitars you already own. (Actual quote from my wife)
I was in a big guitar shop in London a long time ago and a young beginner was trying bout a guitar and 2 of the sales guys from the shop was making fun of him behind his back, I never went back to that shop again.
It goes hand in hand with the singer/frontperson or lead guitar player second guessing the set list they made. I get reading a crowd and making a swap on the fly.. but still.. make up your mind! The drummer wants to count something off!
I have a friend that when we are just playing is a stop and restart guy. "Oh, I played a wrong note." Hey man, We're just playing for fun in your garage.
Excellent topic. I've got 40 yrs, as part-time stage musician and audio engineer. You hit on most all of my annoyances; as it relates to guitarists. I'll add - Guitarists who play light, during sound check, and then come out wailing 1st song of the show.
In my teen years I played a show at the Black Cat in DC... me and the other guitarists had two half stacks because we thought it was cool. We could hardly fit no the stage which is up stairs above a bar. They came up and said you have to take things off the stage, the ceiling is dropping things on the bar from the weight. We also got a set cut short because we were too loud. Moral of the story if you want to not be invited back to play somewhere, bring too much gear lol.
Yes clean under the strings. Just dont use your polish cloth or you'll scratch up your finish with all the crap under the strings...use a little brush, like a makeup brush or a small paintbrush. Bonus is that its easier to get into all the small places with a brush.
Almost every great clean tone will involve an overdrive pedal, or a tube amp driven to power amp distortion levels. Nobody wants to hear perfectly clean sound, it's flat and horrible. You need that saturation for chime to appear. It's just some people drive it way too hard.
@@Quicksilver_Cookie Absolutely. A good overdrive pedal should also be able to function as a boost pedal. And a clean tone without some boost or mild grit is boring.
When you go to your buddy’s house for an acoustic only jam session and there is that one guy there who has to plug in his acoustic, and drowns everyone out.
Thanks guys...this is one of your best yet. I agree with all ten. I also see you could spin off three new videos - guitar etiquette at the jam/practice session; guitar etiquette at the guitar store; and guitar etiquette at the performance/gig. I was lucky to be in school band at junior and high school. You learn the basis -- no unnecessary noise, start together, stop together, know the whole song (i.e. practice before play with the group), stay in tune, play the right volume (ppp means really soft and fff means crank it to eleven), don't be late, don't noddle and chat in between songs, don't pass notes, and don't react when one the drummers hits you with a spitball...you'll only look like a bigger dork than you already do holding that clarinet.
Noodling on stage! Hell yes that drives me crazy. Nothing's worse than the guy that never stops noodling between songs. Especially if he's playing little partial riffs from the next song. It honestly makes me want to walk off stage.
I have found that DR strings last for a long time and hold tuning exceptionally well. I will break out a guitar after six months of languishing and the guitar will still be in tune. I cannot imagine changing strings more than once every couple of months if you buy excellent strings, unless you are a working pro.
Tuning with your back to the crowd, the singer/rhythm guitar in my band had a rack tuner and would turn his back on the crowd in between songs. Finally bought him a tuner pedal for his board. Total crowd killer.
UHm really? People just use tuners pedals as also a line Mute, Its one of those gigging things you need and or should have. I mean its also used for tuning but.....
I'm lucky to have started playing in the 90's. I had a DOD distortion pedal and a BOSS EQ. When it came to starting to want other effects, I just started going with multi effects units. I have 5 guitars with floating trems so they are all setup with different tunings so I can swap them out as needed or wanted. My others are stop tail and strat style so they stay mostly at standard, but they can be tuned on the fly fairly easily if needed. I still don't usually swap much. When playing alone, if I pick up a guitar with a certain tuning, I just play that guitar for a while. Sometimes just playing in a tuning that is not the tuning you typically play in can really open up the creative flood gates. I've been playing for 30 years and have only ever sold 1 guitar, I've given about 4 away over the decades, and I've lost a couple to damage during moving/traveling. I currently have 10 electrics, 2 acoustics, an electric bass, and a digital drum kit, and a few Marshal and Fender amps. That way if people are over and we want to spontaneously jam, I have everything we need. Pick a weapon off the wall, wonder down to the dungeon where the drums are set up, 5-10 minutes of setup and tune up, and it's jam time. I've got a few other musical related items laying around like keyboards and an Otamatone, but I don't use them much. We all were already musicians to one degree or another and played Rock Band together all the time, I already had about 6 guitars, so I acquired the "controllers" I didn't have so we could play Real Band instead. I've been very fortunate to have the disposable income, accompanied with a couple of unforeseen win-falls, to do something like that for my friends and I. Sure I technically own all the stuff, but I did buy a lot of it to have around for my friends. I only wish everyone who wanted to could be as lucky as I've been.
When dudes with lots of pedals also feel the need to be constantly adjusting pedals. I run a wah, clean boost, and a tuner. It was a breath of fresh air for one drummer that we spent more time playing then stopping every other second to twist this or that knob.
Customers plugging in a Pro level acoustic to a nice Acoustic Amplifier and then boosting the mid-range on the EQ and complaining that the guitar doesn't sound good. When you go and help them adjust the EQ and they tell you "No, that's how I like to set it!" This my friends shakes my head.
I have a buddy who can't stop noodling. 3 of us occasionally get together and he'll ask a question and noodle over your response. Then he gets frustrated that he can't follow the conversation. Absolutely non-stop noodling. Always cracks me up when he enthusiastically says "we should do this more often" or hints that he'd like to get in on some of the few jams / casual gigs I play. Um, no.
I'm guilty of this: ridiculous pre-show rituals. Arriving at a certain time, not eating for x many hours before hand etc etc My whole day becomes preparation for a 2 hour cafe gig!
#1. That guy that plays nonstop during rehearsal at full volume. Between each song he plays and it's so loud no one else can communicate. #2. At a gig, playing the intro to the song before the song begins. I understand that you're making sure you got it right and everything, but now you've given away the surprise of what song is next. Hard to describe, but I'm sure you get it if you've played in gigging cover bands.
My band had a regular gig, as a favor I let a friend's band open for us one night. They were a two piece, so what's the harm? No, they had all sorts of gear including pedal boards, a big organ... who brings a glockenspiel?!! Their sound check was longer than the set. The owner floated by me during their ridiculous sound check and said "really?" It was embarrassing. At one point, during their squeeze box solo, the very professional and very skilled sound woman we were lucky enough to have began to laugh uncontrollably.
I just watched a video on the differences of the glockenspiel, the xylophone, the vibraphone and the marimba. They're known as idiophones. Learn something new everyday.
The amazing thing to me is that Fender or Gibson doesn’t include the under-string grime in their relicing process. That’s how you make it look REALLY authentic.
1. Being completely ignorant about maintenance of your gear. 2. Trusting 100% of what some guy on a forum says about what gear you should use and totally disregarding your own preferences and tastes. 3. The combo: Buying a bunch of stuff for a fortune because some dudes on the web said it’s the best and then refusing to learn how to play and maintain your junk. Thereafter getting sour about it when it doesn’t sound or preform as good as they hoped!
Guilty! Bought a PRS SE, used, about 3 years ago.. Never changed the strings or did a setup.. It didn't stay in tune that well. The original owner had not played it much and never changed the strings either. Changed the strings after 4 years or so.. wow & it stays in tune too!! Also, did a complete setup of my guitar for the first time and lowered the action / neck had so much of relief!
A friend that bought a 63 strat back in 1972 at a garage sale. Then never learned to play it. So it sits in its case for decades unplayed with crusty old strings. Is annoying.
Does he know its value? Otherwise I’d give him 2000 dollars for the guitar. I had a similar situation once. But I wasn’t mean enough to lie about the value.
Every band I've been in, I push for looking professional at shows. We'd usually have an hour for our set, including setup and teardown. We could clear our gear from the stage in about 5 minutes. I think we got setup at around 10 minutes, thanks to prepping and the drummer having a rack setup.
Geez, the ol' pitchfork...I've still got mine from like, 50 years ago. Can't believe I used it for so long til I got hip to a Snark. And, I'm guilty of showboating during soundcheck, disguising it as, 'man this $70 Kremona popsicle stick pickup sure does sound good!'.
Good list guys! How about the dudes who have to put the string lube on? Great graphic on sliding the cloth under the strings to clean! Oh and leaving the clip on tuner on the headstock after tuning bugs me, this is not the 90's and it's not a Kyser capo!
6:40 I can totally relate to the 30 minute sets and 15 minute change. Thankfully, the venues Ive played let you prestage your gear along side the stage.
This kind of goes with your last one. It drives me crazy when someone is practicing with an unplugged electric guitar while you’re trying to watch television and they think because it’s not plugged in that it is not annoying. It is don’t do that. Especially if they are practicing scales or trying to learn a lick or part of a lead. The only time it’s OK to do that is if you are by yourself. I think you should’ve called this a PSA. Thanks
I’ve been working the wiring of a parts caster so I haven’t cut the strings so I can take em off and on for trial and error. Now it’s done and sounds great, but it’s been a few days and I haven’t cut the strings on the headstock... not because I like it, but because I got lazy.
when i ran a small venue, i was up there as soon as the last song to help the drummer get his stuff down before he tried to take his cymbals off. So they usually get the hint. thats how long i give the guitar players to wrap their cables. Then Im gonna start doing it if their cabs arent ready to roll. And when playing drums, as soon as my last shot is done. i grab my bass pedal and stool and take em right off, and then have the rest off stage in prob 3-4 min. muy importante
#11 Setting up to jam at a drummer‘s house and he’s playing drums while you’re trying to set up your gear. #12 Same drummer miking his drums through his PA system when it’s loud enough in a small basement already.
I heard the joke as "What's a bass player without a girlfriend? Homeless." I told the joke to the dad of a woman that worked for me who was the bass player in The Gears, an LA punk punk in the 70s. "Hey man Have you heard this one? 'What's a bass player without a girlfriend?'" His immediate response was "RARE."
I was at a low key blues jam where the guitarists outnumbered the audience and we would take turns playing a song which quickly collapsed into one guy plugging in a bunch of tube screamers for ten-minutes and then he would take a 20-minute solo where he tortured a bunch of half-assed SRV licks...I stopped playing cause it was worse than an Elementary school recital...
"You're going to poke someones eye out!" Cut the damn strings, it looks terrible and is dangerous. Unless you're Tom Morrel, and leave the ball side out.
Don't play the first bar of a song before the band is actually going to start the song! If you need to just get your hands in the right place, at least roll the volume off so you don't blow whatever excitement factor you may have built into your set. You only get one shot at Sweet Home Alabama and Whole Lotta Love.
How many comments correcting the spelling of "TUNING" I didn't look but I'm guess I'm not the only one. Liking this content guys! Glad this popped up in my feed.
Reason why I tend not to lean on clip-on tuners is no one stops playing long enough for the clip on tuner to catch my strings vibrations. More of a problem with acoustic and semi acoustic guitars but still annoying as all hell.
Someone below mentioned this but it's my pet peeve also on guitar/amp reviews on UA-cam. Reviewers who say "here is my clean tone to start" when it is not a clean tone. It's just a slightly less distorted tone. Also when a YT reviewer says they are reviewing a guitar then never lets you hear anything remotely clean and all you hear is a loud amp and pedals. I am watching the video to hear the guitar tone not the pedal board or amp.
the guy who wants to play as soon as a guitar is near. You are chilling out with a few people, nice music in the backround, a nice time, you are having fun. Then he grabs the f****** acoustic guitar and is strumming and look as he is totally feeling it, forcing all attention at him and. No one is able to have a good conversation anymore. well done. Totally worth for Wonderwall.
I'm very guilty of not cleaning under the strings. but that seems to be so common that when you relic a pickguard the part under the strings is supposed to be untouched.
I just bought a 2004 American Fender and 5 of the 6 strings were the original bullet strings. Apparently the high E had broke at some point.. so you're saying I should change them 😅
I know what you are saying regarding tuning annoyances.. the other huitar player in one of my bands was constantly doing this with his volume on.. I don't know why...
If you're using charts, organize your next set when the band breaks from the set. We don't want to all come up on stage for the next set and then wait for you to find your charts.
Years ago I got to have dinner with Laurence Juber and then sit front row center at the Woodstock Fine Arts building. He had his guitar, a tuner and possible an EQ of some sort. Didn't need a lot of stuff, and the man is one amazing finger style player.
Or guitarists noodling during rehearsal! I get it. I love playing too. But if I'm trying to talk a part out with you, stop playing. Inevitably, they're not listening and when we go to play the part, I have to stop them again and explain what's supposed to be happening.
I'm so guilty of #6 😂 my issue is I just don't necessarily find every part of a song interesting. I tend to just learn stuff that catches my ear and sounds cool
Tuning to other strings with your fretting hand drives me nuts. They try to remember the pitch instead of letting it ring and using your picking hand to bring the pitch up in unison with the note.
I had a guy in my band that didn’t trim his strings and wound them into little loops. He got out his guitar one night and caught one of them on the wing nut of a cymbal stand. Pulled the stand over and the cymbal edge hit his fingerboard breaking two of his strings. Then he got mad and blamed all of us😂
1. The guy in the guitar store that plays at full volume.
2. The guy in the guitar store that plays the riff you just played but plays it correctly.
#2 - just go over and snatch the cord out of the amp.
I hate to say this. There is a lot of people at Sweetwater that do this. Depressing.
Ha! That happened to me once playing the opening to Tesla's Love Song, and someone else starts playing it, but better. So what is that about? People go to guitar stores to show others up? I should have decked him 😃
One of my old friends was the opposite of #2. He heard some dude playing the solo to Pearl Jam's 'Alive'. Dude was playing it perfectly, sounded just like the record. Well, my buddy was convinced that the guy was playing it wrong and that he could do it better. So he starts just butchering the solo, and to make matters worse, my friend starts leaning his shoulder in and making an 'I'm better than you' face. I didn't want to be his friend anymore.
The guy that tunes at full volume
You can’t have that haircut and demand people cut the ends off their strings 🤣
Thanks. You saved me the trouble.
Damn that’s a good point:)
Props.Some just shave their heads, but that IS the ultimate I don't GAF hairstyle.Dready, with the actual locks.How to get strangers to cross the street without the facial tats.
I think it's an effed up comb over.
Aliens, that's why
My pet peeve: Misspelling "tuning" as "tuneing." Also, "To much" should be "Too Much."
lol
..I new something didn't look right ...
...and T0 was spelled with a zero, not an O
Noodling was misspelled too. Ah well :-)
Savage!
One of my bad habits is commenting before watching the video.
I do that too. I will comment on something that catches my ear and then watch through and realize they address it or that there is something else I wanna bring up but don’t wanna comment twice because it’s embarrassing. I see videos with 7 comments and 5 are from the same person. Lol. I try so hard to listen to the whole video but these days I forget what I wanted to say and have to take notes to remember.
Stay off the internet lol
Me too
Not learning your parts before rehearsal. there's a difference between practice & rehearsal!! Practice at home, rehearse when you get together!
Amen brutha, I’m a bassist, so I never had this problem myself, plenty of guitarists I’ve played with basically got me to teach them the songs at rehearsal though.
@@georgedavidson2024 ????? I'm a guitar player and had a bass player do this all the time. What makes bass players so special ?
@@kevinmcguinness1113 I mean bass parts in general are easier to learn, so generally speaking it takes the guitarist longer to learn parts. This wasn't meant to be a slight on every guitarist on earth, just some of the more useless ones I've played with. Take a chill pill Kev!
@@georgedavidson2024 😁👍 all good my friend. 100% agree with the OP though - when you're paying for rehearsal space, you want to get best use out of it, which shouldn't include having to teach other band members the songs, whichever role they have. Agree goals for the rehearsal time beforehand and then everyone should come prepared 🤟🤟
@@kevinmcguinness1113 glad we agree man! Definitely a time for learning songs, and at band rehearsal ain’t it
1-The guitarist who plays at Royal Albert Hall volume level when it’s a strip mall pub.
2-The every song gets the same “Crazy Train type distortion whether it’s needs it or not” guitarist.
3-The “I’ve played this riff the same wrong way for 15 years so everybody else who plays it correctly is wrong” guitarist.
Hearing a song playing with your friends, and somehow working into the conversation, “I know how to play this.” Yup, had to work hard to cure myself of this one.
I go with Eddie Van Halen’s string change rule: if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
I read where EVH would change his strings so frequently that he would boil them so they wouldn't stretch.
When the guitarist has 40 pedals with bad cables and decides to trouble shoot on stage.
Haha.
AMEN to that!
And plays completely clean.
Speaking of noodling, a few months ago I was on a boring Zoom meeting so I picked up a nearby guitar and started noodling. My mic wasn't muted so my boss asked if I was playing guitar. Oops! But, I guess there are worse things that happen in Zoom meetings these days.
Crazy fast shredding that is not musical.
Basically anyone but Steve vai cause Steve vai is God
CFS, - period.
@@markferguson3745 there's a place for shredding but it needs to be implemented tastefully. A solo should be played with the same approach of how a song is written. The masters pull this off and shredding can definitely add a texture to a solo that undoubtedly enhances the experience of the observer
@@matthewhorizon6050 Personally, I avoid those genres of music.All of them.
@@matthewhorizon6050 oh yeah 100% agree! Right now I'm trying to learn how to shred more musically instead of it sounding really robotic and boring, I found adding bends and slides between runs can help add emotion and texture...using a floyd helps even though they can be a pain :,)
Spending months and months watching UA-cam videos comparing single coil, humbuckers or P90 pickups to help you decide which new guitar you want to buy instead of playing one of the five guitars you already own. (Actual quote from my wife)
Damn, this one hit home...
Wife sounds like Yoda😂🎸
Right in the feelz!
Oof, true
My wife doesn't know pickup types.
I was in a big guitar shop in London a long time ago and a young beginner was trying bout a guitar and 2 of the sales guys from the shop was making fun of him behind his back, I never went back to that shop again.
Why making fun a beginner?
Bottom line, We guitar players are annoying people.
That’s why we hang out with other because we understand.
When you mentioned noodling, I immediately thought of Bonamassa during every visit to Norm’s.
Wonder why nobody can find / buy / beg / borrow or steal old
vintage Fender amps?, just ask Joe.
Joe's "noodling" is better than 99.99% playing at their highest level, though.
@@edsaadi no doubting that, but you can only use one vintage Fender amp at a time.
Joe could out noodle u, me & every1 4sure.
The thing with JoBo's noodling is, he has two settings: off and "accelerator to the floor".
Anything to stop norm talking is ok by me
I like the hate on the uncut strings when your hair is essentially the human analogue version of this.
It's the covid haircut.
One that annoys me is, and I've been guilty of in in hand too, is too much dead space between songs on a gig. Gotta rehearse that set list!
Same!!! The worst! Learn how to work the audience!
Yeah, definitely hate when bands do that. It is easy to do when up there.
It goes hand in hand with the singer/frontperson or lead guitar player second guessing the set list they made. I get reading a crowd and making a swap on the fly.. but still.. make up your mind! The drummer wants to count something off!
Ugh, the WORST! Minutes of playing then 20 minutes of BS. Drives me crazy.
Or the whole band turns their back on the audience, after a song. Like a football huddle.
"OK boys, let's do a quarterback sneak!"
I have a friend that when we are just playing is a stop and restart guy. "Oh, I played a wrong note." Hey man, We're just playing for fun in your garage.
Excellent topic. I've got 40 yrs, as part-time stage musician and audio engineer. You hit on most all of my annoyances; as it relates to guitarists. I'll add - Guitarists who play light, during sound check, and then come out wailing 1st song of the show.
One item that should be in every guitar player's arsenal. A paintbrush to clean under the strings. Takes two seconds.
pedals too.
In my teen years I played a show at the Black Cat in DC... me and the other guitarists had two half stacks because we thought it was cool. We could hardly fit no the stage which is up stairs above a bar. They came up and said you have to take things off the stage, the ceiling is dropping things on the bar from the weight. We also got a set cut short because we were too loud. Moral of the story if you want to not be invited back to play somewhere, bring too much gear lol.
You must be able to carry your gear in one trip with no help cause help and gear can disappear
Yes Jonathon, "too much" IS relative. It's usually the relatives that tell you that you have too much equipment. Great video, guys!
Yes clean under the strings. Just dont use your polish cloth or you'll scratch up your finish with all the crap under the strings...use a little brush, like a makeup brush or a small paintbrush. Bonus is that its easier to get into all the small places with a brush.
Moving the neck back and forth in an effort to sustain a note. When did that become a thing? Never saw Chet do it.
Lol
It’s supposed to give a Tremolo effect, 1st saw. Ted greene do it….if you’ve never seen him , do yourself a favour….Itts mesmerising
UA-cam guitar reviewers whose "clean" tone still involves an overdrive pedal.
i think we know who you're talking about 😆
Almost every great clean tone will involve an overdrive pedal, or a tube amp driven to power amp distortion levels. Nobody wants to hear perfectly clean sound, it's flat and horrible. You need that saturation for chime to appear. It's just some people drive it way too hard.
My clean Is rolling back the volume. And I don't use overdrive
@@Quicksilver_Cookie Absolutely. A good overdrive pedal should also be able to function as a boost pedal. And a clean tone without some boost or mild grit is boring.
I resemble that remark lol. But a slight crunch channel
When you go to your buddy’s house for an acoustic only jam session and there is that one guy there who has to plug in his acoustic, and drowns everyone out.
“Tuneing,” “noodeling,” “swaping”- my eyes are burning!!!! Good list though.
I play fingerstyle, and I never use any gear-- but this channel is still fun to listen to. Keep doing what you're doing.
Thanks guys...this is one of your best yet. I agree with all ten. I also see you could spin off three new videos - guitar etiquette at the jam/practice session; guitar etiquette at the guitar store; and guitar etiquette at the performance/gig. I was lucky to be in school band at junior and high school. You learn the basis -- no unnecessary noise, start together, stop together, know the whole song (i.e. practice before play with the group), stay in tune, play the right volume (ppp means really soft and fff means crank it to eleven), don't be late, don't noddle and chat in between songs, don't pass notes, and don't react when one the drummers hits you with a spitball...you'll only look like a bigger dork than you already do holding that clarinet.
Noodling on stage! Hell yes that drives me crazy. Nothing's worse than the guy that never stops noodling between songs. Especially if he's playing little partial riffs from the next song. It honestly makes me want to walk off stage.
I haven't changed my strings in MONTHS! And yet I am able to tune my guitar first thing and I'm good for, at least, the next hour-and-a-half.
I have found that DR strings last for a long time and hold tuning exceptionally well. I will break out a guitar after six months of languishing and the guitar will still be in tune. I cannot imagine changing strings more than once every couple of months if you buy excellent strings, unless you are a working pro.
As a guitarist I find the ability of the drummer to hit something every time I need to talk to somebody quite unnerving !!!
Two words: Drum Machine.
At least I can turn my volume off while noodling.
I’m ok with leaving the ends of the strings uncut... as long as they’re coiled into a little circlet. If they’re just flopping in the wind, nah man.
Tuning with your back to the crowd, the singer/rhythm guitar in my band had a rack tuner and would turn his back on the crowd in between songs. Finally bought him a tuner pedal for his board. Total crowd killer.
UHm really? People just use tuners pedals as also a line Mute, Its one of those gigging things you need and or should have. I mean its also used for tuning but.....
There’s no reason you should have to retune your guitar during a set,if you do you need a different guitar
I'm lucky to have started playing in the 90's. I had a DOD distortion pedal and a BOSS EQ. When it came to starting to want other effects, I just started going with multi effects units.
I have 5 guitars with floating trems so they are all setup with different tunings so I can swap them out as needed or wanted. My others are stop tail and strat style so they stay mostly at standard, but they can be tuned on the fly fairly easily if needed. I still don't usually swap much. When playing alone, if I pick up a guitar with a certain tuning, I just play that guitar for a while. Sometimes just playing in a tuning that is not the tuning you typically play in can really open up the creative flood gates.
I've been playing for 30 years and have only ever sold 1 guitar, I've given about 4 away over the decades, and I've lost a couple to damage during moving/traveling. I currently have 10 electrics, 2 acoustics, an electric bass, and a digital drum kit, and a few Marshal and Fender amps. That way if people are over and we want to spontaneously jam, I have everything we need. Pick a weapon off the wall, wonder down to the dungeon where the drums are set up, 5-10 minutes of setup and tune up, and it's jam time. I've got a few other musical related items laying around like keyboards and an Otamatone, but I don't use them much.
We all were already musicians to one degree or another and played Rock Band together all the time, I already had about 6 guitars, so I acquired the "controllers" I didn't have so we could play Real Band instead. I've been very fortunate to have the disposable income, accompanied with a couple of unforeseen win-falls, to do something like that for my friends and I. Sure I technically own all the stuff, but I did buy a lot of it to have around for my friends. I only wish everyone who wanted to could be as lucky as I've been.
Not getting better at guitar by simply watching guitar videos...
Obviously someone never won a spelling bee...😂😂😂
We are all Taylor University dropouts what do you expect :) Thanks for the comment!
When dudes with lots of pedals also feel the need to be constantly adjusting pedals. I run a wah, clean boost, and a tuner. It was a breath of fresh air for one drummer that we spent more time playing then stopping every other second to twist this or that knob.
Customers plugging in a Pro level acoustic to a nice Acoustic Amplifier and then boosting the mid-range on the EQ and complaining that the guitar doesn't sound good. When you go and help them adjust the EQ and they tell you "No, that's how I like to set it!" This my friends shakes my head.
I have a buddy who can't stop noodling. 3 of us occasionally get together and he'll ask a question and noodle over your response. Then he gets frustrated that he can't follow the conversation. Absolutely non-stop noodling. Always cracks me up when he enthusiastically says "we should do this more often" or hints that he'd like to get in on some of the few jams / casual gigs I play. Um, no.
Totally true!!
Excessive tuning publicly, Monty Python: “I’ve suffered for my art, now it’s your turn”
I'm guilty of this: ridiculous pre-show rituals. Arriving at a certain time, not eating for x many hours before hand etc etc My whole day becomes preparation for a 2 hour cafe gig!
You're like a goalie.
Kind of like baseball players?
The gravitational pull of an upcoming gig...sends anxiety tremors out for days! But on the day..? constant seismic activity!
I hate the early load ins.I can set up my gear in 7 minutes, why do I need to be there 4 hours before the club opens?
#1. That guy that plays nonstop during rehearsal at full volume. Between each song he plays and it's so loud no one else can communicate.
#2. At a gig, playing the intro to the song before the song begins. I understand that you're making sure you got it right and everything, but now you've given away the surprise of what song is next. Hard to describe, but I'm sure you get it if you've played in gigging cover bands.
My band had a regular gig, as a favor I let a friend's band open for us one night. They were a two piece, so what's the harm? No, they had all sorts of gear including pedal boards, a big organ... who brings a glockenspiel?!! Their sound check was longer than the set. The owner floated by me during their ridiculous sound check and said "really?" It was embarrassing. At one point, during their squeeze box solo, the very professional and very skilled sound woman we were lucky enough to have began to laugh uncontrollably.
I just watched a video on the differences of the glockenspiel, the xylophone, the vibraphone and the marimba. They're known as idiophones. Learn something new everyday.
Not sharing your drugs with the rest of the band. I always cut enough lines on my amp for everyone, including roadies.
The noodling gets to me....especially when someone is talking to a guitarist and they obviously check out mid-sentence to noodle.
To be fair, I was never checked in, I just started noodling to make it apparent.
Proof that multi-tasking does not work.
@@ImNotOld_ImVintage To be honest, it's the only way I can get through a conversation with my kids about Pokemon.
That's the most annoying on the list. To be honest little else bothers me! It's also bad when they noodle on stage during the banter between songs.
The tone snob that seems to think if you’re not using 10s or higher, your tone is bound to suck
There’s history in that layer of dust and grime under them strings!!
Haha!
The amazing thing to me is that Fender or Gibson doesn’t include the under-string grime in their relicing process. That’s how you make it look REALLY authentic.
When a player continues playing after every song has ended.
If I'm trying out absolutely any gear in a guitar shop, I only play my own stuff.
You can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish
Got me at over the hill and far away. 🎸😌
I change my guitar strings two days before I plan to play or record. Fresh strings sound great, but they go way out of tune just by looking at them.
Thank you!
1. Being completely ignorant about maintenance of your gear.
2. Trusting 100% of what some guy on a forum says about what gear you should use and totally disregarding your own preferences and tastes.
3. The combo: Buying a bunch of stuff for a fortune because some dudes on the web said it’s the best and then refusing to learn how to play and maintain your junk. Thereafter getting sour about it when it doesn’t sound or preform as good as they hoped!
That was pretty funny and it got funnier towards the end. I think you were referring to the PRS/Rick Beato interview from a couple years back?
Guilty!
Bought a PRS SE, used, about 3 years ago..
Never changed the strings or did a setup.. It didn't stay in tune that well.
The original owner had not played it much and never changed the strings either.
Changed the strings after 4 years or so.. wow & it stays in tune too!!
Also, did a complete setup of my guitar for the first time and lowered the action / neck had so much of relief!
Great topic. Funny stuff.
Here’s mine: leaving clip on tuners on your headstock when you’re performing. DON’T DO THIS !
That bothers you?
I never take mine off, so I don't lose them.I also use them as pick and/ or slide holders.
Get over it man. I leave mine on just to piss people off.
A friend that bought a 63 strat back in 1972 at a garage sale. Then never learned to play it. So it sits in its case for decades unplayed with crusty old strings. Is annoying.
Does he know its value? Otherwise I’d give him 2000 dollars for the guitar.
I had a similar situation once. But I wasn’t mean enough to lie about the value.
When buying gear turns into a gear battle
Every band I've been in, I push for looking professional at shows. We'd usually have an hour for our set, including setup and teardown.
We could clear our gear from the stage in about 5 minutes. I think we got setup at around 10 minutes, thanks to prepping and the drummer having a rack setup.
Geez, the ol' pitchfork...I've still got mine from like, 50 years ago. Can't believe I used it for so long til I got hip to a Snark. And, I'm guilty of showboating during soundcheck, disguising it as, 'man this $70 Kremona popsicle stick pickup sure does sound good!'.
How was guitar plectrums being found anywhere and everywhere imaginable not on this list? Mainly for me, in the washing machine!
That's just a bonus.
Good list guys! How about the dudes who have to put the string lube on? Great graphic on sliding the cloth under the strings to clean! Oh and leaving the clip on tuner on the headstock after tuning bugs me, this is not the 90's and it's not a Kyser capo!
Leaving the tuner on the headstock during the gig. Irks me so much
6:40 I can totally relate to the 30 minute sets and 15 minute change. Thankfully, the venues Ive played let you prestage your gear along side the stage.
This kind of goes with your last one. It drives me crazy when someone is practicing with an unplugged electric guitar while you’re trying to watch television and they think because it’s not plugged in that it is not annoying. It is don’t do that. Especially if they are practicing scales or trying to learn a lick or part of a lead. The only time it’s OK to do that is if you are by yourself. I think you should’ve called this a PSA. Thanks
I’ve been working the wiring of a parts caster so I haven’t cut the strings so I can take em off and on for trial and error. Now it’s done and sounds great, but it’s been a few days and I haven’t cut the strings on the headstock... not because I like it, but because I got lazy.
when i ran a small venue, i was up there as soon as the last song to help the drummer get his stuff down before he tried to take his cymbals off. So they usually get the hint. thats how long i give the guitar players to wrap their cables. Then Im gonna start doing it if their cabs arent ready to roll. And when playing drums, as soon as my last shot is done. i grab my bass pedal and stool and take em right off, and then have the rest off stage in prob 3-4 min.
muy importante
I freaking love these two guys
#11 Setting up to jam at a drummer‘s house and he’s playing drums while you’re trying to set up your gear.
#12 Same drummer miking his drums through his PA system when it’s loud enough in a small basement already.
Lifer label promo man guitar lover, just found you two. LOVE THIS .
I heard the joke as "What's a bass player without a girlfriend? Homeless." I told the joke to the dad of a woman that worked for me who was the bass player in The Gears, an LA punk punk in the 70s. "Hey man Have you heard this one? 'What's a bass player without a girlfriend?'" His immediate response was "RARE."
I was at a low key blues jam where the guitarists outnumbered the audience and we would take turns playing a song which quickly collapsed into one guy plugging in a bunch of tube screamers for ten-minutes and then he would take a 20-minute solo where he tortured a bunch of half-assed SRV licks...I stopped playing cause it was worse than an Elementary school recital...
NODDLING IN BETWEEN SONGS AT PRACTICE WHILE OTHER BAND MEMBERS ARE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT/WRITE PARTS.
"You're going to poke someones eye out!"
Cut the damn strings, it looks terrible and is dangerous. Unless you're Tom Morrel, and leave the ball side out.
No, Tom Morrel still isn’t cool for doing this
Don't play the first bar of a song before the band is actually going to start the song! If you need to just get your hands in the right place, at least roll the volume off so you don't blow whatever excitement factor you may have built into your set. You only get one shot at Sweet Home Alabama and Whole Lotta Love.
How many comments correcting the spelling of "TUNING" I didn't look but I'm guess I'm not the only one. Liking this content guys! Glad this popped up in my feed.
If I had a dollar for every time my wife has said to me... "your thinking of a riff right now aren't you?" and most times I'm no where near a guitar.
Reason why I tend not to lean on clip-on tuners is no one stops playing long enough for the clip on tuner to catch my strings vibrations. More of a problem with acoustic and semi acoustic guitars but still annoying as all hell.
Someone below mentioned this but it's my pet peeve also on guitar/amp reviews on UA-cam. Reviewers who say "here is my clean tone to start" when it is not a clean tone. It's just a slightly less distorted tone. Also when a YT reviewer says they are reviewing a guitar then never lets you hear anything remotely clean and all you hear is a loud amp and pedals. I am watching the video to hear the guitar tone not the pedal board or amp.
Yeah, I have done a few of those things, but as Jimi Hendrix used to say "what the hell, only cowboys stay in tune."
The fuzz into an acoustic always reminds me of the sex b-bombs from Scott pilgrim
the guy who wants to play as soon as a guitar is near. You are chilling out with a few people, nice music in the backround, a nice time, you are having fun. Then he grabs the f****** acoustic guitar and is strumming and look as he is totally feeling it, forcing all attention at him and. No one is able to have a good conversation anymore. well done. Totally worth for Wonderwall.
Hahaha, lol. And plays cheesy chords.
Why ya gotta call me out like that...? 😂😂😂
You’re just mad he got to the guitar before you did bro.
I'm very guilty of not cleaning under the strings. but that seems to be so common that when you relic a pickguard the part under the strings is supposed to be untouched.
I just bought a 2004 American Fender and 5 of the 6 strings were the original bullet strings. Apparently the high E had broke at some point.. so you're saying I should change them 😅
I saw Bonnie in Pittsburgh. Band was amazing 👏. Venue was spectacular. Open pavilion, all grass seating...we had a picnic. Beautiful summer evening.
Changing & cleaning UNDER the strings??? I feell called out hey... LoL xD
Speaking of too much gear, years ago I worked for a backline company and Vince Neil was playing a bar show and wanted 10 full Marshall stacks.
I know what you are saying regarding tuning annoyances.. the other huitar player in one of my bands was constantly doing this with his volume on.. I don't know why...
If you're using charts, organize your next set when the band breaks from the set. We don't want to all come up on stage for the next set and then wait for you to find your charts.
OK! You got me. I am subscribing.😷👍🏽
Years ago I got to have dinner with Laurence Juber and then sit front row center at the Woodstock Fine Arts building. He had his guitar, a tuner and possible an EQ of some sort. Didn't need a lot of stuff, and the man is one amazing finger style player.
Or guitarists noodling during rehearsal! I get it. I love playing too. But if I'm trying to talk a part out with you, stop playing. Inevitably, they're not listening and when we go to play the part, I have to stop them again and explain what's supposed to be happening.
I'm so guilty of #6 😂 my issue is I just don't necessarily find every part of a song interesting. I tend to just learn stuff that catches my ear and sounds cool
I'm a bass player and it used to frost me when guitar players would be shredding away while the rest of us were tuning up!
Tuning to other strings with your fretting hand drives me nuts. They try to remember the pitch instead of letting it ring and using your picking hand to bring the pitch up in unison with the note.
I had a guy in my band that didn’t trim his strings and wound them into little loops. He got out his guitar one night and caught one of them on the wing nut of a cymbal stand. Pulled the stand over and the cymbal edge hit his fingerboard breaking two of his strings. Then he got mad and blamed all of us😂
Getting too drunk before playing shows…. This was a massive issue for a couple local bands. “Liquid courage” makes your hands clumsy.
Grant Lee.."Bethlehem Steel"... great acoustic/ fuzz combo..(live in Paris)