My Guitar

budman50830
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Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:16 pm

Hi everyone. I'm new to the site and just signed up as a free member for now. I'll be joining the TARGET program soon. Anyway, I'm a beginner even though I've been playing for 4 years now. Just don't have enough time to practice as I should. But my question is about my guitar. I posted it in the guitar gallery. It is a Yamaha FG720SL. I wanted to get the opinions of some of the more experienced guitarists. What do you think of it? I like it for finger picking and light strumming, but it seems to put out a lot of sound when strumming. As you can see from my pics, I play left handed. I've got most of the open cords but I'm working on smoothing out my transitions from 1 cord to the next. Any pointers on the subject would be appreciated as well. Thx to all for this site. It has helped my playing tremendously just in the last couple of months I've been on here.


Chasplaya
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Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:21 pm

Hi budman, Welcome to TG good choice. Can't say much about your guitar, a few other members have Yamaha's so I'm sure they will jump in soon. AS for chord transitions on the last beat of the measure (bar) lift off the chord and start moving to the next, sounds like a strange thing to do playing the strings totally open but once you get the hang of it its not noticeable, Neil has that advice on one of his lessons somewhere on the site. e.g. So if you are strumming in 8ths i.e. DUDUDUDU the very last U is on open strings.


Chasplaya
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Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:24 pm

Hi again budman, forgot to mention there is a forum post to introduce yourself "Please Introduce yourself here", tell us about yourself, where you from, taste in music anything you feel comfortable, most of us have done that and its painless and free!


Chasplaya
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Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:26 pm

Duh having one of those days..

here's the link to the Intro thread

http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum/84- ... -here.html


budman50830
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Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:27 pm

Thank you.


wrench
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Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:18 pm

Welcome aboard, Bud. If you are impressed now, you better take deep breath when you join TARGET. It is an unbelievable resource.

If you like your FG720SL, then it is the right one. Selecting the right guitar doesn't need to get too much more complicated than that. I am a huge Yamaha fan, and I have become so after doing sound analysis and developing some luthiery techniques on them. After collecting a room full of guitars, I play an FG700s and an FG730s daily. I have them setup to play very comfortably, they lend themselves to a variety of playing styles, and they sound pretty good. At under $300 apiece, they're practically disposable (in guitar terms, that is!). You can even tweak their sound easily with nut and saddle materials. I will also tell you that you can radically change the sound of an FG with some bridge modifications, but that's obviously not an everyday consideration for a $300 guitar. I seriously advise you have the guitar setup, though. You'll know it's right when you can't wait to get your hands back on it.


dekotaj
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Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 11:23 am
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Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:45 am

Hey,Bud-man,Hows it going??

Welcome from northern Illinois(USA)
If the guitar makes music when you play it,it's the right guitar.Keep knocking the strings off them!!

Kevin


dsmarion
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Mon Sep 19, 2011 3:48 am

Hey Bud,

Already said welcome on the other post so I won't redo that here. As far as your guitar - I have owned a lot of guitars over the years, both cheap and expensive, and the main thing I feel for a beginner is that you get a guitar that feels good in your hands, sounds good to you and is set up with the strings low enough to the fretboard as to be able to play notes and chord comfortably enough not to make your hand and fingers unduly sore. If your guitar fits that description it will probably be fine for now. As you progress in your learning you will decide if it's the right one for you. Also visit some guitar stores and play around with a lot of different makes and models. Talk to the sales people, ask questions, try em out. You'll find out if the one you have will be good enough for now or not.

About strumming - that is really more of an art than people think and there is definitely an art to strumming both lightly and more full to get just the right sound. Follow Neil's lessons in the Beginner's Genius series if you haven't and you'll get good advice for that plus a whole lot more. He talks about most everything you need to know to get started on the right path.

Good luck in your learning!

Scott


budman50830
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Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:32 pm

Thank you all for your input. I do like my guitar. I believe it was a good choice. I bought it because of the sound. It has a very clean crisp sound in the high end and good reseince in the low end so it plays finger picking style well.


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