Newbie and NGD

[WayneH]

Greetings!

I'm a total newbie, deciding to learn guitar at the age of 65. My Dad played Spanish and country/western and taught acoustic guitar, I played violin for 8 years in school, but no instruments since then. I guess I did that because I felt I'd never be as good as my father on guitar, but always harbored a desire to try to learn guitar. Now that I'm about to retire after 40 years of Engineering, I decided to go for it.

I did a lot of research and went in and looked at and listened to a number of guitars, and fell in love with the story of PRS and specifically the S2 Mira Hollow Body (with bird frets). Wanted a good one, made in America, and it just felt good holding it. Got the McCarty Tobacco Sunburst coming next week! Glad to find a forum for help and encouragement! Any wise words for a senior beginner would be appreciated!

WayneH

 

[Raven17]

Congrats and welcome!

 

[winemaker]

I just started a year ago at age 46. I love playing the guitar.

I've learned a lot from justinguitar.com .

Nice choice on the PRS. I have an NF3 and think it's great. One thing about starting later in life is you can usually afford more cool toys.

Practice, practice, practice, but mostly have fun.

 

[vchizzle]

Welcome Wayne! Nice choice. I think learning by ear is helpful thing. Even if you can't accurately play the song note for note, being able to listen to something and find the notes/pitch on the fretboard is a good thing to be able to do. Learning how scales connect in a certain key is a must learn. Aka: modes

 

[JMintzer]

It's never too late to start! Welcome!

 

[Mr.Koozie]

I'm 42 and been playing for 11 months. I've had a lot of hobbies over the years but none have been as rewarding and FUN as playing the guitar. When you're new to it make sure to play every day, even if it's just 10 minutes. Everything you play will sound like crap the first 5 or 6 months but keep at it and you will be greatly rewarded. I recommend checking out JustinGuitar.com for lessons. Sweet guitar you ordered BTW. Post some pics when it arrives.

 

[toothace]

Welcome aboard! Great start to you rPRS collection!

 

[László]

Welcome and enjoy the journey!

 

[WayneH]

Thanks everyone. Will definitely be motivated to get some playing in every day. Have to pick out a small amp, any recommendations? I was looking at the Blackstar 5-watt model. Something under $500.

 

[g.wizz]

Hello Sir and welcome you've got a lovely guitar and i highly recommend the blackstar i got one actualy the second one
Very versatile andvgreat fir practice
Enjoy

 

[Bill SAS 513]

Wayne...congrats and have fun!! Ok, and Practice is kinda important. I usually suggest starting with basic open chords, ( A thru G, in major, minor, and 7th...) and chromatic scales...and when playing single notes, use your pinky. Some don't, and since you're starting out, it's a good habit to begin. Good luck, and enjoy the guitar! And check out alternate picking...start slow, but will also help in long run.

 

[Duffy]

A really nice amp in your price range is the Fender Blues Junior combo. Twelve inch speaker, great sound, dependable, and repairable well into the future. It is a classic design with a standard circuit that Fender carries parts for and all good amp techs will easily be able to fix and find parts for. Also it has a 5 year warranty. Fender makes some good amps and this one is a very good tube amp. It has all the features that you will need to hear the quality sound of your guitar.

In my opinion those amps with all sorts of bells and whistles are not really great at doing any one thing; and they can be distracting to a beginner. Some of them don't really let the natural sound of your guitar shine thru either - what you hear seems to be, often, mostly the amp's digitally modeled sound, not the actual guitar.

I think a good guitar and a good dependable simple amp are a great combination.

Congratulations on the new guitar.

You might want to watch out for salesmen that try to sell you any certain amp. Buy the one that you want. I would suggest one from a well known company and of "all tube" design; simple and dependable. The Fender Blues Junior is 15 watts, which would be enough power to provide you with enough clean sounding guitar volume, as well as a full sounding tone.

A real nice amp will really add to the guitar playing experience, as opposed to a mediocre one. A rule of thumb I have heard mentioned often is to plan to spend about as much on the amp as you did on the guitar; but your plan sounds like a good one and you should be able to find a nice amp in that range.

Good luck with everything and I'm sure you will have a lot of fun with your guitar. I'm retired too and your age and find that playing brings me a lot of peace of mind and helps me connect with my soul.

 

[WayneH]

Duffy, great post - thanks for your insight! I know my Dad felt the same way about his playing. I live a bit of a stressful life, as I'm sure many do, and am looking forward to my playing and practice time as a respite from the storm.

I will look into the Fender. I definitely want an amp that lets the sound if the guitar shine through!

Wayne

 

[geewag]

Welcome to the club. I was 61 when I got my first PRS and have loved it to death since. I think your violin experience will serve you well. A good
Fender amp will serve you well for most anything you want to do with that new axe.

Dave from Edmonton

 

[kes7u]

Congrats on your new PRS and your upcoming guitar journey! It can get very frustrating, but stick with it and try to play for a bit each day. It is so rewarding to overcome hurdles, and such a fun experience! Try to enjoy each step.

I have nothing to do with the company, other than a customer, but if you are unable to take lessons in person, I would recommend the Learn and Master Guitar DVD lesson series. Interestingly, he begins with single notes in the first position. Surprisingly, this takes a WHILE to master, compounded by the fact that a beginner plunking single notes is really not that appealing! I believe it provides a great foundation, though, and sets the stage for the finger dexterity and stretches subsequently needed. I am currently on lesson 6 and getting through open chords. I am hooked for life!!

I'm 42 and been playing for 11 months. I've had a lot of hobbies over the years but none have been as rewarding and FUN as playing the guitar. When you're new to it make sure to play every day, even if it's just 10 minutes. Everything you play will sound like crap the first 5 or 6 months but keep at it and you will be greatly rewarded. I recommend checking out JustinGuitar.com for lessons. Sweet guitar you ordered BTW. Post some pics when it arrives.

Freaky! Must have been something in the water... I'm also 42, and I've been playing for 10 months now. I agree. I've bounced around a few hobbies, and this is just in my blood. There are such highs and lows, though. I am totally addicted!

 

[alantig]

Hi Wayne! Welcome aboard!

I'll echo some of the advice given - have fun, enjoy yourself, use your pinky, have fun. It's a great hobby, an outstanding stress reliever, and you'll be surrounded by great guys here.

But tell the truth - you've started playing guitar because you're trying to get chicks, right? :top:

 

[GeoDude]

wow - what a great guitar to start out with! I agree that the Fender Blues Jr. would be a good choice for just about anything you wanted to play (might need a distortion pedal, though, to get a boatload of sustain, if that's your thing). I suggest focusing on root position chords for beginning players. It will be very difficult at first just to get it to ring true for a while, but once you can reliably play, say, a D chord and then switch it to, say, a C chord, there's no stopping you! Good luck!

 

[Duffy]

While you are picking out your amp, you might want to pick up one of those headstock tuners that just clip onto your headstock. They run off a watch battery and are very convenient. I just leave mine on the guitar. I like the "Snark" burgundy colored ones. They have finer gradations than the black Snarks. They are very, very affordable. When you buy the amp they might even throw one in for good measure.

It would be a good idea to pick up a "string winding tool". I have a Planet Waves one that you use to crank up the tuner knobs quickly and easily when changing strings, and it has a built in string cutting tool to trim the string at the post and also to cut the strings in the middle when taking them off.

By the way, if you are going to put a new set of strings on the new guitar, I like to do it one string at a time and keep the guitar in tune as I replace each string. This makes it easier and faster, especially if your guitar has a tremolo. You don't want the strings to bind in the nut slots and can check this by pushing them into the slots when restringing and pulling them back out. If they are binding you will know it. Sand the "sides" only of the nut slots until the string doesn't bind anymore. This will help let your guitar stay in tune after tremolo use, etc. I also apply a small amount of powdered graphite inside the nut slots before putting the new string in. This helps allow the string to move freely in the nut. You can get a small tube of powdered graphite at the hardware store. Most of the tuning instability problems I get with my guitars have come from the strings binding in the nut slots and opening up the slots very slightly has eliminated that problem.

I don't think the S2 Mira has a tremolo, so you might not want to mess with the nut slots. And being USA made it might have had more attention paid to the fitting of the strings in the nut slots. Using just some powdered graphite in the slots would probably be enough to keep things nice and smooth. That is a very nice guitar by the way. It's kind of difficult to post pictures, but a picture would definitely be nice to see. I bet it's a beauty.

These are just a few little ideas that may help you avoid some potential problems. I hope they help.

 

[prsrocker1988]

Welcome!

 

[Rider1260]

Welcome !!!!
Great first guitar !!!
If you can afford them get at least some lessons the right teacher can really jump start your progress.
As far as amps go there are many great ones I have both an Egnater Tweaker 15 and a Roland Cube 15 for small amps the Tweaker is a great all around tube amp small and light the Cube is a nice ( solid state ) practice amp with a bunch of sounds , Headphone out and line in ( nice for practice ) and really inexpensive and durable.