TOPIC: Fun with electrics

It is really fun picking up an electric (someone else’s) once in awhile – it’s so easy to fret (by comparison to acoustic) and so I find it easier to focus on picking. My compromise has been acoustic-electric guitars (Ovation & Takamine) – so fretting is the same as a straight acoustic (adjusting the neck for a low action also can help) but you can play around with different sounds and also use a lighter pick which helps a little- with faster picking.

I have found a great amplifier (new to me anyway) - perfect for jamming with my friends – especially outdoors in a large group. It’s the Roland CM-30 (30 watts, ~$200 & fairly small) and has 5 stereo mixing inputs (10 on mono) – 1 of which is for voice microphone. One of our friends has a large system with mixer inputs - & we tend to have many acoustic-electrics and so when anyone joins in – we can plug them in. When someone wants to pick melody– they simply bump up the volume on their guitar and then back it down for rhythm. For acoustic-only players taking the lead – we simply back down volume on the whole amplifier. The new Roland CM-30 will really help us with portability.

I have the Fender G-DEC which has way more effects than i'll ever use, and an old Peavy audition. Both are low powered portable amps, (120 VAC, so portable as long as there's an outlet nearby) certainly not gonna punch like a full on Marshall stack.
A buddy of mine, who plays ampped acoustic guitar in his church's worship band, brought over his Line 6 floor pod, so i could set up a cushioned carrying case for it. It wasn't long before an acoustic got plugged in. Never knew such cool sounds could come from an acoustic guitar. You can actually save multiple effects pre-sets, and recall them when needed. Of course,it wasn't long before the Washburn electric came off the stand. With the electric's sustain, and the effects from the pod and the amp, the guitar just came alive. Just had some fun with some chord progressions and some lead runs, he was doing most of the playing of course. The time just flew by so fast. There's so much that can be done with that pod, it takes hours to get a good effect for the tune you're playing. But it's fun coming up with that stuff.

Oh, for picks, i like thin ones for strumming, seem to glide across the strings better for those dowm/up strums. Doesn't get hung up in the strings as much, less attack. I use the thins for practicing chord progressions and strum patterns. But for the bluegrass stuff, i get a better bass line with the heavy picks. The heavies seem to "boom-chunk" better than the lights, but can be "tinnier" sounding if i'm not diligent on proper pick attack. And since most of our tunes are in 4/4 time, (not much up strums) they are good for the rhythm and lead parts. I can get a good bass line with the thin picks, but i have to choke up on them alittle to get good attack to hear the bass on the rhythm strum.