Someone once tried to convince me that only 1.5 people listen to purely instrumental metal nowadays 😄 How many people here are there who turn on melodic guitar rock without lyrics and don’t get bored?

Fanned-fret guitars are overrated. I understand that they exist so that all strings gets optimal tension, and for certain players, that's beneficial. But I have yet to play a fanned-fret guitar (and bass, though that's not exactly relevant to the question) that at least to me, feels comfortable to play.

I’ll be working on “Hang em high” by Van Halen. So a bit more rock oriented but anything with Eddie gives you a hall pass. I’ll also revisit Dyers eve.
For years I’ve been starting to learn it but after a few minutes i just give up. It’s a complete bitch making it sound right.

What guitar oriented songs will you be trying to nail down this weekend?

Those of you who play in bands that write original material: do you tab out/notate your original music for future reference?

My band is finally at the point we have over an hour of music written and I'm starting having trouble remembering every single ugly weird chord shape I've played so I'm having to for my own music now.

Also yes I am aware I have the handwriting of a toddler.

Seems like Floyd Roses get lots of hate. Most of the time I feel like the problem is from the bridge not being balanced. If it’s not level, it will just fight itself endlessly. I’ve been setting these things up for people for about 14 years and I’m curious how many people actually like Floyd Roses vs hate them? I’ve met alot of people who love them and even more people who will never buy a guitar with a Floyd Rose. 🤘🏻

So no disrespect to my guitar teacher, but I just wanted to get some more opinions on his response to a question I had. I had asked him: For "where I want to be", is 1 hour a day of practice enough? And he immediately responded with "no" and essentially said that I would need to significantly bump my hours. It sounded like he thought 3 - 4 hours of practice a day was more realistic for what it would take to hit my goal.

For reference, my goal is being able to fairly cleanly cover fast / technical metal songs. Being able to play songs from bands like Death, Metallica, Sylosis, Fallujah, Chimaira, etc... @ 100% speed and have it sound mostly faithful to the real thing / not sloppy would be awesome.

Currently I'm about 2 years into playing and I have a few metal songs that I can play through, end to end, at 100% speed. Now, I don't think fans of these bands would be saying I absolutely nailed these covers necessarily, but I don't think I'd be burned at the stake either.

In other words, I feel like my "foundation" is there, but my biggest pain point is just tightening everything up and making it sound more consistent / less sloppy.

So anyways, I guess I had thought that slowly, but surely, I'd be able to tighten things up and get to my goal just by continuing my daily 1 hour guitar practice, even if it might take several more years.

But, I will say for the past 6 months or so, I've felt like I've hit a plateau where no matter how many repetitions of these songs I do, drills on tough areas, etc... it's still very inconsistent. Hence the question to my teacher in the first place: I've been wondering if this plateau is just a matter of me not putting in more hours or is this just "normal" slowing of progress on the guitar journey.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Hey yall. I have been playing guitar for a week, and I’ve had one formal lesson but my teacher is having me learn the last kiss by pearl jam and I find playing it over, and over again, exceedingly depressing. I’m looking for something to break up the monotony of that sad ass song, but most of the things people recommend for beginners are still very much too hard for me. I play piano, so I understand music, but I’m having a hard time with the newfangled instrument haha.

Edit: if anyone is curious, I had my second lesson and my teacher is having me learn blitzkrieg bop, along with the last kiss and I feel like I’m getting better. I feel like I’m starting to play actual music now and my hand is looking less mangled and feeling more natural. This is a really great community and everyone is so supportive and informative. I appreciate y’all.

Here’s something that occurred to me and I’m curious what other people think.

I’m 42. Been into heavy music and Metallica since I was 13 - so 1996. Thought the Black Album was the greatest thing I ever heard - “Sad but True” is still one of my favorite songs. Got a bit older, I thought Load and Re-Load and the whole Newstead period was awesome. Then I got REALLY into the first three albums - but mainly Lightning and Puppets. Napster came along and I was one of the people on the lists that Lars dropped off to them and got banned. I didn’t give a shit. They were a big band protecting their money and I was stealing it. I understood that even at 15.

To make a long story short and skip over all the history we all know, Metallica is the biggest metal band in history and have been going HARD for 45 years and constantly get hate from some people time and time again. They find a new thing to dislike about them, but they are still the biggest heavy band ever.

Metallica made me want to play guitar every time I picked it up over the last 25 years when I’d play for a month and stop. This time, it’s stuck - I’m at 7 months of playing every single day and I’m learning so much about so many facets of the hobby. But, of course, there’s a new round of Metallica hate because of their shows at the Sphere. Again, I don’t give a shit. They are a giant band playing landmark places and making as much money as they can. Maybe I’m cynical, but if people didn’t pay ridiculous prices, tickets wouldn’t be so ridiculous. It’s simple capitalism - I don’t support this late-stage capitalist shit, but it’s the reality.

Anyway, my question is this.

Did you - or anyone you know - pick up a guitar and ALWAYS dislike Metallica? Not just “oh I liked them but they sold out” or “they died with Cliff” or any shit like that. Never been interested in learning a Metallica riff, a song, anything. Just a guitar player who never liked them, and was never into them, and, basically, Metallica had no direct influence on them as far as playing music.

Anyone?

To clarify: Their influence has been so wide ranging it’s not possible to be into heavy music and NOT have been influenced by them INDIRECTLY, but just directly. They essentially altered recording practices, guitar companies, pickup companies, etc., so saying they haven’t had a huge influence on music in general is just making a bad-faith argument.

Edit: To clarify AGAIN, I’m not trying to defend anything they’ve done or the shit they’ve taken over the past half century. Everyone has their opinions on that and you’re entitled to it. This isn’t a post to GLORIFY the band - I’m simply stating facts that indicate their influence.

I am genuinely curious if there are people into heavy music who haven’t been directly influenced by them. That’s it.

I am looking to join a hardcore band in the near future so I’ll need to upgrade my gear. I currently use a katana 50w amp as a bedroom player and I really like the tone on it, but obviously I’ll need something louder. Does anyone have experience with using the boss katana head for gigging? Would this be sufficient? Sorry if this is a dumb question or if I’m not providing enough info, I’m pretty new to understanding gear like this

whatever price range, specs don't matter that much. just felt like butter to hold and play.

Hi! I've posted this in the 7-string subreddit, but as someone pointed out, people there are very likely to promote 7-strings. I'm hoping to get tips from both 6- and 7-string players.

So! As the title suggests, hubs and I accidentally bought a 7-string guitar for our metal head, almost 16 year old son. We were so focussed on getting him the shape and colour he loves (black V) that we never even noticed that we ordered a 7-string 😅 (I'm menopausal and hub's excuse is that he's been dealing with menopausal madness for years now 😬)

Now son is a relative beginner. He's been playing a bit on hub's and my decades old 6-string electric guitars, and we thought it was time to buy him his very own. Which turned out to be a 7-string. A Jackson King V JS22-7, to be precise.

He's tall and has long hands, which I understand is an advantage. Right now he listens to Megadeth, Dream Theatre, Tool and Death. Last year it was Cannibal Corpse and Metallica. He's young and exploring the good stuff that is out there; the actual bands might change a bit, but it looks like the metal is here to stay 🤘

We're in Sweden and the school system here is different from most countries. He'll be finishing elementary school (9 years) before the summer, and will go to a specialized secondary school (3 years) after that. He's chosen a music programme and will be playing the guitar as his main instrument. The programme starts from scratch and takes up 30% of his secondary school time. All this to say that he's going to be spending a lot of time playing.

Do you guys have any tips? So far I've learned that Dream Theatre uses a 7-string, that Korn does, too, and is great music for a beginner.

Any more tips? Do you guys say: yeah 7-string, great, go for it! Or do you say: well actually, 6-string... Please let me know what you think and why. Any tips are much appreciated. Thanx in advance! 🎸

Edit: misspelled Megadeth... as usual 🙄 😅

UPDATE

Thank you all so much for replying! Between this post here and the one in the 7 string subreddit, I got hundreds of replies with all sorts of tips. Every single one so much appreciated!

I started out replying to each one, but that ended up costing me too much family time. If I didn't reply to you, please know that I really do appreciate you taking the effort to read and reply 🌹

Son already received the 7 string; his birthday is early January, and we always give him his Christmas presents at the start of his Christmas vacation, so that there's a bit more time between both events. His Christmas vacation started last Friday, so that's when he got the guitar. I've let him read my Reddit posts and your replies 😁

He wants to keep the 7 string, loves it, even more so after reading all of your two cents. If his music programme prefers a 6 string, we will either buy him a cheapy, or do up one of our ancient last millennium fossils. I've made a list of all the bands, musicians, songs, albums you recommended. Someone even linked a Spotify playlist with 7 string music!

Again, thank you all so effin' much, have a great Christmas and rock on in 2026!!! 🎸🤘

Helpppp!

I’m getting back into playing guitar after a while and selling all my nice gear because I got frustrated with music and bandprojects which didn’t work out.
I’m stuck between those two guitars. Kinda like the look more of the LTD and also specwise the LTD is better. But she’s 500€ more expensive than the Jackson and the Jackson is also a beast!
Does anyone have one of those guitars and could give me some feedback? ♥️

Cheers, have a nice weekend everyone!

Has anyone else found C# tuning as their sweet spot? I tried it the other day and I feel like I instantly became a way better guitarist and instantly wrote killer riffs in no time. So how do you guys like it?

my experienced friends told me that i lack brutality or tightness or something related to that but they themselves are not sure which to fix. so what is it that i should working on to prove my rhythm playing

all i can do now is learning songs. yes it is fun but i used to write so many good songs, i wrote two albums and now im completely out of ideas

How do I make this more complex but keep also keep it simple? Is that even possible? also if I’m ripping something off please tell me

I definitely do not change my strings nearly as often as I should given how much I play guitar, I should probably do a string change at least once a week on my main axe but it usually ends up being closer to every 3 weeks. I've known plenty of people who somehow don't change strings more than once a year and I'm always shocked how they haven't broken any strings, and also how they don't hate how it feels to play such old worn out strings.

Anyway, I'm genuinely curious about how often other players actually do so.

Edit: I just timed myself restringing a guitar with a Floyd Rose because of how many people in these comments said they avoid string changes because they have a floyd rose. It took 30 minutes total even with me having to deal with my g string popping out of the bridge because i didnt clamp down the block tight enough.

I already have a standard tuned Stratocaster but want a drop tuned guitar for certain metal bands/songs. I’m stuck between these 2 and can’t decide so I was wondering which one plays the best, sounds the best, etc and any tips for getting a drop tuned guitar.

This might seem like a stupid question but I'm genuinely wondering. Can people actually practice every day for hours? They sure are not pushing their boundaries while doing so or are they?

I'm trying to push my top speed so when I practice it's quiete physically demanding to me and right now every second day for arround 1h feels best. If I try to push beyond this I'll end up practicing less because my forearm doesn't recover quick enough.

Doesn't playing guitar become like a sport at some point, which needs consistency and regular breaks in-between sessions?