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I have finally started a dream - the guitar

Jcricket said:
I have recently started trying to learn the guitar. this has been a fantasy of mine since I was 12. I tried many different guitars, brands and styles. My favorite style by sound was the banjo-guitar. I love the sound of it. But, alas, my arms are too weak to hold the instrument.

I finally settled on the classical guitars. We have a used band instrument shop near me. Maybe 300-400 different guitars to choose from. I plucked on maybe 20 different guitars ranging from $50 to $2500. I finally settled on one that was just over $100. I thought it sounded the best of all the guitars up to about $500. The catch, it looked like someone had left it in the rain for a few days. The frets were corroded and the finger board needed finished. The shop cleaned, polished the fret/finger board. They put new strings on it an it sounds great. Still an ugly red-headed step child though.

I am going to do a little polishing with some #00 steel wool and some mineral spirits. Maybe follow up with a very thinned out spar urethane - 1 part urethane to 3 parts mineral spirits.

Anyway, wish me luck, I have been at it for two weeks. I pick up the guitar and it seems like I lose 2 hours.

I'll post some pics later if anyone wan to see it. Oh, it is a late 70's Ariana made in Japan guitar.
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Since the thread popped up, are you still playing? 10 years you should be reaching those 10,000 hours.

I stopped, yet again, for over a year. Just trying to get back to some semblance of skill.

At 64 the hands are not working very well.

I used to be pretty OK, just OK. Now I absolutely suck. Good thing I sold off most of my gear.

Maybe I should go back to keyboards...
 
I have tried several times and failed. I managed about a year on my first go around. I just have too much shakes and arthritis. I have looked at keyboards many times too.

I think I stick to what I play best. That would be my home built vacuum tube stereo amplifiers.
 
Jcricket said:
I have tried several times and failed. I managed about a year on my first go around. I just have too much shakes and arthritis. I have looked at keyboards many times too.

I think I stick to what I play best. That would be my home built vacuum tube stereo amplifiers.
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Only time for so many hobbies anyhow!

I'm also taking that hour hear and there to listen to music rather than try and play or create it. It's a lot more comfortable. ;)
 
Pay close attention to tuning! a string or two out can make a 5,000 dollar guitar sound bad. Free phone apps are available. New strings tend to stretch a lot and it takes a while to get them to stay in tune. Classical guitars have two types of strings, high tension and low tension you can also get classical strings with ball ends so you don’t have to tie them on. One tip that might help is when you have a string tuned a little bit high try bending it a full step a few times and stretch it out instead of messing with the tuning keys
 
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