What weird things did you believe when starting?

aord43

mbe said:

When I was a kid I thought you plugged the electric guitar into mains wall socket.

Don't try this at home folks  Ouch!!!

clarkefan

viz said:

I used to know a guy who claimed Voodoo Chile to be his favourite song, but it was clear he'd never heard it as he pronounced Chile as in Chillidoggy. 

Exact same thing for me I clearly remember sitting beside a mate in a pub, he was trying to chat up a girl sitting beside him, she mentioned how much she loved Hendrix and he said he did too, and that his favourite "track" was "Voodoo Chili"...

Fuck was that really 35 years ago???

jimmyguitar

mbe said:

When I was a kid I thought you plugged the electric guitar into mains wall socket.

Like this?

ICBM

mbe said:

When I was a kid I thought you plugged the electric guitar into mains wall socket.

It can be done, with a combination of enough determination and stupidity… I once saw the result. Surprisingly, the owner didn't die.

octatonic

WezV said:

ICBM said:

HarrySeven said:

Nothing specific from me, although I distinctly recall an acquaintance who persisted in calling a Les Paul a "Le Paul" (as in the French pronounciation), even when told otherwise…

Ironically, probably 99% of people (at least in this country) still pronounce it wrongly - it's "Less", not "Lez", since it's short for Lester. I know I do.

However, calling one a "Lester" deserves being shot on sight.

When I started, I believed Gibsons were the quality guitars and Fenders were cheap junk...

As a Wesley who has always been called Wez I disagree 

I call you Wev.
I always assumed the z was silent.

Ravenous

When I was a beginner a shiny new guitar from any decent maker was the holy grail.

Of course these days everything has changed and it has to be a heavily battered old sixties or fifties Fender or Gibson - you're just not a proper guitarist unless you have one of those, we now know in our wisdom.

(Hope my sarcasm is coming over right, and no newbie comes across this post actually believes the above garbage!)

Blueingreen

I couldn't understand why the up position on the toggle was called rhythm and the down one was called lead.  The up position was louder and fatter sounding, so surely that was the one for lead?

mbe

A couple of my old band mates started out with acoustic guitars and Marshall stacks painted on the cellar wall.

Grumpyrocker

I thought I had to play rhythm until such time some unknown bunch of people decided that I could now have a go at playing lead. 

breakstuff

Buying a Boss Metal Zone in the early nineties.


That went well!

57Deluxe

Oh yes - Telecasters were for Rhythm work and Strats for Lead...

GuitarAndy2

Ravenous said:

jimmyguitar said:

I thought you were supposed to swing the trem arm side to side and not up and down to get it to 'wang'. I thought my first guitar, an 'Axis' strat, was broken!

That's true for me too!  As a kid I'd seen players using strats on the telly and thought they were rotating the arm (as if it was some sort of pot or volume control) rather than pushing/pulling it.

True for me also, though I thought it also worked a bit like a corkscrew.

professorben

That using a small amp and 'driving the fuck' out of it was better than using an actual properly powered amp. 

Cirrus

I couldn't understand what the mid control was for - my Carlsbro GLX100 only sounded good with the mids on 0! I tried to explain that to the soundman at my first real gig but he tried to ruin my sound by making me turn the mids up. What did he know?

To be fair, I was mostly a drummer during this time but it still took me embarrassingly long to realise that it was just that the amp, and my playing, sounded utterly shit and turning the mids to minimum was effectively my way of turning my shitness down to a distant rumble and fizz.

professorben

57Deluxe said:

Oh yes - Telecasters were for Rhythm work and Strats for Lead...

This is actually true tho, but you mean landfill instead of Rhythm yeah? 

Bridgehouse

professorben said:

57Deluxe said:

Oh yes - Telecasters were for Rhythm work and Strats for Lead...

This is actually true tho, but you mean landfill instead of Rhythm yeah? 

I meant to ask - do you loathe telecaster basses just as much?

scrumhalf

He loathes them more deeply!

midlifecrisis

i believed the more i practise the better id get. i was naieve

midlifecrisis

i also belived Id get my money for nothing and my chicks for free

Rocker

When I played a button accordion, the Paolo Soprani was the instrument 'to have', the instrument that serious players played.

When I turned to guitar, I thought that Gibson Les Pauls were 'top of the tree' and the instrument serious players played.  Fender, I thought, were stepping stones before finally getting a Gibson....