Who are we?

lincolnblue

I realise that on the new members forum there is a thread to introduce ourselves, but many of us have been on this forum for a long time and I, for one, am often curious as to who on here does what guitar wise i.e. who is a guitar teacher, pro player, tech, bedroom player, band member etc. Just thought as many of us are stuck inside all day it could be interesting to reintroduce ourselves. 
I'll go first.

I got my first guitar when I was 3 and have been playing ever since. I have no memory of not playing. Sadly I've not got the skill I should have having been playing for almost 34 years.

I've not really ever done the band thing properly but I play at church each Sunday (apart from during the lockdown) and have done that for many years. I'm primarily an acoustic player - strong rhythm player and lover finger picking. I do love playing electric too though.  

skunkwerx

Hi I'm Skunk and I'm a professional bedroom player. 

Back when I was in the last year of secondary school I discovered music. It was through playing Tony Hawks pro skater and hearing Papa Roach - Blood Brothers that led me to ask my mum for the album.

A friend in school kept mentioning Linkin Park so I checked them out too. 

Before I knew it I had discovered I liked Nu metal. Cky, him, Slipknot, korn, etc etc. 

A couple years later I met these friends who both played. I remember vividly sat in a mates house, with this guy called Rob who had brought his guitar over, and when I mentioned I liked Papa Roach, he went on to play one of their riffs. 

I remember grinning and thinking it was the best thing ever. That was the first time I'd ever seen someone play guitar in real life and I was impressed and instantly knew, I wanted to do that too. 

I got my first guitar when I was 16, and I still have it. A stagg hss strat copy. 

Over the years I just jam in my bedroom, buy new gear and generally love the shit out of it. 

I'm now 31 and still can't play the fucking things. 

HAL9000

Hi, I’m Gary. (HAL9000 comes from the computer in 2001; A Space Odyssey which is one of my favourite films). I've been playing on and off (mostly off) since my mid-teens. It's only in the last three or four years that I've actually been putting in the effort to improve though. In that time I've joined a local jam night and have done the occasional open mic night. I maybe gig once or twice a year with friends to raise money for charity but don't belong to any regular band. Guitarists I enjoy include Clapton, Peter Green, Mark Knopfler, Jimmie Vaughan, BB King, Robert Cray, etc so I guess people who are generally fairly economic with their playing, and that don't overplay. My aim in 2020 is to cull my guitar collection a bit and concentrate more on playing and spend less on stuff.

octatonic

I started on guitar over 30 years ago and now play play/gig on different instruments (guitar, bass, drums) as well as playing a few others (piano, mandolin, dobro) as well as working a lot with studio gear and analogue/modular synths.

I've taught, I've tested hardware and software, written reviews, made content, done sessions, mixed records.
Currently writing for Pro Tools Expert from time to time, otherwise waiting to get back to regularly gigging.
I'm James/Jim.

imalrightjack

Bedroom player.  Played for 30 years, since early/mid-teens.  Dreamed of being a metal star, nearly got signed to a major with an alt.rock band in the late 90s.  Fannied on a lot since, recorded a country rock album myself (won Sound on Sound album of the month 10 years or so back):

https://soundcloud.com/nosoapnoradio/sets/while-you-were-gone

Recorded and pressed to vinyl an album with a band of older chaps a few years ago: 

https://soundcloud.com/stevemccormick-1/albums

I now think about writing and recording more than I actually do.  I tend to enjoy jamming along to YouTube backing tracks or learning Marty Friedman solos.  I'd love to find the energy and time to learn jazz properly but it feels like starting again, which is truly painful.

I've five electric guitars: 3 x HJ Williams (2 x custom builds), a '74 SG and a PRS McCarty with rosewood neck.  Amp-wise Helix and record using Logic X.

Modellista

I'm Martin, music is a major hobby and a minor source of income.

I bought my first guitar, some terrible no-name classical with the back hanging off, for 50p off a car boot sale in Masham.  That and a copy of Usborne's How To Play Guitar, a book I still recommend to learners, was all I needed until the barre chord stage.  

Then I got hold of a Rockster electric and a tiny battery amp.  The Pandora's Box moment was buying a copy of Extreme's Pornograffitti on cassette from Woolworths.  Right from the very first distorted power chords I was hooked.  I couldn't believe music could sound so exciting.

I got hold of the tab for said album, and practised the shit out of it.  Eventually I did the decent thing and bought a Washburn N2 from Music Ground in Leeds - I'm pretty sure it's genuine . That tab book taught me a lot of what I know about how music works and generally how to be cool on the guitar.

I had a band at school, then joined a decent one at university in Bradford.  We did fairly well in the National Student Music Awards but didn't get to the final.  We went to watch it any way, one of the judges was Brian Adams so we tried to give him a copy of our demo.  He didn't take it.

I went through the obligatory solo acoustic phase in my late 20s, recorded a few self-produced albums, mixed with the in crowd, who made it clear I was more "out" than "in".  Latterly I had a band called Ten Degrees Of Pitch, which was doing pretty well locally until the drummer moved to Manchester.  Fucking Manchester.  Our EP is on Spotify if anyone's bothered.  At which point I threw my toys out of the pram and decided to give up on bands.  Too much effort for too little reward.

I was an amateur music journalist for a few years, reviewing and interviewing loads of people who you haven't heard of, and the occasional one you have.  I ended up getting pretty decent at music photography.  I got a fiction story published in a book you could buy on Amazon.  None of it really went anywhere but it was fun at the time.

These days I teach guitar in the evenings to local kids and retired gents wishing to actually learn that thing hanging on the wall in their front room.  I play lead guitar in a country/rockabilly covers band.  I'm learning to sing properly and play the drums to a decent standard.  I act as a guitarist for hire to local singer-songwriters who want a bit of flashy playing on top of their chords.  I have a YouTube channel which gets a few hits but not enough subscribers to make me a penny in income.  I've won Solo Of The Month on here a few times.

I've made some really good friends via this forum via occasional meet-ups over the years.  I say friends, but "enablers" would perhaps be a better phrase.  Keeping the country's music retailers in business, one unnecessary but coveted purchase after the other.

On the channel I frequently refer to the "house of guitars", because the house, and indeed garage, are full of guitars.  And pedals.  And amps.  And speakers and drums and... you know how it goes.

More than once I've wondered what I would have done had I not had that first encounter with that box with strings.  Considerably richer in the wallet perhaps, but arguably emptier in the soul.

Here's the latest from the House Of Guitars.

PolarityMan

I'm in a band, we did this recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLd8dlHd0BM

guitars4you

More well known as the owner of Guitars4You

But I'm just a big a guitar junky as the rest of you - Don't gig now, so a classic bedroom doodler - Playing now for 44 years and in all honest in that time I should be a better player than I am - Playing wise I love the cross from the 50's of jazz meets, blues, meets, swing, meets jump n jive, meets rock n roll + rock a billy - But what I listen to is a wide range from The carpenters to SRV with a host of tangents criss crossing about here and there

In the normal course of trading I would exhibit at many guitar shows throughout the UK, but all on hold for now - So fingers crossed when we are back to normal, then come along to a show near you and say hi

vasselmeyer

Been playing since I was 17 when the opening riff of "Money for Nothing" jumped out of the stereo in my sixth form common room. I just thought "I HAVE to play that". I got a guitar for my 18 birthday and quickly discovered Queen, Status Quo and SRV followed by Gary Moore.

My first band was a blues band and then I joined an originals band which was on the very edges of the Manchester scene in the early 1990s. We recorded an album and had some very brief A&R interest but it never went anywhere. The album is here (although it only seems to show the first track):

I had a break from playing in bands owing to a medical episode but once job, kids etc settled down I've played in a number cover bands of different flavours. Currently, I'm in a little four piece knocking out covers around North Manchester which is great as we're all pretty seasoned giggers and we just turn up and play with no rehearsals. I'm a competent guitarist and can turn my hand to most styles, and have a bit of fingerpicking and slide under my belt, but for me it's getting out of the house and playing with other people at gigs or jams that makes it fun. This lockdown means I've hardly picked the guitar up, because playing on my own isn't interesting. I entered myself in a couple of the solo of the month threads, but it didn't have the spark that playing live does.

My hobby has paid for itself over the years and I've got decent, pro/semi-pro gear that can make pretty much any noise I want to. I'd say that weight, simplicity and reliability are the most important thing for me and I've settled on kit that does what I want it to, with the minimum of fuss.

the_jaffa

I'm Matt,

In 1989 at the tender age of 14 I heard the Stone Roses for the first time and things changed. I went from dancing about with a tennis racket as a faux guitar to actually wanting to learn to play one so I could be as cool as John Squire.

I picked up my little sister's 3/4 nylon strung acoustic and started trying to work stuff out. I didn't even know how to tune a guitar so everything was on one string to start with. I "borrowed" a book from the school library that I still have and started to learn a bit more. Things like tuning, the pentatonic scale shape and how 12 bar blues work before getting a Hondo Les Paul copy for Christmas 1990.

From here I tried to learn more and listen to stuff to try to figure things out before starting a bit of a band in 6th Form. We played one gig in the bass player's living room for his brother's 18th birthday and that was it.

After that I flirted with a number of local bands but never went anywhere and before too long I was resigned to playing at home. I had a few lessons for a bit but they weren't great.

When I moved to University at 26 and from my own house into a student room guitars were not really playing big part of my life and were a big thing I could leave behind and save space. Eventually I sold my stuff off and that was that.

Fast forward to 2012 and somewhere I stumbled across Squier releasing their VM Jaguars and as I had always wanted a Jag after seeing John Squire with his (although I subsequently found out more about this) I went to buy one. Except I actually preferred the Jazzmaster and bought one of them instead. Plan was to just get that and twiddle really but ended up buying a Vox VT20+ too.

Anyway, through that I found myself really enjoying playing again and with the internet now being a thing started learning way more about playing, gear and music. Ended up going to a couple of jam nights and eventually got up enough courage to play at my local blues jam doing some improvs and some covers.

From there, my Squire obsession has developed and I now have a Gretsch Country Gent and a pink Strat, I've built my own copy of his Jaguar hybrid thing and am currently trying to build a replica of his splatter painted Hofner. I've got a silver face Vibrolux (should really be a Twin) and a pedalboard that pretty closely resembles his 89 set up. I regularly get to act out my homages at a local jam night and have even done a couple of proper gigs.

I'm far from amazing at the guitar, I lack any originality and I struggle on but I enjoy it and it's a fantastic distraction from real life. Once my kids are little bit older I will hopefully get something more proper going as a band which might even be a tribute band. Who knows.

Loobs

just a loser with too many nice toys and not enough gigs 

newi123

My name is Neil, and I`m a guitaraholic...............

I made my parents get me a guitar in 1986 when I was 13 years old and had just seen the VH video for `Why Can`t This Be Love` on top of the pops. The video still make me smile.

I went to Uni in Newcastle to read theoretical physics, and did appallingly badly because I spend most of the time trying to be an 80s rock star. I was in complete denial about grunge and britpop until much later in life.........

In the mid 00s I discovered the new wave of blues players and got fairly heavily into that. 

I play in a rock band, a blusey band and run a weekly Jam with friends when I`m allowed out of the house. I play every day and have way too much gear. Sometimes my real job gets in the way.

I spend waaaaay too much time here, and probably think of some of the names here as friends, although we`ve never met!

I have a dog called Dizzy - he howls along when the Princeton gets above 3 at home.

MrBump

I'm Mark, 48 now, started playing when I was 14.

Not played live as often as I should have given my years of playing, struggle very much with competing resources (family, work, wing chun & guitar).  Last band project was fairly mediocre, but low impact so I kept it going way longer than I should have - just rehearsals with a bass player and drummer, no gigs.  Thoroughly unrewarding.

Band before that was pretty cool - Fallen Poets, originals, got to play some fairly decent gigs.  But you know.  Singer songwriters can be dicks...



Overall happy with the income of an IT manager and just about enough time and resource to be a reasonably fulfilled amateur.  

TTBZ

I've been playing since I was about 11 so that's 20 years now. Should be much better than I am for that amount of time but here we are! The thing that made me want to pick up guitar was hearing Voodoo Child for the first time, it was the coolest sound. Had a similar route in to heavier music as @skunkwerx being inspired by all the THPS stuff and nu metal when I was a teenager. Still want a PRS and a Mesa since that was always the dream rig as a teen!

Been in a fair few bands over the years, currently in an original heavy instrumental post-rock band (think Russian Circles with a big influence from Tool and Mastodon), and also a pub cover band doing indie/pop/rock stuff. Originals is hard work and I seem to have just been in a string of those bands that go fine for about a year then it just turns stale. Covers is just easy money and less stress even though it's totally different from the kind of music I actually listen to and write.. I also work in the guitar/music industry which is great but sometimes miss being able to just have guitar as an escape rather than being immersed in it all the time. 

After 20 years of only playing Gibson style guitars I suddenly have a strange urge to buy a strat, not even a HSS one but a proper singlecoil thing. I realised a lot of my favourite players use a strat and I feel like it's time I tried to make it work for me. Either that or this lockdown is sending me mad.

Snags

We are not men, we are Devo!

Oh, no, hang on.

My name is Pete, started to teach myself in my mid-teens after jacking in classical piano having go to Grade 6 and decided it involved too many tears for both me and my piano teacher.

Immediately disillusioned to discover that simply knowing the chords to a song didn't mean you could play it (WTF is a riff? etc.).

Stumbled on in fits and starts of slowly decreasing incompetence over the years. Played in church bands since forever, initially blindly bashing out chords regardless, then gradually developing some pride and a passing attempt at subtlety and finesse. A handful of failed attempts to get bands going in my youth because absolutely none of us had the first clue what to do.

The advent of t'InterWebz and marginally more self-discipline has led to some improvement but basically i'm still pretty shit and don't see that changing any time soon. Currently (Corona-aside) doing various open mics, the odd duo thing, and in a band which has yet to gig in a fully-formed state. We were about to, and then ... you guessed it.

Kittyfrisk

Hi, I'm Bryan.

I got my first real six-string, bought it at the five-and-dime.
Played it 'til my fingers bled, was the summer of '69.

I'll get me coat...

Cookiemonster

My name is also Pete, I have been playing since 1988, I was getting into American rock and wanted to play the music.

First thing I remember learning was the riff to Dead or Alive and you give love a bad name, I had a few lessons at school and with a private teacher but learnt more from my next door neighbor, who played bass in bands and had a great record collection, so quickly I was learning Beatles songs. I still love those songs today and musically I became very into the sixties bands, then Bowie, who led to Iggy and Lou Reed, at some point I heard the Pistols and that meant I was interested in Punk, I was also into the Indie scene by then and liked the Wonderstuff, then Suede etc before the Britpop stuff came along.  Around 93 ish I was into the Jam and learnt bass as well and joined a mod band and played a lot live.

My first guitar was a Sunn Mustang, first pedals I remember we're those Frontline pedals I had the flanger and tried to sound like the cure at some point. I was in my first band before I new how to play, and at some point had a terrible obsession with the Dogs Damour.

I did have a break before playing again in my late twenties and started a good band that morphed into a great covers band, had a great time playing live and loved it. Now i am in a band with the same people mostly doing Psychedelic Indie and Rock originals.

I've had so many different guitars, but always go back to the strat, I think because its what I learnt on.

Musically I like a lot of everything now,  I am a huge Stone Roses fan and like all the classic Indie bands, but also like Wilco, Whiskey town etc, and huge amounts of other things.

I live in Leicester and if anyone of you are from here then PM me, I would like to do more playing locally and meet up with fellow guitar enthusiast's.

Here is my band 

Listen to Strange Creatures by Vietnam Flashbacks on #SoundCloud

monquixote

I'm 40 in a couple of weeks and I've been playing since I was 14.

I started because my two best mates could play and they got me into Zep, Sabbath and Kiss.

I got a really messed up Hohner that didn't stay in tune when I was 14 and then a bashed up 1980 US "Strat" when I was 16 which is still my main guitar

I've been in shed loads of originals and cover bands playing guitar, bass, drums and backing vocals.

I had one guitar, one amp, one overdrive pedal and a POD until I joined the Music Radar forum at the age of 29 whereupon I ended up going through dozens of guitars amps and pedals and spent a lot less time playing and a lot more time buying and selling pedals and writing about playing on the forum.

I largely gave up on bands, playing and GAS shortly after my second child was born about 4 years ago, but I still play maybe a couple of hours a week when I have the time.

My greatest contribution to the world of guitar is doing a lot of the initial dev work on this site and being a modmin for the first few years. I stepped back as I don't really have the time with 3 kids and I spend less time on the site given that I don't play out any more.

I really love the site and the community though. It's unlike any other site I've known.

ESBlonde

I'm Kevin.
Started playing at age 11 on a cheese grater with Hohner in the headstock. 50+ years ago and no such thing as lessons, I was the only guitarist in the village.
5 years later I'm gigging in cover bands and then did the originals thing for a couple of years. Then back gigging pop covers. In those days 2 or 3 gigs a week was typical. I had a years rest after my oldest lad was born tyen back into it. I accumulated a huge 3 way active PA and 20kw light rig along the way which was a nice hobby doing other folks gigs if I didn't have my own. 
After divorce I found I had more money and gradually added a few nice guitars and another amp or two. I accumulated a massive pedalboard that seemed to be my calling card for a few years. Now I've parked that and gone HXfx.
Still gig and do the very odd session, I'm in a non gigging country band, an occasional gigging country band, I dep with a couple of others and my main band are a funk outfit.
I should be really good, but my technique is poor despite all the years, I seem to get by though.
I don't buy many guitars these days but added a nice acoustic just after Christmas last.
Guitar player is what I am I guess.

Sarge

Another Pete.
Heard Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles and other crusty musings in '91 and thought I want to play shitty noise guitar in a rubbish space rock band too.
Bought my first "Atrist" strat copy for £30 and a huge home made intermittent amp, Don't think I ever even learned a hawkwind riff.
I did manage the shit element from my first guitar desire. 
Had a spell through the mid to late 90s as a techo bod, gigged relentlessly, pressed a bunch of 12" tech/house tunes but that led nowhere fast, realising I hated most of the "people" (promoters, dj's etc) in that scene. 
20 years of fitting carpets has buggered my hands making me increasingly more uncomfortable playing guitar, so just tinker about refinishing and putting partsas together. 

PhilKing

Surprisingly my name is Phil.

I've been playing for about 50 years (which makes me pretty old).  Was in a cover/originals band in the early 70's and got to do the Germany US bases tour and then played in a couple of original song bands and then a pub cover band.  At the same time as this, I was managing JSG Music in Bingley.  I left that and got back into IT and after a few years migrated to the States, where I've lived on and off since then.

I have played in several bands over here.  I've always played bass and guitar and actually like playing both, so still get gigs on both.  I have been playing with a cover band and just before the Covid changes, was booked to play as one of an acoustic duo.

I have way too many guitars, both from buying through the years and from having friends and myself make them.  I am just sorting out my studio at home and then will actually know how many I have.  I do know that it is over 100, but I am not sure how far past that it is.

When you get to my age and you've been into guitars most of you life, you do amass some nice vintage instruments.  My first good ones unfortunately are long gone, but since the early 80's, I have kept most of the ones I bought.  The first of these as a 1960 Strat, which is still one of my favourite guitars.  A few years ago, I decided to try to get versions of all the guitars I had either had or would have liked to have, from when I was in my 20's.  

I'm getting there.