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Daft assumptions you've had for years about guitars/bass/gear ?

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Slash'N'burnSlash'N'burn Frets: 162
edited February 2021 in Guitar
For about 20 years I assumed that a 5 string bass had an 'E' 5th string and the 'extra' first string was a B like the guitar, for doing more higher register playing - have only just discovered that the 5th String is actually a low B !

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  • HaychHaych Frets: 5594
    It makes me a better guitarist if I own lots of guitars - does that count?

    There is no 'H' in Aych, you know that don't you? ~ Wife

    Turns out there is an H in Haych! ~ Sporky

    Bit of trading feedback here.

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  • S56035S56035 Frets: 1104
    For about 20 years I assumed that a 5 string bass had an 'E' 5th string and the 'extra' first string was a B like the guitar, for doing more higher register playing - have only just discovered that the 5th String is actually a low B !

    I've known that for about 1 mins.  I am 45 years old.

    Before I'd ever even picked up a guitar I assumed that on a 2 pickup guitar one was for the distortion sound and one was for clean.
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  • PabcranePabcrane Frets: 489
    edited February 2021
    For some years I believed that the Bass VI was a baritone guitar. Despite it being called a Bass VI.

    Edit: and I thought that a Big Muff was called a Super Fuzz Big Muff because I saw that on a Mudhoney record - I didn't realise for a few years that they were two different things (in my defense I didn't play guitar at that time!).
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  • phil_bphil_b Frets: 2010
    I thought guitar would not be hard to learn
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  • guitars4youguitars4you Frets: 14029
    tFB Trader
    I thought all the wrong notes on my guitar were some form of manufacturing defect - Only to find it is my fault 
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  • beed84beed84 Frets: 2403
    That telecasters were the worst and that more gain was the best.

    I was wrong on both accounts.
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  • S56035 said:
    For about 20 years I assumed that a 5 string bass had an 'E' 5th string and the 'extra' first string was a B like the guitar, for doing more higher register playing - have only just discovered that the 5th String is actually a low B !

    I've known that for about 1 mins.  I am 45 years old.

    Before I'd ever even picked up a guitar I assumed that on a 2 pickup guitar one was for the distortion sound and one was for clean.
     Reminds me of being about 12 and buying an electric guitar from Argos thinking that if plugged into my mum and dad’s stereo, it would sound distorted and crazy like real rock guitarists did - I was really disappointed when it was a really clean boring sound so I returned the guitar to Argos  :)
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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    I used to think that the last guitar I bought would be the last guitar I bought.

    Then I thought that the next guitar I bought would be the last guitar I bought.

    Then I thought that I think too much.
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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824
    I foolishly didn't fully 'get' telecasters until 2016. 

    I thought they were a guitar that people used because they were simple when they were the lead singer and didn't play guitar properly

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71951
    For about 20 years I assumed that a 5 string bass had an 'E' 5th string and the 'extra' first string was a B like the guitar, for doing more higher register playing - have only just discovered that the 5th String is actually a low B !
    Actually the original Fender Bass V - the first 5-string bass - is like that (or close)... it has a top C string. Adding a low B instead only came much later. I'd actually quite like to get a Fender V and tune it like a modern 5-string - but rarity has pushed the prices of originals up too far for me, and they've never reissued it.

    For me, I used to think that Ibanez superstrats - especially anything dayglo coloured and/or with HSH pickups - were the very last guitar I would ever want to own... I didn't like the look of them, the necks, or the type of music they were associated with. Now there's one in my house, although sadly it's only on loan and is black. But two of my own guitars are now HSH as well, and one has dayglo pickups!

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • zedhexzedhex Frets: 191
    I thought that telecasters were good guitars



























    ..... stands well back, whilst wearing a raincoat.
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  • guitars4youguitars4you Frets: 14029
    tFB Trader
    That all 70's and indeed 80's Les Paul's are 2nd grade - Granted not Gibson's most consistent and/or finest era's but you do come across some good examples - Some of the best I've played have had various 'upgrades' not least a set of medium/jumbo frets that are correctly profiled and not those flat, wide/not high, but 'orrible factory fitted models - And often a new wiring loom - Ignore the weight and you do get some good examples

    I was brought up playing guitars and indeed selling them from around 76 on-wards - So my early experience working in the shop with my dad was that I disliked maple necks/fingerboards - Simple reason in that Fender models from the mid/late 70's had a treacle thick finish on the 7.25" board, that also went over the skinny frets - Add a  mediocre build quality and easy to think you did not get on with such Strat's and Tele's - It was much later when I realised that a good maple neck/board is a nice instrument to play/own - Possibly late 80's when I started to get this fact - Strat Plus with a flatter radius, bigger frets, then models like the Music Man EVH + Super Sport, then later a Custom Shop once spec'd with a 9.5" radius + 6100/6105,6150 frets - No forgetting the original HM Strat with the graffiti logo and dayglo finish and probably the odd Ibanez RG, not that I'm a fan of the waif like Wizard necks
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  • KDSKDS Frets: 220
    Les Paul is for rhythm guitar, strat or tele is lead guitar.... no idea why 
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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    I thought only pre CBS Fenders were any good till I played a friend's 70s 3-bolt Strat. It sounded great.
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  • skunkwerxskunkwerx Frets: 6838
    I used to think a cab was an actual like storage cabinet with doors that you would put your amp into. 



    The only easy day, was yesterday...
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  • guitars4youguitars4you Frets: 14029
    tFB Trader
    Gassage said:
    I foolishly didn't fully 'get' telecasters until 2016. 

    I thought they were a guitar that people used because they were simple when they were the lead singer and didn't play guitar properly
    I probably had a similar vibe about them, for some reason thinking of them as a rhythm guitar, this would be my thought in the late 70's and early 80's - Maybe as I was brought up on late 70's models, with small frets and that 7.25" radius - And the likes of Quo played them - Then you started to find out more about them and their players as time went on
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  • timmypixtimmypix Frets: 2304
    I'm still not sure about Telecasters. Maybe if I'd had one earlier, but it doesn't have the grunt of humbuckers or P90s, nor the twang of a baseplated Strat.

    I've got one because a) I thought I ought to, and b) I fell in love with a body for sale on here and so a partscaster happened. But it doesn't get used much, pretty as it is... I just don't "get" Teles, I think.
    Tim
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  • that I'd get much better at guitar  if only I threw more money at it
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  • RockerRocker Frets: 4942
    For years I thought that all chords required all six strings to be played on the guitar.  Even barre chords.  When I started playing guitar, in or around mid 1970s, a C Major chord that a local guy showed me how to play was actually C/G as all six strings were played.  That thinking made an F Major chord using the C chord shape a pretty 'challenging' experience.  Doable but challenging!
    Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]

    Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

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  • AlexlotlAlexlotl Frets: 156
    The most toxic bit of "wisdom" I received as a teenager was to keep all your guitar knobs on 10. I had a Telecaster. It was so painfully bright that I ended up just playing it acoustically most of the time.

    "If it sounds good, it's good" seems so obvious on paper, but I think it takes the confidence of adulthood to put it into practice.
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