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

Voxman

When I was learning I thought open chords were only starter chords for beginners, and bar chords was the real thing and once you learned those you didn't need open chords again. 

Neill

Winny_Pooh said:

Neill said:

For years I assumed I would never be good enough to play in a band, until I realised musical ability has very little to do with it.

???? Hahaha, technical ability is one thing, but not needing musical ability ?

Yes that's really what I meant, though I have played with guys who had neither...

Haych

guitars4you said:

Haych said:

I used to think that to be a good guitar it had to have a super low action and sustain for days. 

I care little about either now. 

you'll be saying next that you thought all guitars should play like butter

Lurpak, maybe. 

DrJazzTap

That I needed a 100w valve amp in order to gig. Preferably a head and a 4x12.

Hurling_Fruitmig

Slash'N'burn said:

I bought the kids a cheapish Ukulele, on opening the box I looked at it and decided that some idiot at the factory had stringed it up incorrectly, I mean you can’t have a treble string at the top can you? Why are two strings the same gauge?

Thankfully I looked it up before I started unwinding those nylon string knots, and realised it was indeed correct ☺️

I did unwind mine. 

thegummy

I remember the first time I saw a photo of a microphone on a guitar amp speaker it seemed such an odd thing - that someone would plug in to an amp then mic that rather than just plugging the guitar directly in to the tape recorder electronically.

grappagreen

I used to think that as long as you spent lots of money on your amp the speaker/cab didn't matter...

Tikibird44

Slash'N'burn 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 !

Had a mate who broke his bass before a gig and borrowed a five string from another band. Took him most of the first song to find out what was happening.

ICBM

Someone once brought me a Washburn 5-string which had a neck like a bow and arrow... yes, he had tuned it E-C with the stock strings . A testimony to how well it was made is that I simply tuned it correctly and adjusted the truss rod, and all was fine.

Haych

A friend of mine once had a short scale Fender P-Bass, quite a nice thing it was. 

He gave it to another friend to ‘tune’ as he wasn’t very experienced at the time and his friend tuned it to E2, A2, D3, G3

alalalkasar

I thought humbuckers couldn't jangle but they can handle the jangle, oh yes.

Rocker

At one time I thought there as a clearly defined hierarchy in the guitar world.  With Gibson the best, Fender less 'good', Ibanez way down and so on.  Sadly I was right in one aspect: 1970s Fenders were total shite and the Gibson I bought to replace my 70s Strat was way better than the Strat.  In actual fact the Gibson I bought was, at best, pretty ordinary but it was leagues better than the Strat.

I was so traumatised by the experience that it took a (large) number of years before I would touch a Fender.  The Fender that I did try was a Telecaster, I bought it there and then.  Luckily Fender had upped their game considerably in the intervening years.

thegummy

Haych said:

A friend of mine once had a short scale Fender P-Bass, quite a nice thing it was. 

He gave it to another friend to ‘tune’ as he wasn’t very experienced at the time and his friend tuned it to E2, A2, D3, G3

That's actually one for me - when I was playing in primary school and tuning using an electric tuner, I'd worry if it was tuning to the right E note, for example, and not the E note in a different octave.

I didn't realise how obvious it would be if I tuned it to the wrong octave.

skullfunkerry

S56035 said:

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.

I thought that some guitars sounded distorted and some were clean, regardless of what amp they were plugged into.

I also thought from reading reviews that a warm tone was distorted, so therefore I assumed that a clean sound was referred to as cold 

LastMantra

I'm another that always had everything at 10. Bridge pickup too (that might have been because it was hss) and loads of distortion. I had a lovely sf vibro champ for a little while and hated it as it was like an ice pick in the ear. Wish I still had that amp, it got stolen. 

ICBM

thegummy said:

That's actually one for me - when I was playing in primary school and tuning using an electric tuner, I'd worry if it was tuning to the right E note, for example, and not the E note in a different octave.

I didn't realise how obvious it would be if I tuned it to the wrong octave.

I once tuned up a guitar with a Floyd using an old analogue needle tuner, in a shop on a busy Saturday morning when I couldn’t hear the strings. It just needed the volume pot cleaning but it was pickguard-mounted so I’d slackened off the strings to get at it. I was puzzled by why the bridge was up at about 30 degrees, and without thinking, pulled the arm up... and immediately broke three strings. The tuner had latched onto a harmonic on each string and I’d tuned it up to either A or B . The owner was watching and was not amused, although he did get a free set of new “professionally fitted” strings out of it... (And I made sure it was plugged into an amp when I tuned it up, the second time!)

Milk

When I was a teen and getting into guitar on a strat shaped thing. I was under the impression that I need the heaviest gauge on there possible as it would sound the best, therefore I would get the feel for them fast. all it actually did was slow down my progress learning massively and then I gave up and binned everything.

When I restarted playing last year from pretty much the beginning as I didn't get far because of unplayable strings for me I started on 9s but I experimented recently to discover I like 10s on strat scale length guitars

gilby

KDS said:

Les Paul is for rhythm guitar, strat or tele is lead guitar.... no idea why 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lead-Guitar-Book/164663787132?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-153316-527457-8&mkcid=2&itemid=164663787132&targetid=4585100932269744&device=m&campaignid=398825991&mkgroupid=1304021050087384&rlsatarget=pla-4585100932269744&abcId=9300499&merchantid=87779&msclkid=94245cb88a2b1f99101f3c8fc93f61fd&pageci=d7c07770-9a6a-4fd9-829d-71b71b3b493b

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rhythm-Guitar-A-Guide-To-The-Styles-Of-Rhythm-and-Back-up-Guitar-Playing/184324947773?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-153316-527457-8&mkcid=2&itemid=184324947773&targetid=4585169651986109&device=m&campaignid=398826001&mkgroupid=1305120561923065&rlsatarget=pla-4585169651986109&abcId=9300499&merchantid=87779&msclkid=1b3c50035c9715be84fe3034188b97f4&pageci=c8f7b01d-9731-4e13-9549-83cb1da969ed&epid=86433679

Jetsam1

That I am not a ten thumbed, tone deaf, talentless noise polluter.

Onpar

Rowby1 said:

Until I was in my late 20s I thought all guitars sounded their best with their controls on 10. 

Rather embarrassingly, I'm still doing this!

Must try amp loud, guitar volume low. 

This is like therapy but less expensive.