Post Musical Equipment Here....

[|iR|Focalor]

Well part of that is maybe because you're keeping the pre-gain pegged at 10 like some people tend to do. The pre-gain maxed out will have a definite effect on how quickly the volume rises when you turn the master volume (also probably effectively the "post-gain" control). You don't necessarily need pre-gain at 10 to get a good metal rhythm sound. In an actual band situation, usually you want a little LESS distortion on the rhythm guitar parts, then you can hit the boost/crunch/whatever to up the distortion a little for increased sustain of notes when playing single note lead passages as well as slight volume bump-up to make the lead guitar heard clearly over the rhythm.

You also gotta remember that's 60 watts funneling into just ONE speaker. It's gonna drive that one single speaker hard as fuck. Dunno if you've ever dealt with many head amps. But lets say you have a 60 watt head. Sitting under the head is a 2x12 cab and sitting under that is another 4x12 cab. If you go from both speaker outs on the head to both cabs, the 2x12 is gonna sound louder than the 4x12 because more power is going to each speaker. 60 watts divided by 2 is 30 watts per speaker. 60 watts divided by 4 is 15 watts per speaker. If you were to get a 4x12 cab, disconnect the speaker in the combo, and then run the cab off the ext jacks of the combo, you'd notice a little more play in the volume knob for sure due to that 60 watts being split 4 ways.

[|iR|Focalor]

Just HOW MUCH do his neighbors hate his fucking guts? Jesus Christ, people from 3 solar systems over were calling to complain about the noise.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GsmlA3GMSrs/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GsmlA3GMSrs"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/GsmlA3GMSrs" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/GsmlA3GMSrs</a>

[M0us3]

The wank is strong with this one.   

[|iR|Focalor]

Swung by the Guitar Center in Alpharetta GA last weekend and they had a used Crate Blue Voodoo 120watt head. Wasn't interested at all in buying it, but just to settle my curiosity for if they sound as semi-decent as I remember, I gave it a whirl.

Ewwww. Not good. Granted, that one probably had some problems. It was very noisy sounding. Lots of snow going on... and yeah I had a single coil Fender Strat plugged into it at first. But then I grabbed a Epiphone Les Paul off the wall just to see if it was the pickups on the guitar. Nah, it was the amp for sure. The clean channel has no gain, just a volume, makes me wonder if the preamp section in clean is 100% solid state (bypasses the 12ax7 tubes completely). The dirty channel has a gain knob but the distortion kinda maxed at about 3 and only got noisier and shittier the more you cranked towards 10. But if you tried to dial it down to something with just an edge of breakup, the gain knob basically killed all the volume below the 1 notch. It just went silent. Definitely NOT how an amp should work.

So yeah, I see why these damn things sell for so cheap now. They are NOT good.

Also gave a Blackstar combo a test drive for the first time.

It didn't blow me away. It's decent. It certainly sounds livelier than the Marshall DSL100 kicking out dirt, and those sound like poor imitations of Marshall heads from years past themselves... oddly enough. I can't remember the model I played, but it was the one that had that strange "ISF" knob which supposedly "tightens" and "loosens" the characteristics of the power tubes... and I couldn't really tell much of a difference. It was very very very subtle. Altogether, it was decent amp. But some of the EQ knobs didn't go places low or high enough for me. The clean channel had too much top end and the dirty channel wouldn't get enough top end with the treble knob dimed. Probably a great amp for someone else, but not what I'm really looking for.

I think I've decided for sure which amp I'm gonna get now.



The Orange Rockerverb 100w MkIII is the frontrunner. I've decided not to hock my old JMP1 and Peavey Classic Series 120/120 poweramp and just buy a new head outright. They want $2,100 for these motherfucking heads though, so I'm gonna have to save up for a while. The Mark III's  are the latest incarnation of the Rockerverb and the first to include the nifty attenuator knob which is the main draw for me. With a gain and volume knob in the dirty channel, the addition of the attenuator just creates at least 33% more tonal possibilities by how hard you can opt to drive the poweramp section and still keep the output volume at the speakers something "reasonable" that won't make the whole neighborhood hate you. They've also retuned the EQ a bit, especially in the clean channel to make it a tad brighter and janglier kinda like a Vox AC30, but it gets WAY more overdrive than a Vox ever thought about. Seriously, this fucking amp is an as advertised jack of all trades. It can do EVERYTHING. If you're ever in a music store and see one of these sitting there, do yourself a favor and give it a test drive. It'll change your religion. I used to think Orange was just trendy hipster amps being pimped by clever marketing and endorsement of artists. But I see why so many artists don't mind endorsing these things. They DO NOT suck.

[|iR|Focalor]

When pigs fly? (Pink Floyd reference probably)

If you have maybe 500 bucks to spare, or can somehow trade+cash combo it, here's a VERY rare opportunity to own a legendary and hard to find pedal.

The Electro Harmonics Big Muff Pi "Civil War" fuzz/distortion. $449.99 (Probably $25-$50 for shipping)




https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Electro-Harmonix/1993-Sovtek-BIG-MUFF-Pi-V7-CIVIL-WAR-GREY-Effect-Pedal.gc

David Gilmour of Pink Floyd had one of these on his pedalboard for the Pulse tour back in the 90's. It's a Big Muff fuzz distortion, but this particular version of the pedal produced only for maybe 2 years in the early 90's is now highly sought after for it's buttery smooth violin like fuzz tone, much smoother sounding than any of the other Big Muff's ever made in any decade.

I'm thinking VERY seriously of snagging this thing tomorrow when I'm at Guitar Center. I dunno, I'm actually going to look for a Univibe style pedal, but... I might have to order this thing instead. You NEVER see these things up for sale. I've seen a couple on Reverb.com before, but they're usually FAKE.

[|iR|Focalor]

This is probably the most expensive stereo chorus unit I've ever seen.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-jcn9t-MM
<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0b-jcn9t-MM/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0b-jcn9t-MM"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/0b-jcn9t-MM" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/0b-jcn9t-MM</a>

https://www.fulltone.com/products/80s-rack-chorus

Fulltone Custom Shop says they have enough N.O.S. (new old stock) Panasonic chips to produce 3200 of these units with a price tag of $1200. Only 1200? Well fuck, I'll take THREE!!!

Cool sounding, sure. I dunno about you, but I don't hear that it's all that much more special than your standard issue Boss Chorus Ensemble, or perhaps even 2 Boss Super Chorus pedals together running into a left and right amp for stereo.

I used to have a Boss Super Chorus pedal. Not the most amazing chorus pedal ever made, doesn't get very psychadelic and wacky. It's depth stays in a more conservative range, but it perfectly replicates that Police/Andy Summers kinda chorus sound.

I'm pretty impressed by the Fulltone stuff though. They make great spot-on recreations of old favorites, and even improve them in spots wherever they can without compromising on the integrity of the original circuit and resulting sound.

Said I was looking for a UniVibe kind of pedal last weekend. I've tried quite a few now. The most commonly found MXR UniVibe is pretty good. Tried one out about a year ago, but I was playing a cheap little Gretsch Pro Jet into a Mesa Nomad combo I think. UniVibes don't sound so pronounced and great with humbuckers, so that's why I wasn't impressed with it at the time. But on a decent Fender strat, yeah, it's everything a UniVibe should be.

I tried out a Keeley Vibe-O-Verb pedal. A somewhat unique pedal. I was a little misled by it honestly. I was under the impression it was kind of a UniVibe and reverb pedal combo. As in... I assumed you could use it as ONLY a UniVibe, or as ONLY a reverb, or as BOTH at the same time. Eh, not the case. It's odd, because TO ME, it sounded like most of the UniVibe effect was mainly being heard through the reverb trails produced by the pedal and not on the main signal itself. Like the initial signal you heard was clean and plain, but the trailing reverb was the main thing being UniVibe'd. Just... weird. Anyway, not a good pedal in my opinion. Interesting, but nothing I'd ever have a use for. I don't imagine many people would prefer it.

I also tried one of those similarly priced TC Electronics Viscous Vibe pedals. It was okay, perhaps a little more flexible and rangey through the depth/intensity control than the MXR, but personally I preferred the way the MXR one sticks strictly to classic kinda sounds and is a little easier to tame and tweak.

I've been seeing people going goo-goo for these Earthquaker Devices - The Depths vibe pedals. Tried one of those out. It doesn't sound bad at all. But it has 5 different knobs on it, and I got kinda lost trying to find the sound I was going for. I used to LOVE "options" when it came to effects and shit. But these days, I find myself looking for simpler things. I want a UniVibe type of pedal that renders up a sound like Robin Trower and Jimi Hendrix... and it really need not do anything further than that.

Anyway, I know that Robin Trower himself currently uses a Fulltone DejaVibe. It's a pretty faithful recreation of the old UniVibe people used back in the day, and supposedly even more authentically UniVibe than any of the more recent MXR/Dunlop versions. So now I'm waiting on the longhaired hippies at Atlanta Guitar Center to give me a ring whenever the fuck they get in some more Fulltone Custom Shop Dejavibe units.

[|iR|Focalor]

So now I'm waiting on the longhaired hippies at Atlanta Guitar Center to give me a ring whenever the fuck they get in some more Fulltone Custom Shop Dejavibe units.

As I suspected I wouldn't, I never got a call from the dudes at the Atlanta Guitar Center. I noticed on the Guitar Center website, they don't even have a listing for the plain DejaVibe units anymore, just the higher priced ones with the foot treadle to control speed. So I checked the Fulltone site, and apparently they're phasing out the usual DejaVibe in favor of a smaller and more compact design.

However, I did notice that the Marietta store had an older used one that just came up for $140 (as opposed to about $220 for a new one). So I rode all the way out there and grabbed it.



https://www.fulltone.com/products/mini-dejavibe

As I suspected, it's MUCH better sounding than the MXR UniVibes. You simply CANNOT beat pedals that use that old school incandescent light bulb and photocell technology. I dunno what it is about them, but the harmonic content of any modulation effects using that old bulb and photocell stuff is so rich and lively. Unfortunately, they wouldn't throw in a free power adapter for it, which was an extra 20 bucks. So... turns out I could've saved myself the trip all the way out there and bought another used one that would COME WITH a power cord from a store in Connecticut for probably the same price after shipping and handling.

Like the curious little child that I am, I cracked it open when I got it home just to check it's guts for any hidden issues. They ain't kidding, these things are hand-built. And the PC board that carries the components is like 1/2 the size of the entire enclosure, so with the newer smaller ones, apparently the only changes they've had to make to the units is simply a smaller box to put it in.

I used to think Boss pedals were the most bullet-proof and sturdy pedals out there. Lemme tell ya, these American-made Fulltone pedals ain't no fuckin' joke. This pedal weighs TWICE or THRICE as much as any Boss pedal. And 90% of the weight comes from the super thick folded steel housing. This thing is very obviously "used" judging from the removed rubber feet and velcro strips on the bottom to attach it to the previous owners pedalboard. But all the knobs still turn with a tightness like it's brand new. Fulltone doesn't use ANY cheap shitty parts on their pedals.

[|iR|Focalor]

Something interesting I came across this morning.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PtkM69Gchww/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PtkM69Gchww"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/PtkM69Gchww" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/PtkM69Gchww</a>

A pretty unique flanger pedal. Knobs? FUCK 'EM! I thought the MXR Phase 90 pedals were kinda stupid and dated with just one knob for the speed, but I never thought I'd ever see a modulation pedal with NO knobs at all. And as far as this video makes it sound, it's actually pretty damned good. Kinda surprised by it. Then again, this guy has made LOTS of pedal demo videos and he's terrific at playing something that'll make any particular pedal sound it's best.

"Flange" got it's name from back in the old days when studios would run tape on reels. If you had 2 reels of tape playing the same thing at the same time, you could put a thumb on the end of the 2nd reels flange and slightly slow it down which would produce a wooshing sound. Since then, they've made units that use delay circuits to mimic that effect, and these units usually sweep the delay up and down at a constant rate via a rate/speed control. This pedal attempts to mimic the old-school method of reel-thumbing via a button that engages the delay to sweep up when its pressed and down when it's released.

It has a 2nd mode of what they call "through zero" flanging which is much more intense sounding. Again, the guy doing this video has a knack for playing things that make a pedal sound cool. But this mode sounds entirely useless to me. Theres no bass or drums he's playing against at that point in the video, so you maybe won't notice as much that the overall output volume is greatly effected to the point that in a live band setting, you probably wouldn't even hear the flanging effect, it would just sound like the guitars volume coming in and out of the mix.

Still cool and interesting. I'd like to see these people make an identical pedal with a rocker pedal output option to control the flange position either for more accurate control over the sweep or for using it as an EQ filter like a half-cocked wah pedal.

[|iR|Focalor]

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Gibson/Les-Paul-Classic-Satin-Limited-Edition-Electric-Guitar.gc

Test drove one of these the other day. It's some kind of limited edition Les Paul, not even listed on the Gibson site, only produced in fairly limited numbers from what the guy at the store told me. What immediately attracted me to it was the satin finish rather than gloss. It's my personal opinion that guitars with thinner or non-existent top-coat finishes will always sound better and more natural. Just my opinion.

It's coming in two colors, a kind of dark blue to blue burst (kinda like the old Fender Strat Bonnie Raitt models from the 90s, always kinda liked that color), and a Tea Burst which is slightly darker around the edges than the similar looking Les Paul Tribute satin models.

I haven't been very impressed with Gibson guitars lately. The one I bought a couple years ago is okay I guess, but when I compare the fret finishing on it to that of cheaper Korean made Epiphone Les Pauls, it's pretty pathetic.

This particular one I picked up though, different story. Frets were EXCELLENT. Whoever set it up at the Gibson factory actually did their job for once. It played terrific, action was lower than I usually like it, but for some reason it was still buzz-free. I don't know, but I don't THINK I've ever played a Gibson with these newer "'57 Classic" pickups, and HOLY SHIT, they sound INCREDIBLE! I've always been a fan of the Gibson 490's and the Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates which are also old Les Paul type pickups. But these new Gibson 57 Classics might have em all beat. I am now SERIOUSLY considering swapping out these Burstbucker Pro pickups on mine for the 57's.

No pickguard on this model though. I know a lot of people hate pickguards on Les Pauls, but personally I like the looks of them. Being a "Classic" model, this one also has the nice big fat "Rounded '59" neck shape which I'm a fan of moreso than the usual 60s Slim Taper shape. Not sure about chambering/weight relief on this one. Seemed like it was pretty heavy.

They're asking $1,999 for these bitches though. Yeah, certainly cheaper than a new Les Paul Standard with a fancy top to it, but still too close in price to one... considering you're getting a plain jane top and barely any lacquer finish, so you'd think the price would be discounted a little more to reflect that. But alas... Gibson can charge virtually whatever the fuck they want and people (suckers) will still pay it.

[|iR|Focalor]

HEY! WHO WANTS A PUSSY PINK TELECASTER MADE IN AMERICA...
scratch that... MADE IN MEXICO...
scratch that... MADE IN JAPAN.



They reissued this fugly damn thing at least once before back in 1995-ish, because I still have an old 1995-1996 Fender catalog and it's right there in the "Collectibles" section of guitars, which means it was most likely built in Japan back then as well. (I think the Squiers and non-American labelled guitars were coming out of a Fender factory in Japan back in the 90's, I don't think the Mexico factory running back then.)

Both the 96 and current reissue pink paisley Tele's are basswood bodies, not alder, definitely not ash. Has old style 3 barrel saddles on an ashtray bridge, but the saddles are probably cheap lightweight chrome plated zinc bullshit rather than brass.

Been looking around the Guitar Center site a bit today, and it seems the upwards climbing prices of things ISN'T STOPPING. Fender has some interesting new guitars with their Parallel Universe stuff, like a tele with humbuckers, mahog body and neck, maple top, tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tail, big 70's stratocaster headstock (basically a Les Paul formula kinda guitar shaped like a Telecaster). They have a Tele format Jazzmaster, other shit, whatever they can do to get your money, ya know.

Anyway. This fuckin' paisley nightmare is tagged at $999. Worth it? Fuck no. Man, you gotta love pink fuckin' paisley A LOT to pay that for this pile of scrapwood... either that or just be kinda stupid... which I'm guessing a lot of guitar shoppers must be these days, otherwise these jackasses wouldn't keep charging more and more for these very mediocre guitars.

Fuckin' PRS is charging 8 grand for these guitars with the term "private reserve" attached to them. Like they're fuckin' wine or some shit. It's some wood and wires, get the fuck over yourself, Paul.

[|iR|Focalor]

Sometimes guitars are overpriced to sell to douchebags with more money than good sense.

And then sometimes you get what you pay for.

I was at the Atlanta Guitar Center earlier today just killing time after a business thing I had in downtown Atlanta. I've seen this thing listed as one of their most expensive used guitars, and nothing really caught my attention about it other than the big fat price tag. But I didn't see shit else I wanted to try out, so I had the guy yank this one down off the wall for me.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Fender/2016-Wildwood-10-1957-Stratocaster-Relic-Solid-Body-Electric-Guitar.gc



Priced at 3 grand, and that's the USED price.  It's a Fender custom shop Wildwood 10 1957 relic Stratocaster. I fuckin HATE "relic" guitars. It's a dumb as fuck fad, and I can't wait for it die and go the fuck away. So... the shitty artificially worn finish withstanding... THIS GUITAR IS THE FUCKIN' TITS! Big ole fat almost baseball bat neck that's been generously sanded down to the smooth woodgrain, noticably taller fret wire than you usually see on any particular production Fender Stratocaster, and I dunno what kinda pickup they put on this thing, but they sound every bit as good as the 4th Generation Noiseless  pickups I have on my American Elite strat. Played and sounded FANTASTIC. I'm not familiar with Wildwood guitars, but apparently they get subcontracted by Fender Custom Shop to build a select number of guitars for them every year. God damn, these guys are GOOD. I've played several high-dollar Mario Martin and Nash Guitars classic strat copies that were custom builds, and this thing beats every Mario Martin, Nash, K-line and Suhr classic strat copy I've ever tried.


Seriously though. If you ever see anything with the name "Wildwood" on it, give it a whirl. It'll make you become disappointed in whatever guitar you currently play.

[|iR|Focalor]

Actually, I guess I got that wrong. Upon some internets browsing, it appears as though Wildwood doesn't MAKE guitars, they're just a big fancy guitar shop somewheres in Colorado. And apparently Fender makes them a few extra-special custom shop guitars every year. And apparently that particular strat body is made from a extra-super-primo-choice cut of ash, which I dunno how they grade that exactly, but I do remember how remarkably and usually lightweight it was even for an ash body. But the "10" in the name I guess refers to the fact that the guitar would be rated a solid "10" on a scale of 1 to 10... which I totally concur with, that fucking thing sounded and played like a dream.

Anyway, I was browsing around the Music-Go-Round national website and spotted this insane thing.



It's a Paul Reed Smith Custom 22 10-top. So... I'm not really a big fan of PRS guitars. They sound good, sure. They look pretty, sure. But they tend to look a little too fancy for my taste. If I was rich as shit and could afford to collect them and hang them on the wall and never play them, maybe I'd buy one or two. But I wanna PLAY the shit I buy, not win a beauty contest with it. And most regular PRS's have really nice flame and quilt maple figuring on the tops. But then they have several graduated ranges of their guitars, one of them being the "Private Reserve" label ones I've shit-talked on here before. But somewhere just below those, they have the "10 Top" models, which are kinda like the Gibson Les Paul premium plus top models, which I think have AAA or AAAA grade flamed maple tops to them. But some of these fuckin' PRS 10 Top models... are just ri-goddamned-diculous with how highly figured the maple tops are. Like... THIS ONE for example.

That odd curvature to the figuring around the tailpiece... I kind like how unusual it looks, but if I were shopping for a PRS guitar from the 10 Top collection, I'd probably prefer the figuring to be uniformly straight over the whole top. Nevertheless, they're asking $1,200 for this guitar, which is REALLY damn good for what it is. Not sure why the fretboard has dot inlays rather than the typical PRS birds. But they have other pics detailing the AWFUL refretting job someone did on it at some point. Look at THIS bullshit. Whoever did this... SHOULDN'T have... and shouldn't ever try such a thing again. They chewed the ends of the frets off with a file without polishing anything smooth, and it looks like the file probably bit into parts of the fretboard edge as they worked. If you're gonna level, file, and polish frets, they make these semi-flexible metal guards that expose the fret and cover the fretboard to PREVENT you from fucking up like that. 



So yeah, totally worth EVEN LESS than 1200 bucks after that.

Closer view:

[|iR|Focalor]

If you're one of the many guitar player people persons who've ever watched these pretty popular "Captain and Chappers" videos that the guy who owns Andertons Music in the UK always puts out with his buddy, then maybe you've heard of his new line of Chapman brand guitars.

When you look at the specs of these guitars,... and the prices,... you might be like me and go, "Yes! Finally! Someone gets it! There's a basic formula for certain guitars, and you CAN make one that is a quality instrument at a reasonable price."

And it seems like when they first launched and started showing up in stores, people were saying, "Yeah, these are decent guitars." But then... something must've happened. Because I've seen a few of them in stores now, and MY GAWD, what an utter piece of shit ALL of them have been. Boogared up clear coats with drip lines, THE WORST fret finishing I've ever seen on any guitar, and the cheapest shittiest noisiest fucking volume and tone knobs they could find.

UTTER GARBAGE. Overpriced firewood is all it is.

[Punk_FAS]

I've finally decided to put in real effort to learn how to play guitar. I've taken some lessons locally, and am following a series of Youtube videos to get me started (justinguitar.com).

Here's the guitar I bought 5 years ago. Only plugged it in for the first time about a month ago.

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/schecter-guitar-research-c-1-blood-moon-electric-guitar

I got it brand new from Best Buy in late 2013 for around $187 after a few discounts. Apparently it originally retailed somewhere around $800? I'm planning on getting it "set up" at a local shop tomorrow.

[|iR|Focalor]

With a few cheap little tools, you could easily learn how to do setups on that guitar yourself. I'd highly recommend learning that too. It's not hard, and most places are gonna charge you 25 or 50 bucks to do it in addition to the price of new strings, so you save considerable money over time... unless you just NEVER do a proper setup on it, slap some strings on it, and go... which I did to my guitars for many years, lol. But seriously, it's good to learn how to do it. It gives you a better understanding of how string height affects the sound on that particular guitar, and gives you a better overall "awareness" about your playing.

And with that particular guitar, it's pretty simple. It's a 25.5 inch scale length, which roughly is the measurement from the nut to the bridge saddles. So when you start setting up a guitar, you'll wanna measure from the nut to the center of the 12th fret. In your case, that's gonna be 12 and 3/4 inches. So on the high E string you wanna start at the 12th fret and measure 12 and 3/4 inches to the saddle. Set the 3rd string saddle at the same distance from the 12th fret as well. And... I was gonna keep talking, but when I read what I typed, I realized how fucking confusing and stupid I sound, so instead, I'll just post a video that'll tell you pretty much everything you need to know about doing a setup.

And this guys using a Gibson Les Paul Studio to do a setup. A Les Paul is a 24.75 scale length guitar (yours is 25.5, remember) But the basics are the same. When he starts the setup, he measures from the nut to the 12th fret. Whatever that is, is what you measure from the 12th fret to the saddle for a rough intonation.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KYO23rGO_7M/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KYO23rGO_7M"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/KYO23rGO_7M" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/KYO23rGO_7M</a>

Once you get a "rough intonation", you can begin giving it a FULL intonation to make sure all the strings play perfectly in pitch all the way up the neck. For that... DEFINITELY get a digital tuner. Some of the better ones can even be set to tune down from standard tuning in half steps down as far as 3 full steps. It'll probably cost you about 50 to 80 bucks for a good one, but it's WAAAAAAY better than using some stupid pitch pipe thing or comparing the sound to a CD lesson book recording. I think a company called Snark also makes cheaper 15 dollar ones that clip onto your headstock, but I dunno if they can tune down at all. Mines a... one of these.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Korg/GA-1-Guitar-and-Bass-Tuner.gc

Hmm, says 17.99. I think I paid about 40 for it a couple years ago. Must be discontinued and on clearance, says "in store only". It's good because it can tune guitar OR bass, and I have both. It can tune by the little onboard mic, but when I'm setting up, I always use the instrument cable jack input on the tuner to be as accurate as possible.

Great thing about your guitar is the bridge. It's the best thing for a beginner in my opinion. You could start out on a guitar with a tremolo bridge like on a Fender Strat or a double locking tremolo bridge like whats on a Ibanez RG or something, but it might only serve to confuse and frustrate you as a beginner. With a tune-o-matic style bridge, life is easy... you can tune up and still get a screwdriver in there to adjust the saddle positions, bada bing no problems. On some tremolo bridges, particularly many of the double locking designs (theres LOTS of variations), it's literally IMPOSSIBLE to adjust the saddle positions while a string is on it. That's why I fucking ABHOR setting up double locking tremolos. It can take as long as ALL DAY sometimes, LITERALLY. Once you get them balanced and tuned and working right, they're great. You can do all kinds of crazy things like EVH and Dimebag were famous for, shit you can only do with that kind of tremolo system. Last time I set up my Ibanez Joe Satriani signature, I spent EIGHT FUCKING HOURS adjusting on it before I finally got it balanced out perfectly.