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anyone knows what I got here? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by to c/guitar@lemmy.ml
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traded an old laptop for it, I know nothing about guitars. I'm currently watching and reading on what I need (amp simulator as a first step is what I figured out) and then learn how to play the thing. in the interim, would be nice if someone knows what brand or model this is and what I should pay attention to. thanks!

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[–] 7 points 9 months ago (1 child)

Looks like a fun guitar, as a begginer you shouldn't be worried with too much technical things as "what model is this guitar, or what music genres does it play better".

For now just accept that it's a 6 string guitar, I didn't know what type of guitar I had for years until I eventually started to be annoyed by it's shortcomings.

Now, if you want that guitar to make an electric sound, you need an interface and an amp sim, a cheap interface like an behringer UM-2 is cheap and good enough for you to start fooling around, eventually you may want to upgrade it to get a cleaner signal and lower noise floor, but most people drop the instrument after few months, so I wouldn't invest the money just yet.

Also, don't forget to buy the jack cable or make your own. I find that real guitar cables tend to be expensive, if you don't want to spend money on a cable and don't know how to solder your own, you can just buy a cheap 3.5mm jack cable and two 5.5mm adapters ;)

You may want to do a set-up on the guitar first, you can watch guitar setup videos on the internet, you may need to buy a "key" thing so you can turn the rod.

As for software, if you use Gnu/Linux I recommend guitarix, you can download the presets on the bottom panel and then start playing around with the modules. (I still recommend reading the documentation.)

Guitarix also has a NAM Neural Amp Moduler module, which allows you to use NAM modules that are high quality and sound super good (tho kinda lacks on dynamics).

If you don't use Gnu/Linux you can install Gnu/Linux and ditch proprietary OS or either pirate a proprietary amp sim like amplitube, or use a freeware NAM amp and get models online.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 child)

    thanks, lotsa stuff to unpack.

    figured out guitarix on my own and installed it. played with the controls a bit, hella lag and tons of noise, I imagine there's some stuff to tweak there, will look for some simple tutorials to get me started. maybe convert some old tape player into a headphones amp as buying stuff isn't in the cards right now.

    don't got a mono plug atm so I made do with a stereo adapter and then enabling just one channel in guitarix as input. the lag could be due to my 16 year old CPU being too slow, but it is what it is.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago

    The 16 years old CPU should be able to handle guitarix as long as you don't add too many modules or DSP intensive modules like NAM.

    When selecting the tubes select just one tube instead the options that include both a pre and post, that will be lighter on the CPU, at very minimum you need a head a tonestack (or amp IR) and a cab, that's 3 modules, and they should run well even of a 16 years old CPU.

    The latency is due to your buffer size being too high, 1024 is usually the default, you probably want to use 256 which will usually give you an usable latency without too many xruns (audio breaking up). But depends on what your system can handle, smaller buffer size = less latency = more system overhead = more likelihood of xruns.

    On Gx you can set the buffer size here:

    Alternatively you can use the command pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-quantum 256 if you use pipewire.

    You may also want to set it back to 1024 (or higher) after you finish playing so you can watch videos again without audio stuttering.

    Setting the sample rate to 44100Hz I think it's also recommended, you can do it with pw-metadata -n settings 0 clock.force-rate 44100.

    If you use jack instead of pipewire you can control those parameters with qjackctl (I used to know the commands for jack, but I haven't used jack in years).

    However I have to warn you that you will not get good results by connecting the guitar to the microphone input, as there is an impedance missmatch, the noise isn't the only issue, the tone of the guitar will sound super muddy, unless you are handy with electronics and can make a impedance converter/preamp/DI box.

    Also, I bought an super cheap 6 bucks "usb to guitar cable" from ebay, and the results were worse than the mic input, maybe I was unlucky and bought from a bad seller and there are good copies out there and YMMV, but I ended up scrapping that interface keep just the connectors. So I would rather save up for an UM2.

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