maverick691

I put in 6-8 hours a day playing guitar and still suck. I don't know what is causing it but everytime I try to play on my amp my playing just sounds so sloppy. Strings are always ringing out by I am muting them with my right hand and they still find a way to ring out. I've tried slowing down and playing the licks slow but everything I play sounds sloppy. The faintest touch of the string seems to make it ring out. Without an amp my playing sounds good but it is just too frustrating plugging in the amp to sound like caca everytime. Does it have anything to do with the action of the guitar? I don't even know how to adjust it on the EVH wolfgang. Another annoying thing is that my amp is hissing even without any effects plugged in and it gets even worse when I plug pedals. I tried a boss ns2 and put it in the chain but the hiss was still there. Should I just get a better quality amp or am I doomed to be the world's worst and sloppiest guitar player?

Geldin

What amp do you have?

Sounds like the wiring in the speaker might be dodgy.

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maverick691

The amp I have is a roland cube 20w

Tempoe

Probably my guess is the gain is way too high and you need to play way more through the amp to get your muting good. Check out how to see if your action etc is good in the sticky

maverick691

The thing is that I have absolutely no gain when I am practicing and the effect I mainly use is a phaser. Yeah maybe I should spend more time playing on the amp and trying to palm mute. Every way I've tried to palm mute though has left me with the same sloppy result. I still try palm on the bridge to mute the strings above and fretting hand for notes below. I've noticed that most of the ''sloppy playing'' is from when I either bend a string or do a pull off

maverick691

what are some ways I should try palm muting for some fast lead stuff like van halen?

Mephaphil

Get a teacher.

But slow it down to the point you can play it properly and practice at that speed. Slowly speed it up. You're just not ready to play it clean yet. It's just practice.

Read the stickies, they'll guide you.

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Junior#1

The strings ringing is probably just a technique issue. How much you practice doesn't matter too much. It's the quality of the practice that will make the biggest impact. The reason you only hear it when you're plugged into an amp is because the amp is doing what it's supposed to. It's making everything more audible, the things you do well and also your mistakes.

The hissing sound may be a problem with the amp itself or it may just be due to the lack of a noise gate and/or poor cable(s).

Go to a music shop and try out some other amps.

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steven seagull

Record it and post it here, from that it should be pretty easy for people to figure out whether it's an equipment problem or a technique issue.

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dngrsdave

Also try to mute the strings you are not playing with your fretting hand as well as the picking hand. You usually only need to touch them to stop them from ringing out.

Maybe try turning your guitars volume down a bit too. This may help some of that hiss. There is no sunstitute for practice though.

I've seen pictures where Guthrie Govan uses a hair band up by the nut to help muff his unplayed strings.

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dngrsdave

Heavy Metal Thunder

MaggaraMarine

Don't blame your gear, the fault is most likely in your technique.

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Tokai TB48

Geldin

Generally, I agree, but it sounds like TS is getting hissing even after going to pretty long lengths to isolate only his technique. I've had amps that have hissed something awful thanks to wiring going bad or piece-of-shit cables.

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My solo progressive metal project,
The Sleeping Fury ,
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The new album is streaming here

I've got a blog! It's a metal blog. About metal.

maverick691

So I've been practicing more with the amp and I am noticing the problem more and more. An example is say I am playing a note on the high e and I have my palm muting all the strings above it, I will hear a faint ringing out from a string above. However when I tried playing those strings keeping my palm in the same position they sounded as though they were muted. Recently I tried a 5150 amp and surprisingly most of the issues that I am having on my cube weren't happening on the 5150. Should I put the volume knob lower on my guitar? I have it at max volume and the other knob at minimum. Do my amp settings have an effect on this so called problem? Kinda frustrating when I am doing a solo and I hear that annoying ''faint ringing out sound''

steven seagull

ahem

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Mephaphil

+1 record it, upload to soundcloud and post a link.

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maverick691

Ok I'll to record it but the sound quality is gonna be horrible

maverick691

So I checked the action of the guitar and it's only .5 mm. Should it be raised and would a guitar store raise the action for me?

Junior#1

FFS, post a recording already. We'll analyze your gear after we analyze your technique.

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steven seagull

I can answer that question when I've heard what your guitar sounds like....see the pattern here?

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