If you want Indian music to inspire you, check out anything by www.oyatemusicgroup.com

My uncle owns that recording studio, and only does Native music, be it traditional or modern. (His band is a mix of rock / blues with Native messages throughout. I dig it, but I'm biased.

For me, when I can't seem to make anything sound good, I go back to Johny Cash stuff. Even I can make that sound good, and it inspires me to play more so I can sound better. 

oops...it's actually:

http://www.oyatemusic.com/ 

Hip About time, how about getting another guitar.
A shitty old one that's kinda hard to play and see what comes out of it.
You often read about players who say that every guitar has songs in it waiting to come out. Maybe a new guitar that's hard to play and makes you battle a bit to play it might bringout something different?
Different pedal/amp settings, ormaybe just scrap playing all together and just make noise for a while?
I found when I didn't play guitar for two years, when I finally got my gear back out of storage, my style had changed considerably, partly due to lack of chops now, But now I'm prety much happy with ow my playing's coming along:) 

HAT, do you play every day?

If so... stop. Just for a couple of days, then come back.

I know exactly the feeling you're talking about, where no matter what you do, you feel like it's the same boring shit you always play.

Every time that's happened to me, I've taken a few days off and when I come back, it feels fresh again. 

I disagree.
Play everyday, but if the same old same old is getting bland and boring,
find new music to play. Try out a new band or even an entirely new genre.
If possible, play with other people and learn new licks and tricks.

discobiscuit doesn't know anything about playing guitars. 

you guys just need some strange. 

Ask yourself what would Huey Lewis & The News do? 

el hombre said:

Ask yourself what would Huey Lewis & The News do?

ADVICE FOR LIFE 

just be more manly, like Guy Mann Dude :-P 

Ever listen to Jeff Beck's stuff? Any time I do I always get the impression that he's a guy who got bored of playing the standard fare... 

Steveb said:

just be more manly, like Guy Mann Dude :-P

This made my day. Thanks Steve. :) 

I was just thinking: Jimi Hendrix had a total of what, 4 years total of productive output?

Can you think of another artist (besides the Beatles) who had as much popular impact in anywhere near as short a time period? 

A lot of people will disagree with me, but Nirvana 

Mmmm, good call

It seems sort of less direct an influence than Hendrix/the Beatles, but it definitely did a lot to shape the next decade's worth of rock 

Elvis.

And the Jonas Brothers. 

discobiscu IT said:

but it definitely did a lot to shape the next decade's worth of rock

Not necessarily always in a good way either.
Like, thanks for the Creed, dicks. 

You say that like it's a bad thing. 

SteveB that guy was fucking AWESOME!
Did you see that thign where he walks so fast his heels literally float over the surface of the earth? Holy Crap!
And then he made that girl a TV screen belly like on teletubbies!
The Stones must be embarrassed to hear their version after hearing this 

Thanks guys, I had been away for a few days when this hit me, so Ive been playing pretty much non stop since then

I think Hombres Idea might help, I have been thinking of getting a semi hollow or a jazz guitar with high tension, something thats a pain in the ass to play, my main axe is a Sabre thats slick as owl shit.

Oh and I getting my lil stage lead two tomorrow and prolly heading to the Shoals for a guitar player only jam.

That should help me touch the living force. 

The wifes been on me to get an earthier lead tone since we met 

Don't forget to listen to more Huey! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy4fMDNVS1w

Cured 

1964 gibson-melody maker 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy4fMDNVS1w

Cured

I came. 

Hip, I find the best thing to do is one of the following:

- In an ideal world, find someone new to play with and listen to them, steal steal steal!
- Stop for a few days, it's hard to step away but it does wonders to rest the ears
- If you don't want to stop, why not try a new tuning? Always play standard? Try drop D, open tunings, anything really, NEVER STOP EXPERIMENTING. 

Tunings generally never excited me.

When I'm in a rut I try and play reggae or something, realize I blow chunks at it and don't feel so bad about falling into old habits.

OR you could try hard and not suck at it. 

Speaking of surf guitar, I'm going to get up stupid early tomorrow morning to go look at a Teisco Del Ray at a yard sale.

He's looking for $150. Anyone have any opinions on what's a good price for one? 

Actually, I'm just assuming it's a Del Ray. The ad just says:

Teisco Japanese Guitar *unique, must see Mustang-style guitar-$150 

$150 US seems about right. Expect it to be what it is. The neck might be a bit dubious but you can et that that sorted out. They're great lil guitars and they're not making them anymore.
I love the quirky old japanese stuff. 

Cool! As SteveB pointed out, that's the kind Hound Dog Taylor played. Not exactly surf, but effin cool 

Picked up a practice amp too 

Also, I have no idea whether it's even a real Teisco.
It has basically no markings on it whatsoever, so it may be a copy of their copy.
It's heavy as hell and plays well, though. 

OMG...Aaron...it has mystery switches! 

At the very least it looks like a good Teisco copy. Good score! 

I have the same amp, they're decent - good tone. 

Cool. It's not going to be a replacement for the Traynor I have convinced myself I want, but I won't always want to fire that thing up. Plus, the only two Traynor dealers in the area don't seem to want to stock the YCS90, which is sort of irritating. 

lol, you know if you get the traynor you'll have to get yourself some Ibanez too, and then to complete the heinze experience add in a zoom G9... 

Are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well...heinze haaaaaaaasssss 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNjy0R6QktA

Nothing really impressive to see, but thought I'd share what I've been working on. Haven't touched a pick in a week, so I've only been working on learning fingerpicking using all 5 fingers. I actually prefer the style I think. 

Stubble, PROTIP:

Technically you're only supposed to pick with your thumb and first three (index, middle, ring) fingers.
However, I'm of the opinion that if you can successfully incorporate your pinky finger, then kudos to you!

Also, for proper picking technique, you should move your picking hand away from the strings
so that your fingers are straight(er) and you use your base knuckle to move your fingers to pick.

Here is an albeit pretty annoying example, but you can see how he's doing it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buEJOICx6JU

Now with all of this said, everything I've just said applies mainly to classical guitar playing. Fingerpicking technique on a casual basis is all whatever.
If however you're doing it sounds good to you, then go with it. :) 

keep in mind all pre muting has to be done with the left hand palm in Spankies technique 

Thanks for the feedback. I figure I have that finger just hanging there, and there's no booger to pick with it, might as well make use of it on the last two strings. :-)

I'll try moving my hand back a bit, might make my thumb strumming sound a bit better, but more than anything my hand is just really comfortable that close to the strings.

I don't see myself playing much classical. I have a steel string, and my primary interest is blues and folk, so my guess is once I'm a little more comfortable with my right hand I'll be going for more of a Robert Johnson or Simon and Garfunkle kind of vibe.

Still, even if I do say so myself, not bad for a week or so of practice so far. :-) 

http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/msg/1439079332.html

Hoping to go take a look at this one. 

Nice looking guitar 

Better picking than I can get away with. I should have practiced more when I was younger. It's either full blown strum or guitar pick for me- which pretty much makes any thought of classical inconceivable.
Eh, metalhead anyway 

Thanks, hopefully that's just the beginning for me, as I really like the style. 

http://www.fazed.net/forum/view/?id=31623&p=5#L221

No guitar folks signing up this year? I was hoping I'd get somebody I could send guitar shwag to. heh-heh 

so after playing every night I have chops back, pretty well insane ones, and not two goddamned notes worth playing in a row. 

I have a theory
That listening to really compotent ambient composers (Biran Eno, Harrold Budd, Steve Roach, Patrick Ohearn, stars of the lid) has this effect. When all you listen to are whole and half notes with a ton of texture, every "next" note has to be sublime and profound or its like, whats the point. 

You said it. It's harder to play well slow