12-Bar Blues Riff I'm Learning...

I'm trying to get this down, and Rosie is cooperating a lot better than my fingers! Lol.

I plan on working on this for the next month or so - and it'll be a bit different than in the vid, because I naturally strum with my right thumb instead of picking. I've got one heck of a callus on the left corner of my right thumb, and it's only getting more so. I also tend to grow out the left corner of that thumbnail so that I can pick with it when I need to.

Here's the lesson:



And here is Rosie with my little First Act MA-104 4-watt practice amp:

Made-In-Mexico Vs. USA Standard Stratocaster

Phillip, I want to thank you for this vid. I bought a MIM Strat a few years ago because it was what I could afford. I absolutely love my little red "Rosalita". (Yeah, I named my guitar after the gal in the Springsteen song)



Rosy cost me $350 with a stand, hard case, Crate 25W amp, cable, tuner, picks, and extra set of strings included. While I want to support American labor, I work for a living, and I just couldn't shell out the 2 grand that all the US gear would've cost me.

Rosie plays like a dream, and in a kind of mystical fashion, holds her tune for a year at a time. I'm serious, I can check her with the tuner and she never budges except for a tiny tweak on the 2nd string once in awhile. I'm using Fender Super Bullet strings and have never used a whammy bar with this guitar, even though I have it.

Hats off to those guitar makers in - I believe - Esmerelda, Mexico, because they allowed me to get a guitar I could only have dreamed of otherwise. It even makes me feel better knowing that many of them play guitar as well. Now, if only I could play as good as the guitar I love! I have a lifetime to work on that.

FYI, I did spring for a Roland Cube 40XL amp a little later, and that thing is fantastic.

Most evenings, I just use a little 4-Watt MA-104 from Toy-R-Us for simple practice, however.

 It's nothing to carry and keeps my fingers on the strings. The thing is the size of a hardcover book. I can run that in my garage at 2am and bother not a soul.