Hello,

My own amp is Boss Katana 50 from the shop I bought the Squier Strat from. They said the Katana's are really good amp and have effects built into them. And I've tried a few of them. Plugged my computer to the amp and tried the Boss Tone Studio. Lot of effects to try out.

Also I had the chance to borrow a tube amp to try out. A Fender Super Champ x2. The sound feels kind of warmer compared to the Katana. But I still like the Katana as well. Not sure if one sounds better than the other. Both sound good.

I've played with Katana's basic Clean, Crunch, Lead and Brown channels. But there are so many things to try out, and yeah I'm getting overwhelmed by all the possible different effects and sounds you can get out of it. Probably takes time to try things out and test different effects and settings. Even trying different Gain levels makes so much difference.

About the sound of guitars. At first I wanted to try single coils and humbuckers both, so that was the reason to get the Strat with both of them. I changed the string at the shop once to their recommended ones, the Elixirs. But the sound of the guitar changed to too bright or that's how I felt it. Also the strings buzzed and their did some setting up, but it feels harder to play after that.

I wanted more rock tone, perhaps classic rock tone. Not sure how to explain it, since I'm not sure myself. :) I know I listen to metal music as well, but it's not something I want play at least for now. So thats why I got the Les Paul type, which is Schecter Solo II Custom. I got it second hand so it was much cheaper than the one in the shop. Also I had it set up by a local professional who makes custom guitars, does repairs, customization and thats sort of things. So my Schecter feels really easy and nice to play now. I should probably take the Strat to the same place for a new setup and change strings to something else than Elixirs. I'm thinking of putting D'Addarios on my strat to give it another chance. But for now, I'm really happy with the Schecter.

I will keep continuing to practice. Seems things become a little easier each time I practice.

I'm also trying Lisa's tips on how to change from one chord to another. And mostly it works for me too. But for some reason changing from C to D, changing index finger first feels as easy and ring finger first. But I will keep on trying.

Switching from Am to G it quite easy when using the pinky G.

As I mentioned earlier that I really like House of the Rising Sun. The F chord is really a dreaded chord. :D Soooo hard!

But it is something I want to get right at some point, so I will keep on practicing that as well.