Another singer trying to play

[Rockrz]

Just joined up... I'm going to have some questions going forward once I get my new guitar back from the guitar tech who's setting it up for me.

I've got a lot of experience as a vocalist and I've tinkered with guitar on and off but never really got in to it enough to do more than play by ear along with a blasting boom box trying to keep up with John Sykes, John Norum, or some other metal shredder from back in the day (yeah, I'm like an old guy ya know)

But, I cannot seem to quit dreaming 'bout shredding some melodic metal... so I recently bought a Jackson Kelly KEXMG with EMG pickups and Floyd Rose tremolo (pic of the version I bought below). I was always partial to Gibson design / copies but I wanted to be able to experiment with a tremolo so Jackson seemed to be the way to go without spending a lot of funds.

I'm going to try and discipline myself to do daily exercises and practicing the basics. I have the John Petrucci - Rock Discipline video which was recommended to me as he seems to be knowledgeable and disciplined. Past few years I've really been digging on European progressive / power / melodic metal and John Petrucci's band Dream Theater is kinda in that vein so I'm looking forward to getting started shortly.

So, if I come back and ask some dumb questions, please forgive me. If I can get some of the music on the inside to come out of my hands onto my new Jackson, maybe I could relay some of my ideas to some real musicians!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend,,,

[VitaminG]

welcome. Nice selection from your first axe. The Floyd can be daunting to maintain at first, but if you have any concerns or issues, ask away in the Tech section here. Loads of knowledgeable people who can help you with every aspect of looking after your guitar. And check out the MP3 section - plenty of guys that know plenty about playing good 'n shit too.

[Force]

Welcome & congrats on choosing Jackson. Floyds aren't really that big of a deal, once you understand what each part is/does, it's quite simple. I rather enjoy the extra work involved in a string change.

[vector]

Welcome! Good call on your first ax! 2 HB p'ups, 24 frets and a decent trem are a good, versatile palette and brush with which to paint, so to speak. I'm also a huge fan of Floyds and once their initial learning curve is overcome, they can be a great source of creativity and expression.

[Rockrz]

Thanks!

I do know a guy that is a reputable guitar tech no far from me so he's setting up the guitar by making sure all the frets are the same height and adjusting as needed, plus he's going to check the neck to see if it needs any adjustment.

I'm having him install some Gibson Brite Wires (Light 10-46) strings and tweak the tremolo as needed to tune that.

These are John Sykes favorite strings and they sounded kool to me on a Gibson copy I had so I figured I'd try those again. I liked Whitesnake back in the day as David Coverdale was a primary vocal influence on me so you know I was digging John Sykes sound on the 1987 album. Not sure if the Jackson will sound similar or not, probably not once I start tinkering with effects

Any suggestions for other strings similar to these?

Once I get into a daily routine I figure I'll need to change the strings frequently, so if I'm playing say an hour a day practicing ... how often should I change the strings? And, I know to wipe them down after playing.