Questions

I have a couple of questions, sorry if they are silly, I am new!

1) My strings lately have been having a lot of trouble holding their notes. Is this because I have switching often lately from standard tuning to a dro pD tuning? Or does this mean my strings need to be replaced? Or neither?

2) s there a reason many of you ave multiple guitars? I mean, I understand why you would have an acoustic and an eelctric, but why do some of you have many electric guitars? Is it because it is easy just to have a couple for various tunings? Is it because different electric guitars are used for different styles of music? Or is it just because it is cool to collect them (hey, I have 3 different drivers in my garage for golfing, for this last reason, lol)?

Just curious about these two things, thanks for your time!

1. I would say they need replaced, BUT some of the other genius's on here might have a different explaination

2. all 3 of those things

I'd say it's probably because it's a beginner's guitar... (guessing) and the tuning heads could be tightened more. But yeah, messing with the tuning all the time isn't really the best thing to do, you'd be better off getting another guitar and just having it in that other tuning you mess with.

The answer to your second is all 3 of your reasonable suggestions.

Yeah, I have the basic Fender package to get started. I did not want to spend a lot of money on something that may not get used often. Now I know it will get used often, and am willing to get a new guitar, but the budget doesn't allow it yet. :-)

For the first, try tightening the tuners. There should be a screw on the end.

For the second, Its good to have a quick switch for tuning. Especially on stage.
Different brands/models/pickups give you a different sound and feel.
And if you love more than 1 kind of guitar, why not? If i had the money i would have a Flat black Gibson LP, White Gibson SG, and a White Ibanez Jem

hey...my name is sahil ive been plyin d guitar on my own since a few months...i love this instrument extensively...i know how to play a few random chords n a few more basics but i still suck reallllly bad can u please tell me how should i improve my guitaring....im very interested in leads and i have decided to start of from the begining can u tell me how to go abot it because i reallie wanna do justice to this instrument...plzzzzz help me and send me some advice on what and how should i practise...plzzz

btimm, i would recommend changing the strings. the main reason is that youw ill need to learn eventually and it's kind of fun to figure it out! although it's very easy and straight forward there are a couple of mistakes you can make. my first string job was sub par but worked fairly well, my 2nd and 3rd are pretty good. plus you can experiment with different gauge (thickness) strings.

this kind of brings me to the second point. the reason i ONLY have two guitars is because i just started playing a year ago. i like toys, i'm single, employed, and have no kids. this means i have a lot of expendible income. when i got into photography i sort of went overboard with my camera kit and a ton of lenses! now i'm into guitars!

i currently have a fender squier strat (probably same as you), but i also recently bought an ibanez artcore AS73 off craigslist. it is a semi-hollow body electric guitar and i've found that it differs from my strat in several ways

H-H pickups as opposed to the strat's H-S-S pickups
semi hollow body as opposed to solid body
set-in neck as opposed to bolt-on neck
22 frets as opposed to 21
hard tail bridge* as opposed to string-through tremolo bridge

etc.

also the sound out of the ibanez is very different than that out of the strat. but the biggest difference, and reason for having 2 guitars, is that i have different gauge strings on the two guitars. the strat currently has .011 fender strings. these are "regular" strings but they seem very thick. the ibanez has .009 ernie ball super slinks on it. the thin strings are much "faster" to play, very very easy.

the result is two different guitars with two different sounds.

of course like i said i also like my toys, and i really want to own more guitars HAHAHA, even if i'm not that good at them yet.

*i'm pretty sure this is referred to as a "hard tail bridge", that is, the strings go through the stop bar and then over the bridge, as opposed to a "string through" bridge where the strings actually pass through holes on the body.