Hi Andrew, or Mr.Cockburn, my name is matt and i have been using your beginner guitar videos. They are really in depth and i have been learning a lot so far. I just got my guitar this past weekend and i had no idea where to start but thanks to your videos i feel like i can eventually make it to being a great guitarist. But one thing i would like to know is how to make my guitar sound electric. I have an epiphone special sg model. It came in a starter kit with a 10 wat amp. I have 5 knobs on my amp gain,volume,treble,middle and bass. I have messed around with them a little bit but my guitar doesn't sound electric. It just sounds like an amplified acoustic guitar. I was looking at your lesson on how to play smoke on the water and the notes sounds so electricy, haha I don't know how to explain that better. If you could give me some tips on how to set the knobs to create a ore electric sound it would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Matt, I tried to answer your PM but for some reason I couldn't ...

Here is what I typed!

Ok, firstly they are called strings not chords - chords are something different, a chord is when you play more than 2 notes at once. And in fact, that is what you need to do - you hold down the 2 strings as in the video, then with your pick you have to hit just those 2 strings at the same time and no others - that will get you closer for starters!

Next, you need to srlect a sound on your amp that has some distortion. If you have a gain control, try turnign that up full, and reduce the volume control to compensate. Also, your amp may have a channel specifically for distorted sounds - they vary in how they work.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions!

Regards,

Andrew