I Looking For More Info About My Guitar

How do I play the guitar without looking at the pick?

Since it's only been 2 weeks, don't feel like you're really limiting yourself by looking only at your right hand.  Playing guitar can be a really unusual thing for your body and mind, and it takes time to get used to it.While eventually you should begin focusing on the left hand making chords and pressing on the strings, it's okay to focus on your picking hand (right) right now.  All you have to do is build confidence in your own picking. This can be done simply by continuing to play and can naturally work itself out and won't become a habit if you push yourself to look at both hands while playing.  Of course you should keep playing, but specifically for your eyes you should do exercises that engage mostly your picking hand. Practice with a metronome and start out slowly picking the strings.  Practice only strumming down in time with and without a single chord on the left hand.  Practice picking one note down.  Then practice the same note up, down, up, down: this is known as alternate picking and it's crucial to playing overall.  Don't be afraid to have fun with this.  It may be boring technical work that helps your playing, but that doesn't mean you can't find interesting ways to do it!  Reward yourself, learn one of your favorite songs, just keep playing. Hope you can find this useful!

What can you do to a guitar to make it look more unique?

Honestly there are any number of things you can do, the most practical and interesting being painting it, which is what I'll focus on.Stickers are super easy if a minimal-effort punk thing is all you want, and changing the wiring and/or pickups is a little more involved way to get it sounding unique as well.One good way to get a unique guitar is to restore one - I really enjoy finding trashy guitar bodies on Craigslist and restoring them, like this. This wasn't a particularly unique build except for the pickup wiring, but it could've easily been a crazier design without much more effort.Exhibit A: some wild painting involving dish soap and painters tape. Didn't love how it turned out, but it was a fun project.A more conservative design can still be unique. Add in the hand-wound coil tapped pickup and it sounds unique too.If you want a really unique sounding and looking guitar, you've gotta build the body yourself. This chambered Tele was made out of wood sitting in a barn, and then I painted the faux stenciling as well.This is a controversial one, but relic-ing a guitar can make it interesting as well. I only do this with cheap guitars, but it's fun to beat them up a little, and then you never have to worry about scratches with them later. This one also has some really funky wiring so there's no reason not to combine multiple different techniques and see what you can make!

How can I get used to playing guitar without looking at the frets/neck?

Pardon the rather philosophical take. This is just how I approach the instrument.You get used to playing the guitar without looking at it the same way you get used to speaking a language without being able to see the exact spot at which to place your tongue.When you’re a kid learning to speak, you hear your parents say certain things. Mind you, you don’t have tabs for that. You can’t download and slow down the audio.So you just try to copy what they say - simple monosyllabic words. And since you’re not obsessed with speaking very fast as a toddler, you take it slow.So, take it slow. And keep it simple. And try not to get too dependent on guitar tabs.You go wrong, again and again. So you keep trying. Until one day you get the right sound, much to the delight of your parents.And you repeat it. Again and again.Your brain starts relating syllables to exactly where you place your tongue, the shape of your mouth, etc.This builds muscle memory. Your tongue just knows where to go without your having to consciously think about it. So do your fingers.Infact, I’ve seen people like Paul Gilbert and John Petrucci mess up when they slow down a guitar part. Simply because they've practiced so much that they let their muscles do the thinking, not their brain.“It gets confusing, when it gets slow.” – Paul Gilbert“If I have to state one challenge for this album, I’ll have to say playing this slow” – Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater)This also holds true for certain freestyle footballers. They do something amazing out of nothing, and have a hard time breaking down what they just did.Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.By the way, not looking at the guitar is not something you do consciously. It’s not like – “Hey look, I’m riding a bike with no hands.”, unless you’re doing it for showmanship, which has its place.It’s when the music hits you that you just tend to let go of any attention you’re paying to the real world.To get to this level, takes a lot of time. Believe me, long enough for most people to quit. If only they’d stick around longer, they'd see what lies beyond. You've learnt a language with countless words and have formed a humongous amount of sentences with them over the course of your life. A guitar is just 24*6 notes.So don't concentrate on not looking at the fret board. Look as much as you want. Keep looking. But keep practicing. One day the music will hit you. And you'll never be the same again. :)