Yeah, Zurf. Funny thing is my wife's father used to have one lying around the house more years ago than I'd like to admit to, and i used to love playing it. Too many fluffed chords and too much whisky have maybe clouded my judgement.

One of my good friends has a 12-string which he has taken on the odd camping trip [by which I mean the occassional trip, not that there's anything odd about our trips]. I hate it. Maybe cos I kept fluffing all the song I tried to play on it.

But.....

This will niggle at you for a long time. It will only get worse. The voice will get louder. buY ME!

Ach, go for it. If you get the hang of it they sound awsome.

Practice til it hurts. When you play an E chord do it with middle, ring and pinky. Barre that 1st finger over. You may have to bring your elbow in towards your body a bit more and make sure your thumb is right in the middle of the back of the neck. Now practice. A lot!

Seersha, listen to Zurf The Wise. There is no other post that could add to what he said. I always advise having a look at www.justinguitar.com  the man is brilliant at what he does.

Whatever song you choose from chordie's index to have a go at, once you get the chords together and recognise even a small part of the song coming from your fingers you will be hooked. Or re-hooked. It still amazes me everytime I get my guitar to sound out my favourite songs.

All the very best,

Al V

I do like a wee trip to Balloch

Thanks a lot folks. As I said elsewhere, this is all down to chordie. Thanks to this forum I have learned so much and gained quite a bit of confidence. The result is that not only am I confident enough to try to write my own songs but I'm also not filling my pants with brown stuff at the thought of letting other people see what I've done. It may not be brilliant and it's only one song but a couple of years ago there is no way I would have been able to do that. Thanks Chordie Forum.

Hey, ranthalas, I think everyone will have a different answer here. There are a few folk on here like me who gave up and came back to it years later. First time around I was useless and all my friends left me way behind so I really couldn't play anything resembling a song for years. In fact not until second time around which was about 15 years or so later. The big difference this time round has been the internet, and Chordie in particular. I started playing again about 3 to 4 years ago and found that within a few months I was starting to hear my wife singing along to what I was trying to play. So it must've been recognisable. Now, 3 to 4 years in I'm just starting to get comfortable with picking up rhythms and stuff. But there are folk on chordie who are doing it after 3 or 4 months. Check out this guy, he's only been playing 4 months.  http://www.chordie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12022 . Amazing. I guess it's all down to how much time you put in and how much ability you already have. I guess that's why it's taken me so long

Welcome to Chordie. Stick in and have fun. Most of all have fun.

As promised, here's the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ppN73xBAEY