ngl i had the same experience. recording yourself is humbling but it shows you exactly what to work on.

Nice pickup on the Tele! The neck pickup being quieter is totally normal on Telecasters - it's a single coil thing and that position just naturally has a warmer, lower output sound compared to the bridge. If it seems way quieter though, you could try raising it a bit closer to the strings.

For pedals I'd honestly hold off for now and just focus on getting comfortable with the amp's clean and overdrive tones. A tuner pedal is the one exception - grab a clip-on or a cheap pedal tuner, it makes life so much easier.

Blues is a great place to start btw. Learn the basic 12-bar blues pattern and a pentatonic scale and you'll be jamming in no time. Rocksmith is solid for keeping things fun too. Have fun with it!

totally been there. i spent like a month fighting travis picking before it clicked. the thing that helped me most was slowing waaay down and just doing the thumb pattern on its own until it was completely autopilot. like embarrassingly slow, just boom-chuck-chuck on repeat while watching tv.

once your thumb is on cruise control you can start sneaking the melody notes in with your other fingers. also Dust in the Wind is a great practice song for this - the pattern is repetitive enough that your hands eventually figure it out on their own.

hang in there, it really does just click one day

oh man built to spill is so good for guitar stuff. if you like that vibe, definitely check out Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been. J Mascis has this way of making solos feel effortless that always makes me want to noodle around for hours.

also pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain. the guitar parts are deceptively simple but so satisfying to play. "range life" was one of the first songs i learned that actually sounded decent lol

ngl i had the same experience. i think the biggest thing is finding songs you actually enjoy playing.

nice, i've been working on something similar. one thing that helped me was slowing way down with a metronome first.

nice, i've been working on something similar. alternate picking made a huge difference for me when i focused on it.

tbh this is solid advice. one thing that helped me was slowing way down with a metronome first.

4 months in and you're already thinking about practice structure — that's honestly ahead of where most people are at that stage.

the 1-5 hours a day thing is fine as long as you're enjoying it. the only thing i'd watch out for is hand fatigue — if your wrist or forearm starts hurting, take a break. repetitive strain is real and can set you back weeks.

one thing that helped me a lot around the 4-6 month mark was picking actual songs i wanted to play instead of just running exercises. even if they were slightly above my level, learning real music kept me motivated. i use chordroom.com sometimes to browse by genre when i'm looking for something new to learn — nice to have 260k songs in one place instead of googling every time.

keep it up, you're doing great.

nice, i've been working on something similar. one thing that helped me was slowing way down with a metronome first.

this is the kind of post i come here for. recording yourself is humbling but it shows you exactly what to work on.