minorkey
C.O.G.
Too many instruments, too little time
Posts: 2,992
My main instrument is: hurting my fingers!
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Post by minorkey on Mar 7, 2024 10:37:57 GMT
Playing on my Fender dread and I'm always amazed at how resonant the thing is. Yes it has tons of sustain, but sometimes it seems it gets in the way. If I'm playing a single line piece (no chords, just melody) as I jump from string to string, or fret to open, the whole thing resonates, so the single note I played can get 'lost in the mix' as it were. I've tried the same piece on all 3 guitars, and yes they all resonate, a natural consequence of an acoustic instrument, but the Fender is like, I'm here and I'm gonna sing the loudest. Its like the trumpet player in a marching band. No way you're gonna hear the flute when he's around.
Now I'm not complaining, that guitar is damn fine sounding, but is it a case of its better for pure chord play (strumming) but for single line pieces that I'm learning I should use the nylon string hybrid or the smaller bodied Tanglewood?
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Post by scorpiodog on Mar 7, 2024 10:57:19 GMT
The best thing, Larry, is to learn to damp the strings you're not playing with the fingers of the left hand. Playing a guitar (as with many instruments) involves complicated micro movements of the hands, and we all tend to compromise tone, squeak and unwanted resonance because we don't quite get those micromovements right. So see whether you can move your fingers very slightly so you lightly touch the adjacent strings with a spare finger or incertain cases with the finger you're fretting with. This is hard to explain, but you know how sometimes if you're playing a chord or a double stop your fretting finger(s) touches one of the strings you want to hear and stops it sounding? Well the trick is to do that deliberately when you don't want a string to sound.
I can't explain it very well, but another Paul can:
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minorkey
C.O.G.
Too many instruments, too little time
Posts: 2,992
My main instrument is: hurting my fingers!
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Post by minorkey on Mar 7, 2024 11:55:06 GMT
Oh I dont mean undamped strings (though I do need to do that), but rather its the other strings resonating, creating a ringing effect. Like playing in a tunnel, or piano with pedal.
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minorkey
C.O.G.
Too many instruments, too little time
Posts: 2,992
My main instrument is: hurting my fingers!
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"","color":"72dd98"}
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Post by minorkey on Mar 8, 2024 23:25:51 GMT
The post should be called, Is string resonance normal. The other strings vibrate sympathetically and the music can get muddied. Its not practical to mute the other strings when playing!
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delb0y
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Post by delb0y on Mar 9, 2024 8:38:08 GMT
What scorpiodog said, Larry. It is those undamped strings causing the issue, and all those micro movements that SD alluded to are indeed the answer. One mightn't be deliberately damping strings as one would in, say, Travis picking, but we all still do a lot of almost unconscious string damping - a point we reach after years of playing. I have/had this problem in extremis on my gypsy jazz guitar. I even showed it to Francis, one of our ace luthiers on this site. He did suggest a solution to try next time I change strings, but in the meantime I am simply paying a lot more conscious attention to damping strings as I play that guitar. On the other hand, this resonance can also be a good thing - and this why your Fender should probably not be assigned rhythm guitar duties only. If you're playing single note lines out of chord shapes - I don't mean picturing the shapes, but rather actually holding them down ( hold, say, a C chord and keep it held down whilst you pick Frere Jacque) then those resonances may well be "in tune" and give your unaccompanied single line tune some "free" accompaniment! Listen to the bluegrass players when they're playing on their lonesome (as they say down in the holler) for many examples. That's why those guys love their big old resonant dreadnaughts and pay a lot of money for the good ones. Derek
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minorkey
C.O.G.
Too many instruments, too little time
Posts: 2,992
My main instrument is: hurting my fingers!
Mini-Profile Background: {"image":"","color":"72dd98"}
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Post by minorkey on Mar 9, 2024 9:24:38 GMT
Very complicated and just adds another layer of difficulty to an already almost impossible instrument to master!
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