Re: Technique Question

"Squier" <squier@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:300420070104090289%squier@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <KuSdnTOgYq8K6ajbnZ2dnUVZ_t6qnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>, RichL
<rpleavitt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Squier" <squier@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:300420070041157665%squier@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <98KdnVUfRoQS_qjbnZ2dnUVZ_hisnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxx>, RichL
<rpleavitt@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Chris Melford" <cmelford@'nospam'hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:adna33pueaquetee8p3av6fdeni45jce0j@xxxxxxxxxx
My buddy and I were playing together the other day, and he
remarked at
my hand movement when I was playing a scale from the bottom to the
top. He showed me how he played it and we both were struck at how
differently we both move our hands when moving through a scale or
set
of notes from the low E to the high E. The main difference is
this:
when I move through the scale my thumb pretty much stays in one
spot
and my hand sort of uncurls and tilts back at the wrist as I go up
through the notes. On the other hand, his hand stays at the same
angle to the wrist, but his thumb keeps dropping lower as he goes
up
through the notes. When we get to the high E my fingers are
curled
down to fret, and his fingers are still almost straight.

This was something neither one of us had really paid attention to
before, neither when watching ourselves or other guitarists. We
both
are self-taught and were joking how neither one of us knew which
was
actually the correct way to play! We're hoping its just a
preference,
otherwise one of use needs to do some relearning which is always a
pain in the ass. Thanks for any help.

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter. But I'm self-taught
also,
so
others may differ. To me, it's a matter of what's comfortable for
you,
as
long as the way you hold your hand/thumb doesn't interfere with your
ability
to progress.

I don't think it's necessary for either of you to do any relearning.




The thing that I find (mostly a beginner thing - but even more
experienced
players can fall into this habit) is that to me there are two ways of
doing scales. A lot of times beginners will learn a scale and play it
from one position (going across the neck). However (at least on a
Strat)
there is a big variation in tone going from wound strings to unwound
as
you go up a scale across the neck in one position.

In actual playing of songs many times that rote sort of learning
doesn't cut it and you have to use your ears to know the best way
to play even a simple lead using a scale progression. Many times it
is better to (for instance) stay on the wound strings and go up the
neck rather than across it (where you would encounter a jolting
difference
in tone as you go into the unwound strings). Or vice versa - go up
the
neck and stay on the unwound rather than stay on one position and go
back across to more fuller wounds. Sure your hand may wind up a bit
further away for the next notes to be played - but hey - you can make
that up by just moving your hand back to the position where you need
to be to play the next chord or arpeggio or lead notes or whatever by
just moving your hand quickly back to where it needs to be.

I have known people that will play a lead across the neck and go
from wounds to unwounds and it sounds like crap. Sure they are
playing the notes correctly and it makes getting from point A to point
B
easier - but for tone sake they should have stayed on the wounds and
moved up the neck and then after the run - moved their hand quickly
back to where it needs to be or plan such things for alternative ways
of doing it. To me - to play scales in obvious position patterns may
be a great fingering excercise but it does not always make for the
best
way to get the best tone out of what you're doing.

I tend to move around based on what sounds I want to hear which might
not always be the most _efficient_ way of hand movement - but
efficiency
is for bean counters and desk jockeys - not always a good thing for
guitar players.

my simple 2 cents on this.

Yeah, true. I think it's less of an issue on guitars with adjustable
pole
pieces on the pups -- one reason I don't really care for strats. I
periodically adjust the pole pieces to try to minimize differences in
sounds
for the same note played on different strings. Also moving the pup back
from the strings a little bit may help if you can't adjust the pole
pieces.
Too close just accentuates the differences.

That's not to take away from one of your points -- it's important to
learn
all the notes on the fretboard, and sometimes moving your position as
opposed to just reaching for a note on a different string can make a
difference.



That's true - I have tweaked the pup height on all three pups to the
best way -- but no matter what (unless it's a double fat HH strat)
you almost have two instruments on a single fret board with a strat.
The 3 wounds are one half of the strat and the 3 unwounds make the other
half of the strat (assuming you're using a standard string set).
And that's part of the strat vibe. I'm not complaining about it -
just pointing it out - you get used to it and adjust your playing around
it.
That's just the way I do it anyways - although on my fat strat when
I'm playing with the bridge humbucker - there is less of an issue with
wounds and unwounds then when I click back into the single coils and
then the tonal differences of wound/unwound can be pronounced.
But hey - I like it that way. I think it's all what you grow up
using and get used to. I have played friend's SG's and after a few
power chords and some barres - I get tired of the sound and want my strat.
To me the SG's (and LP's) sound kinda dark and not as much note
definition.
Kinda like chords all melt the notes together into a sonic smoosh.
(but it can be a darn nice sounding crunchy smush).

I suppose if I had strated out with Gibson SG's or LP's or
something different like 335's etc.. then a Strat or a tele would
sound strange to play.

I'll tell you this though - I never really thought about it much -
but my friends that play SG's say that playing my Strat is hard to
get a good sound from it and they wonder why it sounds good when I play
it.
Playing their SG's gets me immediate gratification - you get instantly
easy rock sounds out of them and their darker nature covers a lot of flubs
or slight misfretting etc. On a Strat or a Tele there's no where to hide
really. Keeps me honest .

Ah well maybe one day I'll get a jangly Rickenbacker (I'll know I will
like the skinny neck) and then have yet another sound I might like to
play.
I know you have Ricks - and you probably like them a lot.
Bue hey - they are not that far removed from a Strat - you gotta work
to get a good sound out of them untill its second nature and then
it's effortless. But you just can't hit the barre chord or the power
chord
on a rick and it's gonna sound instantly great. right ?

It depends. I generally like single-coil pups better than humbuckers
(although I have one SG that I use for the really dark stuff). My
Rickenbacker 6 string has one of the original pups and two DiMarzio hot tele
pups, and I've wired it so they can be connected in series or in parallel
(parallel is the usual arrangement on a Strat). When I put the bridge and
middle pups ( the two DiMarzio) pups in series, I get a sound similar to a
humbucking bridge pup but with more highs and just a little bit of the quack
associated with the 2-pup (bridge/middle) position on a Strat. Now when I
put that into my AC-30, that's a nice power chord sound. It's really like
someone fixed up a humbucker to have nice tonal response through the whole
spectral range.

I'm getting my new custom-made guitar tomorrow!!!! This project has been
going on for 4 months now, and I'm really excited! (Can't you tell?) This
guitar should be really nice; it's a semi-hollow (335-like only smaller)
with 3 P-90 pups wired the same way as my Rick. The P-90s should really add
to my bag of tricks, especially with the custom wiring and flexibility. We
shall see. I may post some pics and sound clips once I've had a chance to
play around with it a little bit.


.

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