Easy players - Always a case for easy = better?

[Dub-T-123]

I don't like to fight a guitar too hard but a little fight is good sometimes. My Tele plays well but it fights a little and it sounds a little different because of it. I'm really used to it though and I don't have any trouble playing it. It just makes me man up a little.

 

My SG on the other hand is strung with 9s and set up to sheer perfection. It basically plays itself I really don't even think about anything when I'm playing it sometimes it feels like I'm just listening to music and not playing. I've never thought the sound lacked anything because of it. It just does what I want.

[retrosurfer1959]

I guess Im somewhere in the middle I sure don't want to fight a guitar and hate playing guitars that are not set up well, but I don't like like strings that play like spaghetti either so I tend to set guitars up with medium heavy strings and the action as tight as I can get it without buzz. If I want to fight my strings and toughen my fingers I have a National Resonator.

 

Almost the opposite is true with Mandolin though there I prefer a little higher action and lighter/medium strings. My big hands make a mess of the tiny fretboard on the mandolin unless i have some tension to play with.

[Mojorule]

Don't the comments all go to show that 'easy' playing is as subjective a concept as good tone? For those whose preferred style requires them to deal with a little more resistance from strings, fretboard and action, a guitar which is actually tough on the fingers and not 'fast' is an 'easy' player. As I said before, when it comes to moving about the neck and fast playing, my guitar is super-easy, but to hold things steady for sustaining blues it requires me to fight the temptation to play at speed, and to stop my fingers from almost slipping over the ebony and the frets. Still sounds great, and is worth the effort, but not an easy player in that case. So a single guitar can be easy and more demanding according to the situation.

[Versatile]

I agree with most points expressed here....

 

Personally I like about 3 or 4 different set-ups for mood and playing style...

 

9's on a Tele or Strat with very low action for bends and lazy fretting (seems to blend with a maple neck)

 

10's on a 335 and archtop acoustic for fingerstyle and slightly heavier attack, more tone and good bending on the 335

 

11's rarely on a hollow electric, the wound 3rd makes a big difference and tone is well enhanced

 

12's on a hollow jazz electric for 'digging in' with higher action purely for sustain and bright tone

 

V

 

[charlie brown]

Well, maybe I'm in "denial?" But, all of my guitars are "easy" to play.

Some, have a bit more resistance, built in, than others, by design. But,

they don't take any time, to get used to, really. I guess it boils down

(as always) to what each player prefers. No "wrong" answers, etc. I do

get on "kicks," with playing one certain guitar, for awhile, but I always

seem to get around to all of the, at some point. And, if it's been awhile

since I played one of them, it can be like the thrill of getting a new guitar,

when I do. Fun stuff!

 

CB

[damian]

I own and use over 50 guitars......I like them perfect and imperfect.....When a guitar sucks, I use it elsewhere, such as, in the kitchen.......

[LarryUK]

I own and use over 50 guitars......I like them perfect and imperfect.....When a guitar sucks, I use it elsewhere, such as, in the kitchen.......

 

You could play some 'chops' on that.

[EVOL!]

 

Since I acquired my Gibson I can really appreciate what Milod refers to as playing the guitar with your mind. I've never played anything which was so easy to play - and that's with 11s and a wound third, EVOL. It really does play itself in physical terms, leaving me free to think about what I want to play rather than concentrating on achieving a sound mechanically. Generally this is a truly idyllic place to be as a guitarist, and I agree that it is largely the neck which helps (and quite probably the 11s, which I'd never tried before).

 

 

Right. 11s, neck of your choice, and a killer setup. Is there anything that feels as good?

[Duende]

I think a lotta personal preference comes from one's personal experience.

 

I'd argue significantly against real rock and roll not using finesse, however. Even 8-38s can be flatpicked for plenty of "wham" back by the bridge on an SG or LP or whatever. Then a very low setup and light strings can work well for faster or more finessed work.

 

Maybe that comes from a bit of "classical guitar" background since that's what I started on, yet I think sometimes that electric players regardless of style tend not to use the tonal and attack differences available by where they do their pickin'. Sometimes ditto even with steel acoustic players.

 

Yeah, it may mean reconsidering a lotta stuff in terms of technique and even amp settings.

 

Besides, what's rock and roll? I dunno. The stuff I played in the 60s had similarity, a lot of it, to stuff done in the '50s and thence through the next 50 years or so to today. Depends on what bands, what tunes, what concepts you preferred and - if you were halfway practical, what you get paid for.

 

For what it's worth, when and where I did most of my "rock" stuff some 45 years ago, very low action and flatwounds were kinda the "in thing" for bands. That brought a number differences in technique, too, compared to how I and most others play nowadays.

 

m

 

 

Interesting read.

 

Because of the majority of my time is spent on the classical guitar, I suppose I am mentally conditioned as to my strings being about a centimetre off the neck at the 12th fret. Because of this I have found in the past that supposed 'easy' guitars with incredibly low actions difficult to play, as they were what I would describe as almost too 'slippery' for my fingers.

 

Most of my guitar playing friends find my electrics action's a little on the high side.

 

Matt

 

 

[milod]

Hi Matt...

 

Actually most of my classical guitars in the 60s and 70s had relatively lower action - whether I got lower quality stuff in local music stores or the modern equivalent of mid-range on a 1970s trip to Chicago for a medium range instrument that still was a financial stretch.

 

But even then I was playing the nylon with different style stuff as well as Bach. So... I dunno. <grin>

 

m

[steveallen]

For playing "shredder style" in the garage with our youngest son (drums) and a friend bass player, I do like that resistence free "flow" from a lower action than I normally prefer.

 

For most styles though I play clean so a medium (but precise feeling) action is more to my liking. It feels more like "my" guitar in some ineffable way. I'd say a slightly heavier string -lower in action, rather than thin and high so I can get under them to bend- gives me "my" feel.

 

In the past I have appreciated a bit of "fight" from say, a Fender scale length guitar for bending bluesy notes. It makes the notes sound intense to me somehow when they are of a certain gauge and being bent, moreso than "wimpy strings" that sound thin and wheedley. But nowadays my small stable of working axes seem to be pretty similiar in setup: which I would say is "medium."

 

I did play a guy's Steinberger with 9's on it once. That was a transcendental experience: like a whole other instrument than a guitar! Really that playing by telepathy thing.

 

I just doubt I could live with that flying by wire experience for long. I like SOME connection to feeling like I'm actually doing something.

 

I like bigbore pistols for the same reason: recoil tells you there's work being done.

[milod]

Steve...

 

Funny you mention big bore pistols.

 

I personally prefer relatively lighter ones because one can almost think onto a target. That's essentially my "take" on strings and setup on guitars.

 

Don't get me wrong, I also kinda like a certain .45 LC "cowboy" revolver on a heavy frame (conversion on a .58 Remington percussion arm) that I still consider "light."

 

But the issue to me on both is "playability" rather than power.

 

m

[Mojorule]

Right. 11s, neck of your choice, and a killer setup. Is there anything that feels as good?

 

Well there is one thing, but it's off-topic...

[EVOL!]

Well there is one thing, but it's off-topic...

 

After posting that I was like, "served that one up like a slow pitch softball."

[Mojorule]

After posting that I was like, "served that one up like a slow pitch softball."

 

Which for English readers might be translated as 'I fed that line like David Gower bowling a full toss'. Thanks for the feed, though EVOL!