100 Guitar tips you should have been told

RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
Hope you clever people don't mind offering me advice on a couple of things. You don't seem to have done in the past - you have been polite, at least.

Someone recently suggested buying a book called "100 Guitar tips you should have been told", by David Mead. I parted with my £20 and now own the book, which seems pretty good. One of the things in the book is abut bending strings up to a pitch a tone higher. I can do it (with limited success) on the bass strings, but I have bent the 1st string up half way across the fretboard and it seems to make very little difference. Am I expecting too much or obviously doing something wrong? I don't expect to be able to bend the strings to a precise pitch immediately, but I would have hoped to have got some sort of effect.

Now for scales. I don't want to get too het up on scales (that nice Mr Mead told me not to!) but is the done thing to barre the strings with various fingers and lift them up when playing each note, or to put your finger on the appropriate fret individually? Or is it a matter of doing what feels best?

Grateful for any thoughts. I hope that this makes some sort of sense! Thanks.


Simon.

[ 04 November 2002: Message edited by: Rhodes ]

Comments

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    Can't help much witht he bending, but as far as scales go you should finger each note individually as a part of the idea in practising scales is to improve manual dexterity. My instructor tells me to leave each finger where you last put it until you need it again, this can seem a bit awkward at times but is worth it in the long run. Start slowly and slowly increase the pace as you get the fingering right, and if you can, use a metronome so that you know you are keeping to a specific rythm, when you can keep to a rythm, increase the pace and try it faster.
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    If you're bending a string that far you should definitely hear a change in pitch, I'd think. Hmm. What sort of bridge on the guitar?

    As for soloing, mostly you should pick up and put down each finger as you use it. But I'm quite lazy.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    Thanks to you both. I've only just started tryingot do scales, but it seems very daunting!

    The bridge is a Wilkinson something or other. It's a Cort G-250, not modded in any way at all, except that I have added a nice padded leather strap to it.

    Actually, whilst I'm here...the strap is a bit long for me, even though I have made it as short as it seems to want to go (it's one of those leather things, with the strap threaded through the padded bit - like a Zulu shield in a way, I suppose. If I want to shorten it, any reason why I shouldn't srill a hole through it where it attaches to the guitar, and cut a slit in it, to match the originals? I am short, and like to rest my chin on the guitar, as I have a big head!
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    Hmm. Try this; play the open low E string and let it ring, then fret & play somewhere on the top E and do a bend. Does the low E change pitch at the same time? Might be something to do with how the bridge is set up.

    As for the strap, that should be fine as long as you make sure the leather isn't going to split past the hole you make.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    Thanks. Should the open E string change in pitch, or not? I got the guitar from Regent, and it was therefore set up properly, I trust. Unless it got damaged in transit, I suppose. It looks all right to me, though it's my first electric guitar, and I am just grateful that it is easier to play than the old acoustic.
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    If it's a floating trem then the low E will change pitch. It's possible that there's some issue with the springs or sommat, but that seems unlikely to me.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    Thanks. I'll give it a go this evening. I think it's floating, but I'm not that up on some of the jargon. It certainly moves a lot more easily than the bridge on my brother's Squier. By design, I mean.

    It might just be that I am bending the string wrong, but I don't think I'm doing anything different than on the bass strings, which do change pitch rather more. I can get a bit of a vibrato effect on the 1st string, but not a significant change. Puzzling.
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    Sorry, mister...

    A floating trem is one that can change the pich both upwards and downwards - it floats on the tension between the strings and the trem springs.

    Still sounds like an odd phenomonon.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    Mine is floating then, I am pretty sure. If I push the bar down (so the back of the bridge moves up), the pitch goes up a bit. The low E string (the 6th string) is a bit dodgy anyway, I think. It seems to go out of tune even more quickly that the others, and I am always very nice to my guitar. No rock 'n' roll smashing it against amps to see what sound it makes or anything...

    Perhap my ears are playing up?
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    Hey Rhodes. \:\) You've mentioned quite a few issues, so I'll take a stab at each in turn.

    First, scales. I think you should play each note individually, because if you barre them all you may find that the strings ring into each other and sound awful if you don't mute the one you've just finished playing before moving onto the next.

    Now, bending (and why, pray tell, has no-one fnar'd this yet? ;)). Could you tell us exactly how you go about bending the strings?

    Your trem. When you push the bar down, the tension is decreased and therefore the notes should also decrease in pitch. If you pull the bar up (away from the body), the pitch will be raised.

    6th string tuning. On any guitar, you'll find that one string may go out of tune more than the others. It may be that you play it more, it could just be a quirk of the guitar (e.g. Gibson are often moaned at for G string tuning problems). Of course, large amounts of bending will put any string out of tune.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    Thanks, Pedro.

    To bend the srings, I simply push them straight towards the inside of the neck, if that makes sense to you. Is there anything else I should at least be trying?

    As for the trem arm, I think I got it wrong in my earlier message. Either way, it works, though I seldom bother at the moment. I think I need to learn the basics (like bending strings and learning scales!) before getting too distracted with fancy stuff.

    I have hardly bent the strings at all until the last few days, but the guitar still goes out of tune rather quickly. Not quite the tuning stability I was expecting, but perhaps I have suddently developed a good ear for music and therefore even slightly outof tune strings sound awful to me...?
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    OK, the bending. Are you actually fretting the string? 'cos you need to fret it and then drag it across the fret top to bend it properly. If you still have trouble, I can knock together some pics and/or a wee video to show you how I do it. \:\)

    You're right not to worry about using the trem now...get a good grasp of playing and then the trem is a technique that can be added to your arsenal later.

    If the string goes out of tune *really* badly, like more than once a day, there could be some problem with the machinehead gearing. But I suspect it's just how the guitar is. Now Rich will most likely kill me for this, but bear in mind that the G250, however good it is, is still a mass-produced Korean axe, not an ultra-expensive handmade perfect guitar.

    If the tuning stability is really bad, you may wish to ask Regent if it's a known QC problem that may have slipped through the net this time. Oh, and if you've changed the strings yourself since you got it, make sure that the ball end is firmly seated in the bridge and that you have a couple of nice tight winds on the machinehead to prevent slippage.
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     Quote:
    Originally posted by Pedro:
    If the string goes out of tune *really* badly, like more than once a day, there could be some problem with the machinehead gearing. But I suspect it's just how the guitar is.


    It should still hold tune ok, unless the machinehead is really wrecked.

    It might be worth taking the guitar for a set-up. Could be an issue with the nut. Or it might be to do with stretching the strings properly. But it does sound like something funny's going on.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    I hadn't appreciated that I needed to drag the string across the fret itself. I was just doing it where I would fret the string normally - just behind the fret. I'll give it a go.

    Not sure that the guitar goes out of tune to the extent that I am that worred about it. It has just occurred to me that I might just be knocking the machine heads slightly when I put the guitar in to its gig bag, which is where I store it (until I get a hook or a hard case or both...).
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    If the strings are brand new, and you dont usually bend, then it could simply be a case of them beig improperly stretched.

    As you bend strings during play, you're giving them a really good stretch, And with a floating trem, if one string goes flat, it pulls the rest sharp.

    If you dont usually bend much, it may just be that you've never given them a good stretch before tuning up first time and havent pulled them enough during play to pull them significantly flat.

    Next time you change stings: after getting the string in tune, give it a really good pull along its length. You'll notice a drop of maybe as much as a couple of semitones. Then tune back. Then stretch. Then tune, etc. Then move onto the next string to be replaced. Dont overdo it, though. You dont want to kill the strings. \:\)
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    In reply to Andira, the guitar doesn't have a normal nut - it has a rolling mechanism instead. I would quite like to change that, as the roller nut squeaks, but I don't suppose I will actually do it. I wouldn't want to be without it for any length of time. For it's slightly annoying habits, I still love the thing! The push-pull coil tap feels particularly lovely. Not in a fetishistic way, you understand. Honest.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    I think I shall order a big wodge of 9 gauge strings from Regent for when I snap strings when I stretch them.

    I haven't yet changed the strings on the electric - I have only had it a few weeks - but it isn't something I look foreard to doing. The prospect is very daunting, for some reason. Probably all the more reason to go ahead and do it...
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     Quote:
    Originally posted by Rhodes:
    I think I shall order a big wodge of 9 gauge strings from Regent for when I snap strings when I stretch them.


    If you snap them there's probably a burr on the bridge saddle. I grab the string and bend it with my right hand as far as I can, a couple of times, and I haven't broken a string doing that for about 9 years now.

    For the bend, you fret the note normally, then, keeping enough pressure on that the string keeps contact with the fret, you push the string parallel with the fret towards the middle of the neck.

     Quote:
     Code:

    ......string |
    |
    fret ---------+----------
    |
    ---> |
    |
    fret ---------+----------
    |


    The arrow in the middle indicates which direction you push the string. So the string maintains contact with the fret all the way.

    [ 04 November 2002: Message edited by: andira ]

    [ 04 November 2002: Message edited by: andira ]
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    I shall hold off on the order for now then. Although I wouldn't mind being in with a chance of winning another shiny new guitar!

    I am almost certinly doing something wrong when I am trying to bend strings. I'll concentrate on that and that alone this evening, I think. When I am rich and famous, I shan't forget you people. More realistically, perhaps I'll be fairly competent one day and therefore be able to offer advice to those poor beginners who get as frustrated as I often do now.

    I found the thread the other day about barring and so on rather reassuring. I find it far too easy to start thinking that I am the only one who has problems, so it was good to see what deep down I really knew already - that others have been through, or are going through, similar difficulties.

    Thanks.
  • Options
    Going back to your point about putting it out of tuine when you put it in the gig bag. It's a real possibility and I do it all the time. So if oyur guitar is only going out of tune between uses, then you've nothing to worry about really, it could be your knocking the tuners, but there are other things such as temperature changes that can affect the tuning. Also, do you keep the trem arm in place when you put the guitar in the bag? If so it might be being puched forward a bit, slackening the strings during storage which wont help either.
    You only need to have any concern if its going out of tune fast whilst you are playing it really.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    I have taken the trem arm off for now. The guitar's not going out of tune quickly whilst I'm playing it, so I might well have been bad-mouthing it for no good reason. I might have to buy i a little present to make up for it! Any suggestions...?
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    Straplocks. No guitar should be without straplocks or a locking strap.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    I was thinking of getting those earlier - are they likely to cover up any imperfections if I make a hole in the strap myself? I have no idea how they work. But they do, I gather from your message?
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    As I recall, the straplocks have a nice big washer on them that should cover up any "damage"... \:\)
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    I have just ordered some nickel Schaller strap locks, together with 7 Loose Moose approved bridge pins for the acoustic.

    A mere £15.88, postage free, for such a great deal of pleasure. I could get used to this.
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    Hi Rhodes, dunno if this has been covered allread but there are some nifty little real player videos here .

    Watching a coujple of them should eliminate any doubts you have about the technique.
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    Cheers. I can't open the videos at the moment, but I'll have another try later.

    By the way, I did as Andira suggested and played the low E string before bending the high one, and the pitch of the low E did change slightly. I couldn't get the pitch of the high E to change by more than about a semitone, though, and I was pushing it pretty hard. It made a horrible sound over the roller nut, but not much more.
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    I've read somewhere that Cort changed the design of the roller nut to stop the slippage.

    Oh, and if you're bending the high strings you have to bend them up (towards the ceiling). Bending it about 2cm (maybe a bit more) should take you up one tone.

    To me it seems like the bridge is acting up, did you get it from RG?
  • RhodesRhodes Posts: 1,584Member
    Mine certainly slips a bit, hence the noise. I did inded get the guitar from Regent - just a few weeks ago. It is almost certainly the way I am doing it, I think. I am certainly pushing the strings towards the centre of the guitar. The high E is very close to the edge, so I wouldn't be able to bend it the other way even if I wanted to. I'll try being really vicious with it tonight. I might be being a bit too cautious because it's new and I don't yet know how much I can punish it.
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    Rhodes - how long have you been playing? It might just be that you don't have a lot of strength in your fingers yet.

    Another trick is to do your bends with two fingers, one at the fret you want to play and the other 2 frets back. Then bend them in opposite directions to put even more tension on the string.
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