Tuesday, November 22, 2011

I think I am going to like playing with a "wound" G . . .

I've made no bones about not admitting how difficult it is for me to play electric guitar. I'm an acoustic "boom-chucker" from way back. Too play louder, we just used a heavier pick and played harder.

Needless to say, my electric gutiar technique is, shall we say, "aggressive." I have really had to work to lighten up my touch.

A while back, I divested (a guitar players term for "traded in") all my electrics except for the Squire Strat that my friend Joe gave me a couple of years back. Actually, it is a Fender body, with the old Fender style neck with larger headstock. Bullet truss rod adjustment, and the old 3 screw neck to body joint.

I tried putting "9's", "10's", and "11's" on it . . . but that dad-gum non-wound G . . . I could never keep it in tune. I learned how to intonate an electric, adjust the neck, measure and change the radius. But still . . . no joy in Mudville . . . electric guitar is just a totally different approach than acoustic.

My friend Scotty (a master Tele player, man he is good) gave me a set of D'Addario EXL110W Nickle wound strings last week . . . it's a set of "10's", and the G string is wound, like a lot of jazz and old school Tele players use. It's good to have friends like Scotty. So, I put them on my Strat. Scotty said I would notice the difference.

Yeah . . . I did. Not saying I love them. I haven't had them on long enough yet to come to that conclusion . . . but at the least these strings have me interested in trying a bit harder to put it all together. My goal . . . to be a decent rhythm electric guitar player. Bar-chords and power-chords are fine with me. I have a little more intonating to do . . . then we will see where this all leads.

God's grace still amazes me . . . ><>

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