Will wrote:
On Sunday, November 29, 2020 at 1:33:50 PM UTC-5, ehha...@gmail.com wrote:
My first post. You guys are probably sick of posts about tone, but here goes. The last year or so I've gone from steel-string electric fingerstyle to nylon. (Still play mostly jazz, bosa nova, and latin.) I'm self taught and am having many struggles,
of course, starting with unlearning 60 years of bad habits. A major problem is that my tone is dead high up on the neck, especially around the 12th fret and above. I've experimented with strings, string weight and action and searched the internet, and so
far, zip. Yes, I know I should study with a good teacher. But I'm wondering if there is something I'm simply overlooking.
Thanks in advance.
'Moribund' or not, some of the newsnet groups seem a bit more lively of
late? I always found these groups less herd-like than forums with an
apparent identity so I was glad to find a bit of life in a few
text-based places.
I'm not a great player and I've never had the money for the best gear,
but I've always had ideas about what to me is good tone and have been
aware of some factors that feel almost random or that are beyond the
player. For one thing I have always had problems with my home that
guitars aren't happy with, as it were. Maybe this guitar sounded great
in the shop or when the fella was setting it up at the factory. There is
a particular European manufacturor of quality instruments who UK
distributor seems to have no idea how to store guitars, as I've seen for
myself three times.
Others times I've been sitting playing and not too happy with my sound.
I'll put my little heater on and half an hour later I seem to have a
different guitar.
My nylon string guitar seems to sound best if only tone-wise with a low
action, and played almost as if touch-tying the music, no real effort.
With full classical action it seems a muddy kind of sound. Once I had optimised the action for good tone the intonation had started to suffer
due to the geometry behind intonation. I have a new saddle and am about
to try and find the middle ground just before the intonation starts to
go off. If the bridge were about 1.5mm forward the low action and gentle playing would work.
Not that I'm taking no blame, and after 35 years I should be much better
at the guitar, and better able to decide good tone. I cut my nails
recently due to a breakage or two and odd growth and breakage patterns,
hoping unreasonably for a fresh set of problem-free nails so it's been
weeks since I've heard a guitar sounding good.
Damp in my home though has repeatedly been something that's stolen what
had once been a nice sound in the upper registers when the bad fortune
of having to live in my home first befell an instrument. Well done if
such conditions are of no concern or all in the past for you but is
there really no external factor of this kind to consider?
Basically I'm saying you're probably great but your home and guitar are gaslighting you. Gaslighting is everywhere these days...
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