Hi all,
Well, I've been playing now for around seven months and my fingers are 'comfortably numb' and i've got these lovely calluses on the tips of my fingers which, although allow me to play to my hearts content all day, makes pull-offs sound like I'm plucking the string with a plec! :evil:
Does anyone else have this problem or have I just got to hone my technique?
Rock on!
D 8)
I'm nowhere near Chicago. I've got six string, 8 fingers, two thumbs, it's dark 'cos I'm wearing sunglasses - Hit it!
Do the callouses have burrs on them? Mine did that and I had the same problem. I just used a nail file and LIGHTLY filed the burrs off. You dont want to remove the callous, but unwanted dead skin.
Best
Jim
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
why is that not a good thing?
why is that not a good thing?
Well, if you mean sounding like you're plucking the string...I don't know really - I suppose it's not the sound it produces, more the inconsistency - one time it will be nice and smooth and the next it catches and is louder....
No, they haven't got burrs on them so I don't need to take a file to them.
I suppose practice, practice, practice...
D 8)
I'm nowhere near Chicago. I've got six string, 8 fingers, two thumbs, it's dark 'cos I'm wearing sunglasses - Hit it!
sometimes I have callous ridges sometimes not. I do notice when the ridges grab just a bit more. I kinda like it.
I don't hear much difference. maybe I have old geezer hearing.
I sometimes get the same thing. Its mostly because my callous are very rigid at that point in tyime. The callous seem to have thier own cycle. They build up (then I get that plucking sound) and then they wear down (get rounder or softer). My hands are very dry so that may contribute as well.
On a somewhat related thought...I love tha fact that it freaks out my friends when I tap my fingers with my left (fretting) hand. Sounds like I'm using steel tips or something!!! :lol:
Teamwork- A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.
On a somewhat related thought...I love tha fact that it freaks out my friends when I tap my fingers with my left (fretting) hand. Sounds like I'm using steel tips or something!!! :lol:
I'm not alone!!!
Never lost my callouses when I stopped playing years ago and had great with this! Easily amused, I guess. :lol:
"...I don't know - but whasomever I do, its gots ta be FUNKY!"
Are you sure that it's not your technique? Ik took me more then a year to get my pulls at the same (mediocre :lol: ) level as my hammers. In a sense you are picking the string, so they are much more articulated and defined then if you'd play legato on a violin or such. How much you hear it depends how strongly you 'pick' the string when pulling-off. An excercise I occasionally do is to put your index finger down somewhere, put the ringfinger on the same string two frets up and slowly start pulling and hammering between the two. Do it very slowly and try to get the sounds as similar as you can. Then gradually speed it up. You should be able to keep it going indefinitely (or until your muscles cramp up :D) without using your picking hand at all.
Apart from all that it's also a convenient lick to play. For example, if you're playing a blues in A and you're ending a lick on the A note, you can now also just do such a trill with the G and A notes, just hammering and pulling. All blues legens play it, espescially accoustic, since it'll 'sustain' the note as long as you want it.
It is also possible that your string action is too high. Sometimes you pull off and it sounds nice, then all of a sudden "bong!!"
This can happen if the strings are a little too high. Experiment with lowering the action a little and see if your pulls sound more consistent.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
