Boosting the sound of my highest notes?

My Epi SG can be tricky to fret higher up the neck, I've found that what it really comes down to is just working on finger positioning. I'll have a whole slew of half muted notes and then shift my finger slightly and they ring a lot clearer. Adding an EQ into the mix would let you boost the levels of the higher ranges over those of the lower, but the notes would still be muffled and die off quickly. I think there's a good chance that this is one of those miserable practice situations. As for things being easier on the Strat, my Strat has a scale length of 25 1/2 inches, my SG (which is the same scale length as a Les Paul I believe) is a 24 3/4 scale length, that means that the spacing between each fret will be slightly larger on the strat, giving you more room to sneak those fingers between the close packed higher frets.

I think there's a good chance that this is one of those miserable practice situations..

Is there a pedal for that? ;)

By working on my positioning and coming at the notes head on as you suggested, it seems to help.

You can raise the treble sides of your pickups if you want...That would increase the volume of the treble strings. I don't seem to have that problem with my les paul though.

Let's rehash this again. I've been playing a song lately that I'm really happy with, but there's one little part with several notes beyond the 15th fret, and it just sounds terrible.. even with the proper fretting technique. It just sounds so absolutely hollow.

I know this was the question I posed to start the thread, but how do the blues guys (or any type of guitarist in general) put some umph behind those notes? I'm tending to lean towards the solution being an equipment thing, as I'm more or less properly fretting it. My hand is kind of at an angle, and as I move over to those higher frets it straightens out for easier access, and still no luck. Would something like a tubescreamer help? I know an EQ pedal was mentioned earlier, I'll try and look at one of those.

I'm going to stop in at a guitar shop one of these days and try banging around on a Strat for awhile, I get the feeling the fretboard is contributing to this more and more. Yeah, it's easier to blame the fretboard over your technique, but even after watching like a hawk over what I'm doing, I'm still nowhere near happy with the outcome.

I'd like to get it straightened away with out messing with my pickups, but I could move them up on one end like Taso recommended.. would that make a significant enough difference to warrant the hassle, though?

Technique wise, I do this wierd thing with my thumb when I get to the upper frets. Once the heel of the guitar neck comes into play, I swing my thumb around to the 1st string side of the neck. I grip the neck with the meaty part of my hand at the base of my thumb. This allows me to cleanly fret the upper part of the neck. Here is a pic, I know it's on a Strat style guitar but I have several guitars of different styles and I do it on all of them and have no problem with sustain or volume on the upper frets.

Here is a little blurb I recorded using this technique. It's the intro to BOC's Last Days in May. I used a Les Paul style guitar with 24 3/4" scale and it is on the frets shown in the pic as that is what I was playing when the pic was taken.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=476208&songID=5094862

Could it be that it is a setup problem? If the strings are "fretting out" by slightly touching one of the frets further up, the note can get muffled. I have these kinds of problems, but they are uniform across all my guitars, and have gotten better with practice. But, when the action on my 51 was lower, I think I had more of a problem...you can simply try raising the action a little bit and see if it helps ..

Why not put a compressor in the chain to boost the weak signals?

Best,

A :-)

Why not put a compressor in the chain to boost the weak signals?

This is a very good solution, and is also what I do. If I don't use a compressor when I'm playing solos that include bends at the 22:nd fret you can barely hear that high e, but with a compressor it works really well.

It's not really fretting out, and it's not really muffled. I can get some sustain from notes played there.. it's just it's not really that impressive sounding. I'm tending to rule out technique because even when I'm not playing I'll take it and fool around very slowly testing notes here and there, and it still isn't all that well.

How would raising the action help? Other than if the strings were getting cut out by the frets due to a poor set-up.

I'll add the compressor to my list of solutions. I'm thinking I'll try and mess around with an EQ pedal or a compressor, see what is up. How exactly does the compressor work in the guitar chain? Don't be too specific though, I don't want this moved to the effects forum.. even though that tends to be where it's going. ;)

Thanks for all the ideas, it's been very helpful.

It could be how you're fretting it. I know thats been suggested already. Do you mind if I ask how long you've been playing? I used to have your same problem, but after playing for awhile it just comes within your fingers and technique that you learn on your own. I'm not trying to come off as some expert as I've only been playing for 3 years. However if I think back to 6 months ago, I realize that I really sucked back then, and I'll think the same about now in 6 months.

Think of it this way. A guy I was jamming with once, with the intention of joining his band, had been playing for 15 years. He asked how long I had been playing, which was 2 years at that point; and I thought I was pretty decent. He told me to wait until you've been playing for 5 years and then it all starts coming together. It's all about time and practice, and more practice, and you guessed it - more practice. For people like me in school that means I have about 3 months during the summer to "improve my theory" and the other 9 months to "maintain"/learn songs at my capability. A lot of these blues players you mentioned who are pretty accomplished players will sound as good on a cheap yamaha as they would on a american deluxe strat or les paul (gibson or epiphone).

However, if you have been playing for awhile (years), ignore everything I just said because you probably knew all that anyhow, and I'd suggest the compressor route.

How would raising the action help? Other than if the strings were getting cut out by the frets due to a poor set-up.
Only in the case that the strings are slightly fretting out, which was my hypothesis when I offered that as a possible solution .. clearly, you've eliminated that possibility.

It could be how you're fretting it. I know thats been suggested already. Do you mind if I ask how long you've been playing? I used to have your same problem, but after playing for awhile it just comes within your fingers and technique that you learn on your own. I'm not trying to come off as some expert as I've only been playing for 3 years. However if I think back to 6 months ago, I realize that I really sucked back then, and I'll think the same about now in 6 months.

Think of it this way. A guy I was jamming with once, with the intention of joining his band, had been playing for 15 years. He asked how long I had been playing, which was 2 years at that point; and I thought I was pretty decent. He told me to wait until you've been playing for 5 years and then it all starts coming together. It's all about time and practice, and more practice, and you guessed it - more practice. For people like me in school that means I have about 3 months during the summer to "improve my theory" and the other 9 months to "maintain"/learn songs at my capability. A lot of these blues players you mentioned who are pretty accomplished players will sound as good on a cheap yamaha as they would on a american deluxe strat or les paul (gibson or epiphone).

However, if you have been playing for awhile (years), ignore everything I just said because you probably knew all that anyhow, and I'd suggest the compressor route.

I've been playing for about two years, and oh, don't get me wrong. I'm certainly not against the idea that it has to do with the way I'm fretting it. But when I sit down and stop playing completely and just test out notes with a variety of fretting positions and I have the same problem, I tend to lean away from the idea that it's solely based on how I fret it. I'm not some super player, I hit the occasional bum note down the neck, but I would like to think at my stage of playing I can begin to tell the difference.

I'm still a beginner and nowhere near knowledgeable about all the ins and outs of a guitar and understand that it takes a lot of gumption (word of the day) to sound like you know what your doing.

I'm playing clean, too.. straight guitar to amp without any effects through the amp, by the way. I'll try playing with a tad bit of gain, and see how that works out.

Players' secret number 71: Work on your vibrato.

Especially playing clean, the higher fretted notes will neither sustain as long nor be as loud at notes fretted much lower. The higher notes will have a fast attack, quick decay, not much sustain and a pretty quick release (ADSR characteristic). After one plays a while, it becomes a natural habit to use vibrato to help keep those high notes "excited." This extends the sustain, plus makes the note a bit more interesting. Bending does somewhat the same thing, though to a lesser extent, because one cannot keep bending in the same direction forever. In both cases the friction of the string on the fret helps keep it vibrating. It's a bit akin to bowing a string.

You know, I believe that is what I do Gnease. That is why I developed my technique with adjusting my thumb, so I can get my fingers in a better position for vibrato. I think you have the answer! 8)