Just curious what tricks / tips you guys have to personalize your guitars to make them sound good. ex, string guage, action, and how they relate to your playing.
Personally, I find it easier to play with a med action. 2.0 mm on treble side and bass. For me, it helps if I can get under the strings a bit while bending. I really don't like fet buzzing as I feel it robs the tone / sustain of notes. One thing I found really helps to get a good feel on a strat is to match the bridge saddle's hight to the fretboard radius.
For strings, I like DR pure blues 10's on my strat.
Anyone else?
I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.
- Jimi Hendrix
I use GHS Phosphor Bronze 12's on my acoustic, with med. to high action (Higher the farther up you go)
And Ernie ball Skinny top Heavy bottom 10's on my electric, with med.-low action.
I finger pick when I play slide because IMO it gives you more control over the strings and it has less string noise...
I usally use two fingers when bending more th 1 step for support...
Thats about it...
Stairway to Freebird!
dcarroll
You are doing it right. You set up the guitar the way you like.
I like the action to be as low as possible without fret buzz. I absolutely hate fret buzz. You are gonna hear that on electric AMPLIFIED!
I don't like the pickups to be too close to the strings. When the pickups are too close you get big bass boom especially on the neck pickup. I try to set my pickup height so when I change pickups the volume is the same. I have the pickups a little higher on the treble side than bass.
Having the pickups a little lower also gives increased sustain. I have read that this is caused by the magnetic field of the pickups affecting the strings when they are too close. The pickups can cause the strings to stop vibrating.
Intonation is important to me. I always carefully check that. I make sure that when I fret a note at the 12th fret it is exactly the same note as the open string. So I don't set intonation by playing harmonics. No, I use the fretted note at the 12th fret.
I am not so picky about string brand. I try new brands from time to time. But I always use the same gauge as my guitar is set up for that. Lately I use 9-42 gauge. Years back when I was in a band that used lots of down tunings I used 11-53. You gotta use heavier strings for those down tunings. I also raised the action quite a bit for down tunings as it is far easier to get fret buzz with slack strings.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
I like low low action. My Martin has INSANELY low action and it takes nothing to fret notes and there's no buzz. My Fender acoustic has about medium action, and i like that for fingerpicking. I don't fingerpick the martn. For electrics with single coils, I use .11 D'Addarios. Nice and chunky. For my humbuckers, D'Addario .10s. Like Wes I like my pickups farther from the strings. I also tune all but one of my guitar's down 1/2 step. My Ibanez with the 10s is tuned to standard, while the others are Eb. I use Martin 80/20 Bronze Lights on both acoustics, which are both tuned to Eb. The Eb tuning on the acoustics has a nice mellow sound to my ears, and it's easier on the fingers too.
