I have asked this question in the NEWBIE section yesterday and received some good replies; however, I would like to open it up to other guitarists and see if you might add to the wisdom already provided.
I seem to break the #1 string during heavy bends. I had a set of extra lights on, which lasted about 3 months, until it broke. I noticed a roughness during a bend on the first string around the 6th fret, which seemed like a rough fret or wearing string. It went away after several minutes of bending on that fret and string. Shortly after, the string broke and I replaced it with a heavier string (Yamaha string), which broke within several hours of playing. Some replies from the above link suggested that I look into smoothing out the fret/s if they look rough. At present, they do not look rough to the eye or feel when bending a string. I also mentioned that on a particular song I'm learning I use my ring finger for bending while my middle finger is placed on the fret below to assist the bend (weak ring finger). This applies extra pressure on the string as it rubs over the fret between the two fingers performing the bend. My question is:
Is this bad form for bending a string? And can this technique be the culprit for wearing the string and/or fret excessively?
Thanks again for those who offered there wisdom and those who will 8)
SPORT
Of course it's better if you can do the bend with ring only, but there are loads of times when I and others use a middle finger aswell, because it's no in use for the next note or whatever.
Try to practice doing it with just the ring finger. Then when you know you can, chose whether you want to go back or not.
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