How to play particular guitars / pickups ?

sev112

in the thread on "liking/disliking strats" someone mentioned that they play differently with different guitars, suggesting much greater picking attack on a strat and much less on a 335 say

that's a novel thought to me, but appears to have some logic

so, how do you like to play with yours ?  

pintspiller

I play more bass than guitar these days. I find that when I change from pick to fingers, depending on song, that the difference in volume between the two styles differs from gigging to rehearsal/home practise.

With guitars I find that the middle pickup interferes with my strumming.

Phil_aka_Pip

@sev112 interesting. Although I lurve my 335, I find the quack sound it makes when you give it stick is nowhere near as good as the sound it makes when you treat it gently, coaxing the music out of it instead of beating the music out of it. There are probably lots of other people who like it the other way round, but that's my take

stimpsonslostson

I attack my telecaster & really play hard on it. With my Gretsch I'm much more reserved. 
Telecasters sound best when hit hard I think. 

Funkfingers

sev112 said:

someone

It was I.


For Blues-Rock guitar stylings, it is common to set the amplifier controls to achieve some overdriven break up when playing hard.

For any specific guitar, the amount of playing force that carries the guitar across that threshold of overdrive might be different to other guitars available to you. The trick is to find the spot for each guitar and, then, control your touch accordingly.

In that other thread, Schnozz mentioned using his P90-equiped SG. In my opinion, a mahogany slab with P90s is the perfect exemplar of the sort of guitar that you can "milk" these tonal variations from.


In the realms of bass guitar, on a fretted instrument, the attack transient is an important feature of the overall tone. On fretless, the relative absence of metallic attack transient overtones is a major feature. This can be emphasised by using calluses to scrape across the strings for a bowing effect.

sev112

My band keeps telling me to turn up, and to kick in a boost of some kind to cut through on the "instrumentals"
when we were recording this summer the engineer kept saying "hit the strings harder"

maybe be this is my Renaissance moment

Funkfingers

My local Martin dealer derives great amusement at the expense of punters who cannot get a decent sound out of a D-28 because they are afraid to give it anywhere near enough welly. 

Roland

different guitars encourage different playing styles.

Partly you’re driven to it by the physical differences. Smaller radius necks encourage thumb over, and flatter encourages barres. Telecasters and SGs project their necks in front of you. Les Paul’s tend to stick closer to the body. Archtops and acoustics are always going to be more cumbersome than solid bodies.

Partly because the sound is, or can be, different. You see a lot of humbucker players who either play chords or single note runs. Whereas Strat players, and to a lesser extent, Tele players play a combination of chords and single notes. 

When end it comes to acoustics some sound better picked, some strummed, some given the D28 treatment.

sev112 said:

so, how do you like to play with yours ?  

Over the last few years I’ve gravitated towards Teles. Like Keef and Wilko they encourage a bit of swaggering around the stage. The real reason is that I want something which allows me to get close to both Strat and LP sounds and playing styles without changing guitar.

LesbianWithAGun

I was caught without a pick and I wanted to play so I played my Gibson Custom Shop with a 5p (five pence piece) and...
I did the 5p more damage using it as a guitar pick and not the guitar by using a 5p as a guitar pick...
I saw Brian May's guitar tech refer to them or shillings or whatever, but... The 5ps do have that edge that you can lock on to a guitar string and run up and down to/slide with it on its edge, and I swear it's made out of nickel anyway but...
I found it was...
Richer...
On a Gibson Les Paul with aftermarket Seymour Duncan humbuckers.
I have a video of it, on instragram only

I've since found a guitar pick, but I got to do a 'Brian May' (of Queen).

Sassafras

I play the same way whatever I'm using, badly.

stickyfiddle

Funkfingers said:

My local Martin dealer derives great amusement at the expense of punters who cannot get a decent sound out of a D-28 because they are afraid to give it anywhere near enough welly. 

lol - that's exactly why I like my HD28. I can hit it plenty hard and it just gets better and better