Question about strings. Yes I know another string question!

[finger cramps]

To start I have a Washburn dreadnought & a 50's Harmony Archtop that this question is about. I deal with carpal tunnel & a painful joint in my pinkie finger of my fretting hand. At this time I have medium strings on my Washburn & light strings on the Harmony. My thought is to try light strings on the Washburn & extra light on the Harmony to see if it would be easier on my hand. I would like to get other people's input that may be dealing with the same problem and what helped. The action is already low on the Washburn & I'm not sure on the archtop if the action could be any lower.

Thanks for any help
Jeff

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by finger cramps

...The action is already low on the Washburn & I'm not sure on the archtop if the action could be any lower...

Talk to a good tech; if you expect any kind of real tone out of that Harmony (I had an old Broadway years ago) you want a set of mediums on there - save the lights for the Washburn...

[finger cramps]

Thank you. The Harmony had new light strings on it when I bought it a few weeks ago. I just put a new set of medium Elixir polyweb's on the Washburn so it would be awhile before I'll need new strings. The good tech might be the hard part. Our local music store act like they never heard of Aquila strings for ukulele they had D'Addario and said it shouldn't matter about strings that the ukulele is meant to have a toy like sound I have had a chance to try a few medium to high quality ukulele's and I disagree with the toy like sound my entry leavel ukes don't sound like toys . I had ask them about strings for the Harmony their answer was to put light strings on it and if it had mediums I need to change them that being that old it wouldn't have a truss rod and medium strings would put to much tension on the neck. The Harmony is missing the pick guard and they offered to make one for it and told me it would be hard to find one. That's why I use the forum I get better & honest advice.

[Steve DeRosa]

You're batting about .500 with your local music store...

They're right about a couple of things. First off, if you don't see a cover on the headstock your Harmony doesn't have an adjustable truss rod (most of the low/mid-line models didn't have them until the late-50's, if at all); it does, however, have a steel reinforcing rod like many of the '30s-40s archtops from Kalamazoo, Gretsch, Vega, Martin, Kay, and even D'Angelico - simply put, as long as there's no warping and/or the neck isn't pulling out of the body you're good to go with mediums. They're also right about the pickguard; speaking from experience with my own Harmony they're easy to break and nearly impossible to replace - whether or not to have one made is strictly up to you...

As far as anything else is concerned, you might do well to spend a little time/gas/money on a drive to Atlanta; while I'm not familiar with the market down there it's a large enough city with a thriving music scene - if you post a "Looking for good guitar tech in Atlanta, GA" notice on the General Acoustic Guitar Forum, I'm sure you'll get plenty of recommendations from players in your vicinity...

Good luck...

[finger cramps]

It's a H1311 which should be the same as the H1310 with a different finish. By the Harmony data site a truss rod was not used till 1956. there is no cover on mine. The neck is good and straight at some point it has been re glued for what reason I don't know. I looked on ebay and they have replacement pick guards for my model and the Harmony name is on the pick guard. There is a good chance I'm spending to much time trying to learn to play and that's more of the problem then my broken down hand. I will spend sometimes up to 4 hours or more. There has not been to many days that I have gone without playing the most was spending about 4 days in the hospital after surgery that's been the longest time. I need AAA for guitar.

[Electar]

4 hours of hard practice is too much. Especially if you are 40 or 50 Y/O. A couple of hours a day is plenty if you practice right. If you want to practice 4 hours a day do 2 hours mid morning and 2 hours late evening.

I have 10s on my 40s Kay. 12s would sound better but I do a lot of blues bends and I don't want to pull the guitar apart.

[finger cramps]

A young 52 almost 53 here soon. What gets me trapped is when I get close to getting a bar chord to sound good or a song that is almost recognizable I will keep going & going and before I know it hours have passed. Some times I'll put the guitar down and 10 or 15 minutes later I'm back at it. There is a couple of song I've learned that has a few bends & hammer on's & pull off's . One Pink Floyd song that has bends and bar chords and I use my electric guitars for it the bends & bar chords are easier on the electrics. I get a lot of buzz with bar chords on my acoustics still it's hit or miss sometimes I'll get it and other times a swarm of bee's sound like their coming from the guitar.
Thank you for your reply.

[finger cramps]

Steve DeRosa I did put a set of mediums on the archtop. Cut back on how much time I spend on playing for the hand problems. My high E string broke so I took your advice to see how it would sound with mediums went with the D'Addario's phosphor bronze.