One guitar squeaks way more than my others!!

[jpfeiff]

Anyone else had this experience? I have several guitars, all strung with Elixir Nanowebs, either light or mediums. One of my guitars just seems to generate WAY more string and neck squeak than any of the others. I'm working on being more conscious of my left-hand technique, but there are a lot of songs where I WANT to slide between chords--on this particular guitar, especially when its amplified, the squeak is just piercing. Really a drag because otherwise it's one of the nicest guitars I own. Is squeak always a function of just fingers and strings, or does it have to do with the construction of the guitar and neck?

Oh yes, this is also the only guitar that I have a B-Band undersaddle in--the others are Fishman.

[donh]

If the one guitar/pickup has more treble reponse than the others, it will squeak more than the others by definition!

[mmmaak]

Originally Posted by donh

If the one guitar/pickup has more treble reponse than the others, it will squeak more than the others by definition!

+1 on that. After all, the guitar is, quite simply, a resonating chamber with a hole.

Having said that, if you can generate that much squeak with Nanowebs, you must be a pretty heavy-handed player or have callouses made out of blackboard material

Many play Elixirs because it covers up their "squeaky" technique

[jpfeiff]

Originally Posted by mmmaak

Many play Elixirs because it covers up their "squeaky" technique

So I've heard! This makes it all the more frustrating--makes me think I'll never get rid of the squeak! As for heavy-handed playing, that's probably part of the issue, but I do not have this problem on my other guitars...

[mmmaak]

Originally Posted by jpfeiff

So I've heard! This makes it all the more frustrating--makes me think I'll never get rid of the squeak! As for heavy-handed playing, that's probably part of the issue, but I do not have this problem on my other guitars...

Was this an issue when you first played it?

Sounds like your guitar is pretty "resonant" at the frequencies that cause squeaking. How do other strings fare?

I suppose you could try something like GHS Fast Fret. Though, they aren't usually recommended for coated strings so you'd better ask Elixir if any chemical reaction with the coating is a possibility.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by jpfeiff

...One of my guitars just seems to generate WAY more string and neck squeak than any of the others.

Hi jpfeiff...
Yup, one of mine too, and the tone of that guitar is brighter as well.

Some guitars seem to transfer more 'squeak' than others, and that's the one I practice on when I'm trying to clean up my technique.

Two things that have helped me...

• Smooth my callus on the fretting hand with an emery board...
• Alter my fretting technique when moving up the neck rapidly...

Both require a bit of deliberate work, the second meaning I have to concentrate or perhaps even reconfigure a passage of an arrangement to accommodate the guitar's strength when it comes to projecting those high frequencies.

A third thing with that guitar is I never put 80/20 bronze strings on it (only phosphor bronze).