Waking up my Fingers or my Guitar?

[bluesbassdad]

LP's comments in a fingerstyle thread started me thinking about my Esteve, which I hardly ever play. If the market for guitars weren't so sour, I probably would have tried to sell it by now.

If I could grow decent fingernails, I might play it more. Then again I might not. Nothing sounds worse to my ear in a blues band than fingernails on the strings of an electric bass.

Nevertheless, I got it out and did a few exercises on it while I was watching TV. "Yep" I said to myself, "It sounds like rubber bands on a cigar box."

Then a strange thing happened. It started sounding not so bad. Pretty darned good, actually.

I wonder what happened. Did I unconsciously make adjustments in my technique to achieve a better sound? Could be. It takes very little to get lots of sound out of my Lowden. Maybe I started with the lighter touch that the Lowden thrives on and then gradually built up the energy I was imparting to the strings.

There's probably someone out there who will say I just had to wait for the guitar to wake up. I rather doubt that, but I don't really have a convincing, alternate explanation.