Quote:
Originally Posted by leew3
(Post 7097310)
As a long time exclusively acoustic player I was seduced by the Fender Classic Vibe series Tele at a great price. When I got it I noticed that when playing a bass part while strumming on an E chord in first position the B and C# were sharp...The guitar was fine, my acoustic muscled left hand was bending the notes with way too much pressure on the strings...
So, as a humbled newby coming back to playing an electric on occasion I now know I've got a lot to learn...
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brent Hutto
(Post 7097406)
The first time 15 years ago I tried playing a Telecaster, I had long carefully shaped and polished nails for playing classical guitar. You haven't lived until you've tried to get a sweet, warm tone out of a Telecaster with a microphonic bridge pickup while using a firm, classical-style right hand with long nails to pluck those 9-gauge strings. Through a single-ended Champ clone with a 6" speaker.
That experiment didn't last long.
|
When I started playing in 1962 most of the big-city teachers were veterans of the Big-Band era, accustomed to playing 17"/18" comp boxes with 14-gauge strings (often with a wound B), and when us kids needed to replace a broken string (or a rusty set) on our Harmony archtops the only thing available at the local record-
cum-music shop were the old New Brunswick "black-box" Black Diamond strings - which, I'm thoroughly convinced, were pressed into service when cable delivery to the then under-construction Verrazano-Narrows Bridge ran late...
I've heard tell some of the Boy Scouts among us built up a healthy log of merit badge credits opening tough jars for elderly neighbors - even as kids we developed Hulk-like left-hand strength - and if you ever got into an old-fashioned Brooklyn throwdown with a guitar player and he had you by the throat, you'd best pray that he had a soft right fist... :eek:
Leo Fender introduced his Telecaster (
nee Broadcaster) into this general postwar milieu, equipped with the then-new "light-gauge" flatwound 12's that would not only provide a still-familiar feel - guitarists could drop the action hairsbreadth-low without buzzing and still play in tune - but allowed for bending without the use of the whammy bars that would become
de rigeur for many makers (including Fender) within a few years...
Both my Fenders - a since-sold first-run late-CBS '52 Tele reissue, and my current MIJ '86 Fender/Squier Strat - were set up this way, as Leo shipped them back in the day: IME I get the best feel
and tone - instant cure for any complaints about "thin-sounding" Fenders - and slinky enough that I can do reasonable bends with no trouble (a little secret the '50s rockers - and their Gibson/Epiphone-playing jazzcat cousins - all knew :hmm:)..
While I'd be
extremely careful with that Squier CV Tele - they're not heavy-duty guitars,
nor were they ever intended to be - you shouldn't have any problem going up to a wound-G 11-gauge set for a more familiar playing experience, without needing anything more than a good setup...
As far as fingerstyle is concerned, back in the early-60's Gretsch marketed a "Chet Atkins Country Style" string set - standard on all the Chet-endorsed Gretsch models - that TMK ran an ultra-light for the time 11-48/49 (not sure which), with the option of either a wound or plain G (both were included in the handy little plastic string containers, that now fetch a healthy price on their own BTW); I'm thinking if they worked for Chet, a similar set - and an amp with a 12" or 15" speaker, such as he used - should be just the ticket... :up: