View Single Post
  #10  
Old 02-17-2020, 02:26 AM
Red_Label Red_Label is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 1,632
Default

My opinion is that short nails filed correctly and sanded with 600 grit sandpaper lend themselves to a full tone and precise technique. Too long and the playing can be bright and clickity-clacky. A short nail combined with the tip of the flesh can produce a very smooth and full tone. I believe that I started to form that opinion during my time as a classical guitar performance major in a university program headed by Christopher Parkening... who had excellent, full tone... much like his mentor, Andres Segovia.

This is also the case when playing a guitar with a plectrum. Overtones can be acheived by playing with a combination of both the pick and fingertip, that cannot be acheived with just one or the other. Thirty-five years as an electric guitarist has taught me that. There are certainly many great exceptions (Django Reinhardt on the one extreme, Mark Knopfler on the other), but most great electric players play where the pick tip and finger tips contact the string at nearly the same time. The key variable being the percentage of each used.
Reply With Quote