Quote:
Originally Posted by LouieAtienza
A. My experience is the less break angle, the "slacker" the strings usually feel.
B. If the strings are impinged at the nut they can make the guitar play stiff because the string is only stretching between the nut and saddle. With a better fitting nut, the string can "stretch" more as a whole, thus feel more "slack."
C. The straighter the neck, the higher the saddle has to be to accommodate the strings' vibrational path at the lower frets.
D. Top compliance can be analogous to that extra string length behind the nut. This is probably less important than getting the nut fitted right, however.
E. Round-core strings can feel less stiff than hex core strings. Martin FX has a smaller round core which can help. I'm not a big fan of Silk'N'Steel because I feel they take away a little "shimmer" from a guitar.
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Thanks for all of this, Louie. Very interesting and very useful information:
A. String break angle at the nut appears
typical, so no worries there.
B. I'll loosen all strings and make sure they move through the nut slots effortlessly.
C. The neck is pretty doggone straight with no buzzing, which is surprising because my
TechnoFret FretRocker* finds lots of slightly uneven fret pairs...
D. Top Compliance turns out to be something over which I have zero control, and is something I probably shouldn't
ever think about. Speaking as a player rather than a builder,
ignorance is bliss.
For anyone interested in Top Compliance,
here's a neat introduction I Googled up.
E. Thanks for round-core strings tip. I'm already aware of that, but there aren't a lot of choices for round-core.
I'll look into the Martin FX. Thanks for the suggestion.
*(Murray, your Ebay store has gone CRAZY in terms of its GBP-to-USD conversions. Time for a tune-up...)