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  #1  
Old 07-14-2020, 02:54 PM
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Default specs for hybrid playing on a National reso

Hi guys,

what are your specs for hybrid play (slide and fretted) on a National spanish neck reso? I'm looking for neck relief and 12th fret action measurements. Assume an open D or G tuning on John Pearse stock medium strings.
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Old 07-14-2020, 05:07 PM
blue blue is offline
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I like 3/32nds on the 1st string, and just a hair more on the 6th. works for aggressive slide and standard playing for me.

With that action relief has to be pretty much flat. Chording on the first five frets gets sketchy with a lot of relief for me. You may find you like some relief. Not me.
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Old 07-14-2020, 05:44 PM
Ben M. Ben M. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blue View Post
I like 3/32nds on the 1st string, and just a hair more on the 6th. works for aggressive slide and standard playing for me.
This is where I like it too.

I’d highly recommend using a 15 or 16 gauge string for your high e. You’ll get a lot fuller sound with your slide.

A lot of slide players like to use an unwound G string. I tried it once and didn’t care for it but it might be worth looking into.
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Old 07-15-2020, 08:49 AM
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Thanks guys.
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Old 07-16-2020, 06:41 AM
MC5C MC5C is offline
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I agree with the setup, but you might need to make a decision regarding compensation. High action means high compensation for fretting above the fourth or fifth fret, and at the 12th fret you'll need a fair bit to get that fretted note in tune, particularly with an unwound G (third) string, which as people say is nice to get a consistent tone with the bottleneck slide. But when you use the bottleneck around the 12th fret the notes across the slide, not needing compensation at all, will be quite out of tune, which can be a problem if you play chords with your bottleneck slide up the neck. So you get to a deal where you can either be in tune for fretted work, or in tune for slide work, but not both. There's workarounds (a heavy slide vibrato works wonders for out of tune notes...) but at the very least you should be aware of the issue. Lap style square necks are set up with zero compensation, bridge is exactly set at scale length for all strings. For bottleneck you need to kind of figure out where you need it at.
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Old 07-16-2020, 10:25 AM
blue blue is offline
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Originally Posted by MC5C View Post
I agree with the setup, but you might need to make a decision regarding compensation. .
I don't sweat it. Good enough for Son House an Bukka, good enough for me. If you mute, which you have to, you know you're throwing everything off a little anyway.

But, and it's a big but, I did glue an extra piece of wood onto the saddle of my Baritone tricone to tweak intonation. Not my innovation. Pretty standard hack on baritones.
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