Thumb over - Good or bad?

[Aaron Smith]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Just another technique to be applied judiciously. You can't play a decent Cannonball Rag without wrapping the thumb and you can't play a Lauro Waltz with a wrapped thumb!

This nails it. For the non-classical stuff, I have found some of the Gary Davis chords very handy; for instance, it's nice to be able to hook a thumb up to make an E or C barre shape, and still have a pinky free for melody notes.

[bluesbassdad]

Bullsprig,

I don't think I"ve ever seen Adrian Legg and SRV in the same list before.

Very eclectic!

[BULLSPRIG]

Adrian Legg is hilarious. He's a guitar genius. He sometimes plays silly things intended to make people laugh. Funny scales and riffs. But I think he's amazing, along with being silly.

[waveform]

Damaged my pinky whenst I was a young lad, so I give the thumbs up to using the thumb. When you think of its just another E, depending on your tuning.
I would really like to start doing some country walking bass lines with my thumb.

[Neal]

Originally Posted by Herb Hunter

For some types of music using the left thumb may even be necessary. It can be bad if someone is using that thumb to avoid learning a better way of fretting.

This sums it up, and yet I still want to add to it. I won't, it'd be like adding a verse to the Constitution.

[TomHB]

I don't think you should use it to avoid being able to play full barre chords, but it has it's place:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVGITewzMNg

Also playing a song with many barre chords, it's nice to mix it up to keep the tendons happy...