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YOU ARE HERE <<Guitar Tips>> Acoustic Guitar Tips Are
your fingers ready? Are
your fingers ready? Always keep your nails smooth. If you don't your liable to snag the strings. If your nails are weak, then cutting them back more often will make them stronger and harder. Always keep some nail clippers and a file in your guitar case. Some guitarists even use nail varnish to harden their nails. If you're a macho type who doesn't like the idea of going round with pink nails, or whatever, you can always use clear varnish. It goes without saying that you should keep the nails of your fretting hand nice and short. Sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised by the number of students we have come across with horrible claws on their fretting hand. Some guitarists favour fingerpicks. If you want to use fingerpicks always use good quality metal ones. Plastic fingerpicks are useless. You will sound louder with fingerpicks and they are good for a more percussive style. The
downside is that it's very difficult to use fingerpicks for intricate
fingerstyle work. However, some players swear by them and at the end of
the day it comes down to personal choice. Extremes
of temperature and humidity are not good for your guitar Tips
On Tuning Your Guitar Sometimes you need to do a quick check and you don't have time to use these things. You have to see very quickly during a performance or something which string is giving you trouble. This is my way that works very well for me, even if the guitar doesn't have the most accurate set up in the world. Realise please that this is the method to use AFTER the regular tuning is done. These pitches will sometimes be an octave or two higher than the lower string being checked. The lower strings should NOT be overly tightened to get to the same octave as the note being played on the 'High E' or other higher string. This is a fine tuning pitch check in different octaves with the exception of the 'B' string. It's usually pretty easy to tell if your first or 'High E' string is in tune by listening to other instruments or if playing solo, in tune with yourself, and the intonation on most guitars is usually pretty accurate on that string because of the small diameter so I start with that one. First, play a 'B' on the 'High E' string to check your 'B' string. Second, play a 'G' on the 'High E' string to check your 'G' string. Third, play a 'D' on your 'High E' string to check your 'D' string. Fourth, play an 'A' on your 'High E' string to check your 'A' string. Lastly, play the 'High E' string open and check your 'Bass E' string. If you have time, one last check for an even better fine-tuning...Very quickly after some practice of course, play some octaves: Play 'G' on your 'High E' string to check the 'G' string once more. Play 'D' on your 'B' string to check your 'D' string. Play 'A' on your 'G' string to check your 'A' string. Lastly, play 'E' on your 'D' string to check your 'Bass E' string. This may seem complicated reading it for the first time but after you struggle through it once or twice, you'll see it's very easy. The positions are very easy to remember. I figured this method out before I could even read music for the guitar. Each check only takes me about 3 - 6 seconds. Another tuning tip: When you tune a guitar string, always start below the desired note and tune up to pitch not down to pitch. This will help prevent the string from going flat during play. From:
Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar
Tips Buying
a beginner acoustic guitar Answer: In the beginner guitar market they're all about the same, usually made in Korea and made out of laminates (plywood). Try to stick with a name brand. I don't want to say particular ones here but you know the popular ones you see all the time. If you want a beginner guitar that you want to grow with a little, try to get a "Solid Spruce Top". That means at least the face of the guitar which is the most important, is made of solid wood. Price ranges for acceptable beginner guitars are about $200-$500 USD. Make sure the guitar plays easy for you, the strings don't buzz when you play them, and the intonation (octaves of the strings) is good by playing the string open and then on the 12th fret. The note should sound the same only an octave higher, not sharp or flat. Try to find the best warranty you can find. I doubt if you'll find a lifetime but a 5 year warranty wouldn't be too much to look for. You can't expect to get top quality materials in a beginner guitar but there are things to look out for. Ideally, the fretboard and bridge should be made out of hardwood like rosewood or ebony. In a beginner guitar manufacturers will make bridges out of plastic sometimes or they'll use soft wood and paint it black to make it look like ebony. To test these, VERY GENTLY push your fingernail into the fretboard and bridge to see how soft they are. Another test is have the salesperson loosen a string and then remove a bridgepin to see a cross section of the wood used in the bridge. If the bridge seems hard but you see no wood grain, it's probably made of plastic. From:
Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar
Tips Clean
strings played with clean hands last longer From:
Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar
Tips Slide
Guitar Tips Metal
slides are good for more attack, especially electric. Experiment with
heavy or light metal - both produce different sounds. Basically, the heavier
the slide the more sustain you will get, while for faster slide playing
a light slide is better. Finding
the perfect acoustic guitar for fingerstyle The neck is very important too. You need to have the action setup so you can play comfortably all over the neck and the spacing of the strings needs to be right for your hand to allow for complex and quick movements. I don't believe you are guaranteed a good sounding and playing fingerstyle guitar just because you buy a famous brand name. Every guitar is different and you need to find the ONE that speaks to YOU. The guitars with brand names you recognize have their reputation for a reason, and there are considerations about solid tops, spruce or cedar, etc..., but the bottom line is, the guitar needs to totally turn YOU on. You should love playing it so that when you have it at home, you want to play it every chance you get. Don't let a salesman tell you what you need. More expensive won't always make the guitar sound or play better to you. Please don't ever buy a guitar because of some one day sales price or losing out on some special deal a salesman is pushing. Your guitar will hopefully be your close friend for the rest of your life....pick the best one you can. This may mean looking for a long time and going into some stores over and over. Your music is worth the wait. This
tip is from: Tim Gaulden
is a fingerstyle guitarist from Colorado. Change
strings - one at a time From:
Guitar Man Acoustic Guitar
Tips Getting
new strings to stay in tune
Planes
can be bad for guitars We
thank http://www.thereallybig.com
for this tip. TheReallyBig.com happens to be an awesome web design site
run by musicians. Well, stranger things happen in cyberspace. Can
I put steel strings on my classical guitar? How
do I make my acoustic guitar louder? The soundboard is partly replaced and augmented with a metal soundboard. The result is an intriguing sound experiencing resurgent popularity (along with the ukelele and mandolin). Ride the wave back to the original authentic loud acoustic guitar. Along came the electric guitar, of course, and the Dobro virtually went the way of the Dodo. But
an electric guitar is not the same as an acoustic guitar, either for the
sound or the way it feels when you play. You want a louder acoustic guitar,
not an electric guitar. The contempoary solution is to purchase an acoustic-electric
guitar or to put a pickup in your acoustic guitar. What's
the thing with guitars and humidity? The reason is simple: guitars are made of wood, which changes with the weather, as it absorbs and releases water. If the wood in a guitar releases too much water to the dry air, it is vulnerable in a number of ways. First, not every part on the guitar is made of wood. The wood will shrink when it dries (some of the water that used to be in the guitar goes into the air, so it shrinks). But the frets will not shrink in dry climates; they do not release water. As a result, you risk having exposed frets. Second, due to differential wood densities, there is a change in the shape of the guitar that results in the neck getting closer to the strings where the neck meets the body. Third, your guitar can actually crack. This is not as uncommon as you might think. In northern cities, the winter often brings single-digit relative humidities, well below the tolerance of a guitar constructed in an environment with mid-range humidity. So
unless you are looking for an excuse to buy a new guitar you need to take
some precautions. (If you want an excuse for a new guitar, there's nothing
wrong with that! But we'd recommend giving your guitar to an underprivileged
young person with gift certificates for guitar lessons. It could change
a life, and you still get a new guitar.) We recommend two precautions.
First, do not expose your guitar to dry air, cold or hot. Again, indoors
during the winter are particularly dry due to radiators and heating vents
pumping dry air all day. Second, put a humidifier inside of your guitar
case. These dampits are quite affordable compared to replacing your guitar.
What
difference does the material make on the top of a guitar? Why
do I have to replace my guitar strings? The
Size of Your Guitar... Slightly smaller than a dreadnought is a folk guitar. It also has a 24 to 26 inch scale and fourteen frets. It is a bit less wide, however, being only about 14 1/2 inches wide at the widest point. A classical guitar has a slightly wider fingerboard. Twelve frets are accessible from the body to the nut, and the scale is 24 to 26 inches. As with the folk, it is about 14 1/2 inches wide at its widest point. A 3/4-sized guitar is often popular with younger players. It has twelve frets from the body to the nut, and a slightly shorter scale of 23 to 24 inches. At its widest point, it is about 13 1/4 inches wide. A 1/2-sized guitar is strictly for much smaller players. It has 12 frets from the body to the nut, and a 21 to 23 inch scale. It is about 12 to 13 inches wide at its widest point. How
To Record An Acoustic Guitar TIP: record in an environment that sounds good to start with. Ever done it in the bathroom? You might get a great result from those super sound-reflecting tiles. The next most important thing is to position your mics correctly. However, like many things, there's more ways to skin a rabbit etc. We'll concentrate here on a tried and tested method. Position your mic about 24 inches (0.6m) from the neck to body join. The idea behind placing the head of the mic a fair distance from the instrument is to be able to capture some of that resonant air emanating from the instrument. The next thing to do is to fire up your recorder and don some headphones. Now wander slowly around the area with the mic, listening out for that sweet spot. When you find it, stop. Put the mic stand right there and start recording. TIP: If you want your acoustic to sound right up front in your face, record in stereo. That's to say, get two good quality capacitor mics, point them across each other at roughly 90 degrees and keep their heads real close. When you are recording you don't want to hear anything but the guitar. So ban any ticking things like watches from the room. Try to be still and focused when you play. Above all, don't sneeze. You'll know when you have succeeded when you merely have to apply minimal corrections in EQ to achieve a strong and acoustically pure result.
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