Guitar stuff

Well, I never learned to type, either, but thanks for trying to make me feel better.

 

The A can be difficult when you are learning.
The E shape and A shape bar chords are tough at first, too. Just takes practice. I don't have thick fingers, but I struggled with those chords at first.

Two interesting points nobody explained to me when I started playing, which was pre-internet:
1. Different models and makes of guitars have different nut widths and string spacing.
B. Entry-level guitars can often be improved by getting a better set-up. Better intonation and low action, as an example, might help a beginning player quite a bit.

As more info about point B, I have an old, junky Harmony. It was my first non-student acoustic. I believe I posted about this before, but several years ago I had a buddy work on it.
This thing was a real hand-buster, but after he reset it, the action was much lower. Plays much better now.
Intonation is better, too.
Replaced cheap, plastic nut and bridge, and the overall tone and volume is better.

 

I should point out, however, that a lot guitars come from the manufacturer with a great set up.
Factory set ups are generally much better now than they were in 1986 or '87 when I bought that Harmony.

I am also the pro downer of a much older Harmony now, and archtop that I think is around 1958.
Action is great, but the neck profile is a deep U. So it sits a bit awkward in the hand.

And it has brass frets, so it takes some practice to get it to sound good. I have been playing my Morgan Monroe and my Telecaster almost exclusively for the past couple of years.
If I pick up the Harmony flattop or the Harmony archtop, they don't sound as good because they have to be played a little differently to optimize their tonal qualities.

 

Buck, mine is a Yamaha. It set me back a little, but it seems easy to play (for an acoustic), sounds nice, and got tremendous reviews.

 

That's what mine is. Seems too nice for me.

 

I figure I should be playing that thing Jack White makes at the beginning of "It Might Get Loud."

 

Have fun playing your guitars, guys. I find it's a good chill-out activity, especially when my wife and kids aren't around to complain ...

And Sunshine, for an A chord, I just slap the top of my middle finger across the D, G and B strings on the second fret. Barre chords are tough for me, too ... it's tough get the "seal" with your pointer finger.

 

Are you barring the three strings with your index finger or are you trying to hold the three strings down with three different fingers?

 

Latter. What's barring? Picture please.

 

If you bar that first-position A major, just don't let the high E string ring.
Downside is you lose an open string, and ringing open string is a big part of that sound one associates with first-position chords and the acoustic guitar.

Yamaha makes a pretty good guitar, and it's certainly a much nicer starter than I had. I haven't played one in a long time, so I don't remember much about the string spacing or the neck profile.
and most manufacturers make multiple models - dreadnought, OM, etc. - which will also change some of the specs as well as the tonal qualities.
A dreadnought style guitar is what you associate with bluegrass flat picking and with classic rock or country strumming.
An OM is what what you might associate with fingerstyle playing.
That are, of course, just generalizations. You can finger pick a dreadnought or strum an OM or 000.

When I was just starting out, I'd go the music store and page through those simple song books, memorize the chord diagrams, and then go home to practice them.
I was 17, so I needed my money for pot and beer. I didn't want to buy the song books.

 

I'm taking pics of my guitars this weekend and posting them next week.
All my gear is funky, low-end stuff. One day I'll buy a Martin D-18 or D-28, but I don't have one yet.

 

I can't find a good picture, but the idea is to run your index finger flat across the three strings. If you do it right and flex the first joint of the finger, you can still keep it off the high E string. If you were doing a five-string barre chord for B, you'd be barring the same three strings with your ring finger.