Hi Again Andy,
I've replied to your later email before as I'm sort of working backwards
through my mail at the moment! Very confusing I know! Haha. Anyway, I think
you'll find that you'll definitely need to change those strings. I tend to
change mine every couple of months depending on how much I've played it. If
I'm performing or recording a project, I'll change them. You get used to the
sound of the guitar when it's got nice spanky new strings so, once the sound
starts to go off a bit or you can feel them being a little grubby, it's time
for a change!
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Andy C
Sent: 27 August 2020 08:12
To: vibe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vibe] Re: Guitar strings for a Martin acoustic
Thanks David and Chris.
It rather sounds like it’s a problem here to stay because the problem really
isn’t so much in the string type as it is in the hands that play. I’m still
using the same strings that came with the instrument six months ago, and I’m
beginning to think the problem is getting worse not better with age. I also
have an electric with its original strings on from 12 months ago. This last
year is the first time that I’ve started being serious about my playing, and
have dedicated more practice time to it. I know strings wear in before they
wear out, but those of you that are more experienced players than me, how much
life is there in a set of strings used on a daily basis?
Andy Collins
Sent from my iPhone
On 26 Aug 2020, at 11:28 pm, DandGReay (Redacted sender dandgreay for DMARC)
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi, Andy,
This is a subject dear to my heart. I'm a very squeaky player. Sometimes I
put it down to feeling my way around the frets. I use a lot of rather
tortured jazz chords and go up and down the neck a lot. String squeak is the
bane of my life. I recently made some recording sfor a solo album and bought
loads of sets, coated and non-coated. I even went to the lengths of putting
six bottom E strings on my own Martin OOO to see which squeaked the least.
Guess what! They all squeaked exactly the same. The one thing I thought made
a difference was the gauge. I normally use Martin lights with the E string at
12. I thought 11ss, with their slightly lighter winding squeaked less than
12's. I didn't try 10's, but the same may apply. Of course, power chords on 5
and 6 are likely to be pretty squeaky. The more wound strings you play and
slide about on, the more squeak you'll get. I did once find some ground
strings, which are wound and then ground smooth. I think they were D'Addario
and supposed to be for blue grass. I tried to find them recently on the
Strings Direct website where I originally got them, but couldn't find them.
Trouble was, I didn't really like their tone much anyway. On an electric jazz
guitar I use tapewound strings for less squeak and an authentic sound, but
I've never seen these for acoustics. I believe John Williams put a lot of
work into learning to lift the fingers off the strings when moving up the
neck to avoid the squeak, but it takes some doing! A sound engineer I
recorded with recently said you should rub your fingers on your scalp to get
a little grease on them to help avoid it. I also find new strings squeak more
than used ones and that using lubricants such as Fastfret make it worse. Hope
something in my ramblings is helpful,
Cheers,
David
-----Original Message-----
From: vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:vibe-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf ;
Of Andy C
Sent: 26 August 2020 22:27
To: vibe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [vibe] Guitar strings for a Martin acoustic
I bought this Martin acoustic 000-15 M 12 months ago, and it came with the
recommended strings for this model. The whole guitar is solid mahogany and it
has a lovely tone and is very playable. However, I’m getting a lot of string
squeak, particularly playing power chords on strings five and six. anybody
got any suggestions for strings that produce warm tones but with less finger
friction sound?
Andy Collins
Sent from my iPhone
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