Hey guys
I've got a battered old Tanglewood dreadnought that I've been playing a bit more recently (thanks, lockdown). I'm mainly a plectrum strumalong kinda player.
Its strung with Martin 80/20 Bronze 11-52 strings.
Now, on my electrics I'm perfectly happy with 11s, but I find on my acoustic playing down at the first few frets is really hard - I feel like I need perfect technique and a death grip with my left hand and perfect picking with the right hand to get it to play nice.
If I put a capo at the 3rd or 4th fret then things get a lot nicer. The tone mellows out a bit and playing is much more straightforward.
Any tips? Will changing to lighter strings help (I play D'addario NYXL on my electrics so D'addario recommendations in particular welcome)?
Also, just say a "friend" of mine had stuck a sticker on the top of his acoustic guitar 20 years ago. Would my "friend" expect the guitar to sound a bit nicer if he was able to take it off? :-)
Comments
lighter than 11s not a good plan. Tone will be lost, won’t drive the top hard enough. I’d say go to 12s to improve tone.
Not much, and it might cause worse intonation problems - which I suspect is why you're finding it hard to make it sound good, as well as hard to play physically. As you bend the strings down to the frets they will go sharp.
No .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I think part of it might be the dimensions - because of the size of the body the first fret feels quite far away.
I think I may try tuning it down a tone and putting a capo on the second fret. Failing that I may invest in a parlor type, I've always fancied a Gretsch Jim Dandy anyway...
Saying that..... it’s got to be the nut. I even had to sort the nut and get the bridge lowered on a brand new Taylor.
https://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/strings-c1/string-sets-c865/acoustic-guitar-c33/newtone-strings-heritage-phosphor-bronze-low-tension-acoustic-guitar-strings-12-52-dadgad-p14378
I think I might try lower tension strings, tuning it down a tone makes it so much easier for me to play and now that I think about it it does feel like the strings are much more "tense" than I'm used to. Worth trying!
Bought a set of Newtone Heritage strings (the 11-47 ones) and installed them this morning. Has made an absolutely huge difference, so much easier to play than the Martin ones were.
Tonally the Martins had a lot going for them (they were loud and very well rounded) but a guitar you can actually play is obviously the priority :-)