Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've had this particular acoustic guitar for 30 years, now. In fact, I'm the original owner. When I bought it, I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted to be the next hot licks flat picking bluegrass guitar god, or the next National Finger picking Champion. So, I decided to hedge my bets, and I installed set after set of medium guage strings. After I gave up the desire for flatpicking bluegrass divinity, I concentrated on fingerpicking.

The years rolled by, and I never could figure out why my playing was so sloppy. No matter how hard I tried, I was the sloppiest finger picker I'd ever heard. And it finally dawned on me to try a new experiment: try light guage strings. So today, I put on a set of light guage strings. Sonofagun! And didn't my playing clean up just like that! And the guitar still has that great, mahogany and spruce, acousitc guitar sound that I've always loved for 30 years.

It's funny that it took me this long to figure out that I own a ragtime and blues guitar that needs light guage strings, not a bluegrass guitar. I just had to share this, because little things like this amuse me so. Better late than never, eh?

JimK

Why didn't you just ask your guitar what kind of music it wanted to make?

Why didn't you just ask your guitar what kind of music it wanted to make?

Possibly the most profound post I've ever read...

It's old news, but with my Takamine, I had problems with strings until I found the EXP 19 set. It has a medium bottom with a light top. The light bottoms were weak sounding, and the medium tops were hard to play. Viola (ht to Norm Crosby), somebody else had the same problem, well many, enough to create the hybrid set! Dale played that thing quite a bit at the confl, and didn't complain, I thought it sounded GREAT!

I stuck my ear to the sound hole of mine and this is what I heard, "Hey, let me outta this box!".

jps wrote:Why didn't you just ask your guitar what kind of music it wanted to make?

Oh...never thought of that, I guess.

JimK