AndyS

I recently started having shoulder pain. Turns out I have a partially torn rotater cuff and the doc said it was from a particular move I make while playing sitting down, then reading forward as when I reach to turn a page in a music book. Solution? Therapy to regain movement and strength. AND! Holding the guitar in a more Classical position, over the left leg instead of the right. it allows my shoulder to hang in a more natural position. Also, I don't know if you ever watch the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, but the house band, The Roots, has a guitarist, "Captain" Kirk Douglas, that plays with the guitar on his left leg, in a more classical style, when he plays sitting down. When he plays standing, it is in a lower position, but the headstock is in a more upright position. SO, as I tell my students, there are no hard, fast rules about how to hold the guitar (unless you're studying classical guitar) Do what works for you! Play on and Be safe!

Not 100% sure, but read an article in Guitar Player magazine a few years ago and it mentioned this "technique" and that it was not recommended. But that he DID actually play with his teeth. There were some other Live videos where he did this, and it was a bit rough sounding as far as "clean" playing. And it's probably attributed to using his teeth. Remember, way back in the late 60s and early 70s, he was something totally new and unique and was doing things others never even considered. (and, yes, I had a Strat in the 70s and tried to do this......it worked but partially chipped the inside of one of my teeth. Mom said she'd kill me if I broke a tooth "pulling a stunt like that" again. needless to say, all my teeth remain in good condition!

I have tried them, but not shifted to use them frequently yet. I purchased some Large Dunlop thumbpicks. The part that hits the string seemed too long for my hand position, so I used a piece of sandpaper and sanded the "blade" edge down by about half. This feels better to me. It also fits a bit tight. Argument there is " it's supposed to fit snug". However, After a while it is uncomfortable. I am thinking about heating the things up with a blow dryer and then spreading it just a bit s it still fits, but doesn't pinch too hard on the thumb. Anyway, this is just my opinion on the subject. That and around $1.29 will get you a medium cup of coffee at McDonalds. Keep playing! Stay healthy!

Definitely NOT a Wah Wah. One person mentions in the notes on that video that it is a Tremolo effect built into the amp. A lot of older amplifiers have that built into it. A lot of newer amps do NOT. Hope that helps.

Looking at restringing with extra light strings from light to medium, well , intonation issues is the first thing to come to mind. On electric guitars, it is not to difficult to adjust the intonation since most (repeat! MOST) bridges are adjustable and have a decent amount of travel to accommodate string gauge changes. Say, from .11 to .09. If you wanted to go to .11 to .08, then you'd really be pushing the limits on the bridge adjustment. On acoustics, the only thing you can EASILY adjust (Easily being the relative term here), is the saddle. It can be moved up and down, which usually does NOT affect intonation. You can stay at the same same string gauge and just have the saddle ( the bone or plastic piece that the strings actually sit on) lowered and it will make playing barre chords easier. Yes, you will lose some tone and a little volume. You may also get a little bit of buzz on the bass strings. But only if you really lower the action a LOT. I found this out 20 years ago when I got a new acoustic nd asked the store to go from .12 to .10 strings. (.12-.52 and .10-.46) When they did, the guy running the store used an electric tuner to make sure it was in tune, played a few open chords and that was it. I got it home and tried playing barre chords and they were horribly out of tune. Reason? Trying to go to such an extreme change. The intonation issue arises when you go to a much lighter string. When you tune the guitar with a tuner, all strings open, it will sound OK. Then , you go to play "open" chords, or in the first position, they may sound OK. As you go up the neck, then the barre chords will sound out of tune. If you try to tweak each string so the barre chords sound OK, then the open (first position chords) will sound out of tune. Intonating an acoustic guitar is far more difficult than an electric. It can be done, but really needs to be done by a luthier or a very good guitar tech. Many times, each guitar has shims under the saddle. If you have not tried to change gauges yet, try going down just one size and remove ALL the strings, carefully lift the saddle and see if there are shims under it. If there are, remove a couple and then tune up and see how it plays. If it is easier and tuning UP AND DOWN the neck is ok, you're golden. If tuning is ok, but it's still too high, loosen all the strings and try to slide the saddle out again and remove another shim. Tune up and try it again. There are some good videos on line on line showing how to do this, so watch a couple, then carefully try it. It really isn't difficult. If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, check out a local Guitar repair person or a luthier.Tell them what you want is the action lowered to enable easier barre chords. They should be able to do the job in less than a day (unless they are busy) and it shouldn't cost very much at all. Good Luck! Andy

Doug, thanks for the reply. Yeh, I was wondering about his soldering technique. Thanks for the diagram and the link to the pots. Much appreciated!

Any one have any experience with rewiring a 2 humbucker, 2 volume pots and 2 tone controls? I friend tried to rewire his knock off 335. it looks correct according to all the diagrams I've looked up. And it almost works correctly. (say WHAT!??) Each volume works correctly, so do the tone controls. However, when the Neck volume control is turned to full open, it sounds like the tone control is then turned to zero. All the high end goes away. I'm wondering if, when he tried to wire it, if he cooked the capacitor that ties the volume control to the tone control. His soldering skills are not the best and there were some cold solder joints, and a VERY large lump of solder on the tone control where the ground wires are connected. So, that had to take a lot of heat. Perhaps it affected the control itself. Anyway, before I dig into it and start swapping out parts, thought I'd ask here to see of anyone had heard of this before. Thanks, Andy Sorentino