Clean lemony fresh victory is MINE
Apr. 27th, 2009 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperSomething I didn't include in yesterday's Jam is that Rags was in serious need of restringing. But I didn't want to restring before or during Jam, since, as I've said before, nylon strings are hell for settling in.
So after everybody had left, I took all the strings off (using![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird's handily provided string-winder frob thingie). At which point Dara remarked on how very dirty the guitar's neck was, so we broke out some Murphy's oil soap and some Old English lemon oil, and Dara went to work with intensive cleaning. It was amazing how much oil the wood slurped up, and how much contrast was brought out between the frets and the surrounding wood. Dara got lots and lots of gunk off of there, which isn't really surprising given that the last time the instrument had had this kind of treatment was when I got him.
Rags therefore wound up looking not half-bad, which was pretty nifty. But even niftier was actually putting on the strings. For the guitarists reading this, they are M160 Martin Classic Silverplated (Copper on Nylon) Ball End High Tension ones.
And they are astonishing. I actively gaped at how much more volume and clarity and purity of sound my little Ragamuffin was able to produce with these strings on there. AND! Dara then proceeded to show me some nifty strumming tricks she's picked up from her mandolin and bouzouki work--things like playing way down towards my bridge, a trick which makes Rags start sounding a lot like a metal-stringed guitar, and even makes him able to growl a little. A trick with strumming at an angle rather than straight down does fun things with letting me get the best of both my low end and the high end. And strumming as close as possible to dead center of the instrument gets a stunning liquid, pure sort of sound I did not know this guitar was capable of producing, especially in my hands.
So this is pretty damned cool all around, and I need to try to absorb all this nifty new data and see what I can do with it to improve my pick technique. Playing in the center of the instrument forces me to pick with more delicate motions, lest I dig into the wood of the neck. Playing down near the bridge on the other hand brings out every little nuance of sound, so I can hear a lot better where I'm screwing something up. And, not holding my hand over the soundhole does wonders for making the guitar heard.
I'm looking forward to integrating this data--and starting to practice some barre chords as well. If I get all this stuff down on Rags, the thought of doing it on a way better guitar just makes me swoon.
So after everybody had left, I took all the strings off (using
solarbird's handily provided string-winder frob thingie). At which point Dara remarked on how very dirty the guitar's neck was, so we broke out some Murphy's oil soap and some Old English lemon oil, and Dara went to work with intensive cleaning. It was amazing how much oil the wood slurped up, and how much contrast was brought out between the frets and the surrounding wood. Dara got lots and lots of gunk off of there, which isn't really surprising given that the last time the instrument had had this kind of treatment was when I got him.Rags therefore wound up looking not half-bad, which was pretty nifty. But even niftier was actually putting on the strings. For the guitarists reading this, they are M160 Martin Classic Silverplated (Copper on Nylon) Ball End High Tension ones.
And they are astonishing. I actively gaped at how much more volume and clarity and purity of sound my little Ragamuffin was able to produce with these strings on there. AND! Dara then proceeded to show me some nifty strumming tricks she's picked up from her mandolin and bouzouki work--things like playing way down towards my bridge, a trick which makes Rags start sounding a lot like a metal-stringed guitar, and even makes him able to growl a little. A trick with strumming at an angle rather than straight down does fun things with letting me get the best of both my low end and the high end. And strumming as close as possible to dead center of the instrument gets a stunning liquid, pure sort of sound I did not know this guitar was capable of producing, especially in my hands.
So this is pretty damned cool all around, and I need to try to absorb all this nifty new data and see what I can do with it to improve my pick technique. Playing in the center of the instrument forces me to pick with more delicate motions, lest I dig into the wood of the neck. Playing down near the bridge on the other hand brings out every little nuance of sound, so I can hear a lot better where I'm screwing something up. And, not holding my hand over the soundhole does wonders for making the guitar heard.
I'm looking forward to integrating this data--and starting to practice some barre chords as well. If I get all this stuff down on Rags, the thought of doing it on a way better guitar just makes me swoon.
