Should my guitar be this hard to play?

lukejazz

Okay, I’ve got kind of a funny question - it’s mostly due to the fact that I’m more or less isolated from others with Selmer style guitars.

My issue is that playing my Dunn Belleville that to me seems extraordinarily challenging physically, and I’m not sure if that’s a normal situation.

Some background:
I’ve been playing string instruments for around 46 years and I’ve got about 20 years of learning to play jazz guitar behind me. I’ve got a weekly restaurant jazz brunch gig that I do every Sunday with a bass player. I live in a small town in the south and due to certain circumstances, it’s impossible for me to travel very far, so getting together with other players is realistically out of the question for now.

I got really interested in playing gypsy jazz about 15 years ago and in 2000 I made what was a major investment for me and bought the Dunn Belleville. After working hard to learn the style on my own for a few years (including a few rhythm gigs in New Orleans with Tony Green) opportunities came up for me to play some straight ahead American jazz with some friends so I put the Belleville away.

My interest has recently been peeked again and I’ve spent about the last 2-3 months focusing on gypsy jazz, but my interest is waning and I know some of it has to do with how difficult the instrument is for me to play compared to my other guitars. I’ve also noticed that there is a direct correlation between the scale length of my guitars and how challenging they are.

Gibson ES 775 (like a 175). Shortest scale (24.75 I believe?) I string with TI flatwound 13’s and plays like a dream - easy and fun.

Eastman 910 CE - Acoustic archtop - a little wider (1.75) and longer neck (25”). I string it with TI roundwound 13’s. It’s a little more challenging than the Gibson but I get used to it fairly quickly and it’s a great change up from the Gibson.

Dunn Belleville - the regular long scale Selmer style (26.375”). I’ve been stringing it with 10’s but geez it’s just so hard to play smoothly. Very discouraging. To top things off, it doesn’t really sound like the traditional gypsy guitars.

Is this typical? If so - would a “D” style instrument make a difference in playability? So many other players make it look so effortless (just watching some Bireli as I write this). Do I have the wrong instrument? Maybe the problem is in the setup? (Mr. Dunn set it up). The guitar sounds really good, if not traditional, to me and is sensitive like a handcrafted guitar should.

Thoughts? Sorry for the long post.

Jazzaferri

As you know There is a significant difference in technique (fingers have to come up a bit higher and press a bit harder) between electric and pure acoustic guitars. Scale length certainly adds to it. Check the string height at the 12th fret. Where you live it has likely changed from where the guitar was made.

To get my Dunn Ultrafox to sound Gypsyish I have to really pick hard. They tend to be a fuller spectrum, not so fundamental 1st and second harmonic centered as typical GJ guitars in my experience. Sound you want is such a personal thing though.

Do you use rest stroke style picking? When I switched I spent the first six months practicing exclusively downstrokes to try and break up my alternate picking habits. Seemed to help. It has taken me a few hunderd hours (primary instrument is sax) of practice to get my picking to the point where I am happy with the sound and the attack.


I bought a short 25" scale DuPont. Having spent way more time on the long scale I don't find the difference to be hard to change to except in long jumps up the fretboard. Has a more traditional GJ sound.

pickitjohn

@Jazzaferri said

Check the string height at the 12th fret.

@lukejazz

You can use the Coin Speck Chart to come up with your measurement if you don't have a scale combine coins and do the math. Should get you close.

Have you checked the HUMIDITY where you keep your Guitar? Should be around 45%.

:peace:

Charles Meadows

Adjusting the bridge height can make a big difference.

rgrice

Agree with the others. I found it very tough playing at a high Gypsy height for a couple of years while learning on my Gitane 250m. Now playing a Dupont with a #1 bridge and it's like butter!

DragonPL

Really? ! I have the 250M and it has the lowest of all gypsy guitar bridges. .

rgrice wrote: »

Agree with the others. I found it very tough playing at a high Gypsy height for a couple of years while learning on my Gitane 250m. Now playing a Dupont with a #1 bridge and it's like butter!

rgrice

@DragonPL after years of playing almost exclusively on electrics, the normal gypsy height seemed tough.

DragonPL

Hmmmm.. maybe the difficulty lies in the longer neck scale length. The 250M has a 680mm scale lenght (so it says on this sites description for it, l never measured mine). The action of mine with the Gitane bridge was no different or higher (even it's lower) than most of my electrics, and on it I use the D'Adario Gypsy Jazz 10s which are the lightest of all gypsy jazz string sets. I think again the longer neck might make things trickier, also proper truss rod adjustment helps....

rgrice wrote: »

@DragonPL after years of playing almost exclusively on electrics, the normal gypsy height seemed tough.

rgrice

Not sure but that's likely it! Both my Gretsch and Martin ate almost 2 inches shorter scaled. Never messed with truss rod either. It did become easier to play but still felt it to be tougher than the Dupont.
I also had frets dressed but felt they could've still been big. My 65 Gretsch's were almost non existent!

rgrice

@stuart It had one owner whom I know and who didn't mess with bridge. It seems that it was most likely my playing and background and longer scale. My Dupont feels so much faster and smoother in contrast, but it should for the price!

lukejazz

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to reply to my post. I appreciate your generous feedback. I think when I can manage it, I'll get my guitar tech to look at it. My other guitars need work as well, so might as well get them all taken care of while I'm at it (separately of course).