Resonance

Rich

Hi,

When I'm playing with this techinque (which I feel i'm starting to get the hang of well now) I have a problem with the strings i'm not picking naturally resonating. Say if i'm playing runs just on the E and B string.. after about 5 seconds of playing, the E A and D strings start to resonate giving a kinda reverb effect.. making it sound very messy. The only way to stop them is to dampen them with the right hand or with the left hand somehow.. but this isn't always possible.. and watching dvds of other players they don't seem to have to do this.

I play an oval hole Gitane.. so I don't think its down to the guitar.

Am I right in thinking that the right hand shouldn't touch the strings at all? If so dampening with the right hand doesn't seem like a solution I should start practicing.

I've not heard of anyone else having this problem.. but i really can't see what I am doing wrong..

Any advice on this would be greatly appriciated as as far as I can see its the only thing stopping me being able to finally grasp this style (at very slow tempos at least anyway.. ).

PS Anyone who hasn't got this book already.. get it now! It's very well written and will save u a lot of time.

Jack

Rich wrote:

I play an oval hole Gitane.. so I don't think its down to the guitar.

Hi Rich,

I used to have an oval Gitane and it definitely had much more of that sort of natural reverb than other guitars I've played. Something about the construction of those guitars really seems to bring out sympathetic vibration. A student of mine plays a Jorgenson-same thing. Have you tried playing other makes to see if it's really you're technique?

I think there was a thread on the UK board about this a ways back; I'll see if I can find it for you...

Best,
Jack.

Josh Hegg

The guitar is a bit to blame as all the Gitane guitars are very wet sounding. Sorry to say that your ear is changing with your ability and soon you will be searching out a step up in guitar meaning you will be spending $$$$ : ) Welcome to the addiction.

Josh

Jack

Here's the UK forum thread:
http://www.hotclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2664
and also look here:
viewtopic.php?t=801

Good luck,
Jack.

Rich

THanks for the quick responses.. ha its funny u should mention trying other guitars.. cause i did today.. but it was the john jorgeson.. with the same problem.

I'll seek out a non-saga guitar as see what happens.

I think really it must be down to the guitar.. it's not really a major problem, as with a lot of riffs the left hand can simply deaden the noise. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something I had missed, before I got into bad habits..

Thanks again.

Bill McNeill

I had a similar problem.

http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=967&highlight=

Moving from a flattop to an oval-hole Gitane improved things for me, though I still have some buzz.

Josh Hegg

If you get a chance try Dupont

frater

I've never tried a Selmer style guitar with a complete dry sound. A little resonance is natural in this type of instruments: my Dupont MD50E, a real "dry" and harsh sounding guitar, has some too (even if far less audible than in my Gitanes). Guess one has to learn to live with it and use it at his own advantage (it's great for yodler, for example! )

Rich

I've been messing around with this some more. If I play an A at the 7th fret of the D string, the A string will vibrate a significant amount also.. so much so it is audable and definatly adds to the sound (not in a good way). I've never noticed this before because i've always had my right hand dampening the strings..

This is obviously down to them both been the A note, and the natural frequency is taking effect or something. Is this something that more expensive guitars counter act somehow?

I'm using newtone strings.. i don't know if this is making a difference to how significant this problem is.. maybe I should try argentines.

THanks for all the advice.

frater

You should definitely try Agentines but, again, a little resonance is endemic (some people say tail piece + laminated back and sides have a part in this). Try not to focus too much on this aspect and keep playing!

CalebFSU

yeah my Gitane did the same thing. My Dell Arte does it too but not nearly as much as my Gitane did.