Bending question

emicad

What kind of direction do you prefer for bending? There's a rule or something? Usually I press down E, A and D strings and up G, B and e strings. Recently, I realized that it's better to bend all the strings down, except for the e string, on my Hodson 503.
Any suggestion?

Matthias Lenz

hardly any obligatory rules that I´m aware of. Also, I don´t do big bendings (bigger than a whole note) on acoustic guitars.
On electric I personally found it best to bend the strings upward (for high E, B and G strings) and the low E and A downwards. On the D string it would depend on the intended range of the bending.

Generally it´s always good to try and know both ways. BUT: I find it easier to bend upwards, as the fingertips are pushing the string away (strengthened by the rest of the hand). Pulling down feels more awkward, as there´s a lot more tension for the fingers to bare (the rest of the hand doesn´t assist as much in his direction)

Hope my input helps you in some way.
Greetings to Italy,
Matthias

emicad

thanks a lot for your suggestion.
i think it can depend from the tension of each string. on my guitar, there's a lot more comfortable to bend downwards, but i'll try both ways for a while.

Matthias Lenz

yes, that´s one aspect I had forgotten to mention :roll:
of course, when you bend up you have to push against the thicker strings, which is a bit harder...
but anyways, by trying out you´ll find the best way for yourself, and that´s all that matters