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Topic: Tone and String Contact |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 6 Feb 2011 10:45 am |
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From time to time people ask whether it's okay to play without fingerpicks. No-one has ever answered the question from an acoustics perspective. You can play whatever way you want to, picks, no picks, flat pick, etc., but they will all sound different.
Why does a harpsichord sound different from a piano ? Mostly because a harpsichord is plucked while the piano's strings are hit with a hammer.
Going back into antiquity, all string instruments had gut strings or ones made from vegetable fibres, such as weaved bark, etc. You had to play with your fingers because anything hard striking the strings would wear them out in no time.
People who play the hammer dulcimer know that there are various types of hammers available, and will carry a set of each. A hard wood produces a sharp sound. Metal tips produce an even harder one. Wood covered in felt gives a soft sound. All the sounds are valid, and you choose whichever you want, depending on the sound you want.
Various hammers which I use on my hammered dulcimer. They all sound different. Notice the different woods and the felt on the second and fourth sets.
Instruments with gut strings, such as the lute, are played with the ball of the right fingers, whereas instruments with nylon strings, like modern concert guitars, are played with fingernails, which are much harder. I haven't heard of any professional classical guitarist ever wearing fingerpicks, and the instrument is built on the assumption that they would not be used.
Instruments with metal strings are made to be played with a plectrum (flat pick) or finger picks. Striking the strings with a hard materials such as metal or plastic picks produces a clear, sharp sound, with metal being sharper than plastic. Plucking the strings with bare fingers produces a mellow, muffled sound. It's not a matter of which is right or wrong: you just have to accept that the sound will be different.
From the playing perspective, your fingers are always in the same place on your body, whereas fingerpicks can be orientated differently each time you put them on, can move around while you're playing, even to the extent of falling off, and they can be uncomfortable. I find myself more fluent without fingerpicks, but I can't deny that the clearer sound comes with them.
From the perspective of the Hawaiian guitar, you can play with a regular Spanish guitar, with a high nut and bridge and nylon strings. Turning the tuners upside down is a simple job. I don't know how many people play like that. It can produce beautiful sounds, and with a piazzo pickup you can amplify it, if required.
I wonder if anyone has ever put nylon strings on a resonator guitar.
Last edited by Alan Brookes on 6 Feb 2011 11:11 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Ray Minich
From:
Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra
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Posted 6 Feb 2011 11:07 am
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Alan; I wonder if anyone has ever tried to play the steel guitar with a hammer? 
_________________
Lawyers are done: Emmons SD-10, 3 Dekleys including a D10, NV400, and lots of effects units to cover my clams... |
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Doug Palmer
From:
Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 6 Feb 2011 11:22 am Hammer
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A Steel Buddy of mine was playing a house job in a very nice dinner club and always left his guitar there. The place was open all day. His wife found out he had a girlfriend! She went to the club during the day, took a small hatchet out of her purse, and beat the crap out of his guitar. I don't know what it sounded like!
True story
Doug
_________________
Emmons D-10, ST-10,LD-10 III, NV-112,Fender Deluxe Reverb. Authorized wholesale dealer musicorp.com! |
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Archie Nicol R.I.P.
From:
Ayrshire, Scotland
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Posted 6 Feb 2011 4:26 pm
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Don't play live whilst hammered. 
Arch. |
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John Peay
From:
Cumming, Georgia USA
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Posted 6 Feb 2011 6:00 pm
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| Ray Minich wrote: |
| Alan; I wonder if anyone has ever tried to play the steel guitar with a hammer? |
As a beginner of 2 months on PSG, I'm on the verge of taking a hammer to mine! (Do I use picks or not while swinging the hammer?) |
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Ron Davis
From:
Lake Arrowhead, California... We're a mile high. ;)
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Dean Parks
From:
Sherman Oaks, California, USA
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Posted 7 Feb 2011 9:57 am
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A DelVecchio (Brazillian 70s) resonator is designed to be strung with silk n steel strings 1 and 2 are steel, 4-6 are steel-wound nylon-core. Very sweet strung this way. The cone is perhaps lighter, thinner, than a Dobro cone?
DelVecchio's are fretted instruments. |
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