Fingerpicking

My acoustic got its annual restringing. I had to go a gauge lighter and was pleased to find there was still a wound G. See on acoustic, lighter strings are pretty meaningless for most people. If the guitar is set up right, it’s no effort at all to depress them the millimetre or so you need to get them down in good contact with the fret. That’s not to say beginners don’t struggle with barre chords, but as you get the technique it needs very little effort. With electrics you bend strings and use a lot of heavy vibrato. So then light strings make a big difference and the last thing most people want is a wound G. But I like the sound and feel of a wound G finger picking on an acoustic. It’s nice to have the thicker string and the different resonance. ...

What’s going in your holiday guitar bag? Last year I packed it and left it like a fool. @chocklit_thunda lent me one in Joburg even though we’d never previously met. 🙌 This year though I get to take my own beloved Alvarez parlour and a bunch of things to work on. The blues book has stuff by Furry Lewis and Frank Stokes. @sad_ivan gave it to me, the star. The Cohen book is also from the ‘60s and was my ma’s songbook. And, if I start to get REALLY ambitious there’s Chet Atkins.