Got a proper acoustic

gilby · February 2017

After a few years and more with an APX, I thought it was time to "Man up" and get a proper acoustic. Full size body, solid wood (well top at least) and man size gauge strings.
So, on the budget I had, I bought an Alvarez in the new year sales locally and love it's tone but why am I causing "squeeking" whilst sliding notes all of a sudden ?
The strings are d'addario exp coated ones which are new to me. Would they be the culprit ?

richardhomer · February 2017

Quite the reverse - coated strings are usually 'less' squeaky than normal ones.

It may just be that the guitar has better dynamics and more high end, which makes these noises more noticeable.

I don't mean this unkindly - but noises like this primarily stem from poor technique.

StanleyAccrington · February 2017

They could be.....or could be just the way your fingers transition between chord or string changes.

gilby · February 2017

No offence taken Richard, you could well be right as I've never taken lessons and am very much a "home alone" player. I'm just surprised that it's something I've only just started to experience with this new guitar.

Bridgehouse · February 2017

gilby said:

No offence taken Richard, you could well be right as I've never taken lessons and am very much a "home alone" player. I'm just surprised that it's something I've only just started to experience with this new guitar.

More likely that a lively guitar with good dynamics is highlighting something you haven't noticed before.

Work with it - it will be good for your playing

richardhomer · February 2017

Bridgehouse said:

gilby said:

No offence taken Richard, you could well be right as I've never taken lessons and am very much a "home alone" player. I'm just surprised that it's something I've only just started to experience with this new guitar.

More likely that a lively guitar with good dynamics is highlighting something you haven't noticed before.

Work with it - it will be good for your playing

That was exactly the point I was trying to make. Acoustics are unforgiving - generally the better they are, the more they show up the slightest glitch in technique....

Bridgehouse · February 2017

richardhomer said:

Bridgehouse said:

gilby said:

No offence taken Richard, you could well be right as I've never taken lessons and am very much a "home alone" player. I'm just surprised that it's something I've only just started to experience with this new guitar.

More likely that a lively guitar with good dynamics is highlighting something you haven't noticed before.

Work with it - it will be good for your playing

That was exactly the point I was trying to make. Acoustics are unforgiving - generally the better they are, the more they show up the slightest glitch in technique....

Indeed you are quite right, and the OP should take solace in the fact that the guitar is probably a good 'un

gilby · February 2017

Thanks for the comments folks. Did some googling last night and am preparing a "back to basics and do it proper" practise regime.

ToneControl · February 2017

richardhomer said:

Quite the reverse - coated strings are usually 'less' squeaky than normal ones.

It may just be that the guitar has better dynamics and more high end, which makes these noises more noticeable.

I don't mean this unkindly - but noises like this primarily stem from poor technique.

I use Elixir strings on all my instruments. They are much quieter. The coating goes over the final wind

I bought a set of DR coated recently, and found they were even noisier than uncoated strings. I took them off after just one day.
So - some coated strings are noisy. I suspect the EXP ones have a a similar design

But, yes - even with Elixirs, technique is important: all part of the "muscle memory" to move to a position without the small adjustments after the fingers land on the strings

Mind you, now I'm used to Elixirs, a lot of Pro work on major albums and tracks sounds very squeaky to me

ICBM · February 2017

gilby said:

The strings are d'addario exp coated ones which are new to me. Would they be the culprit ?

Don't know but the ones I've tried sounded terrible anyway.

I'm not a fan of Elixirs either, but I'd even take those over the D'Addario ones.

The only coated strings I've ever tried that I can stand are the DR Dragon Skin ones, and even they feel rather different from uncoated strings, not in a great way until you get used to it.

paganskins · February 2017

D'addario coat the wire before it's wrapped around the core and as ToneControl mentioned elixir coat the finished string making a much less squeaky string.

I find d'addario acoustic strings (coated and uncoated) unusably squeaky.

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