Wound G or non Wound G, that is the question...
- Thread starter MojoTooth
- Start date
jmac said:
I'm guessing trial and error is the only way I will find out.
I guess I also need to do more research on intonation and the role it plays with a guitar. I know it is important, but maybe it is more important for some kinds of music than it is for others. I get different suggestions for what type of G to use from everyone, with most people saying use a regular G if playing rock and blues...but I also trust my luthier and instructor's suggestions.
No clue what to do from here other than to do a trial and error.
Walter Broes
Enlightened Member
Intonation is often confused with "tuning", but that's a language question more than anything else.MojoTooth said:
Intonation, assuming your guitar's nut is cut correctly and not too high (easily checked with a tuner playing first fret notes), really only comes into play once you get to the seventh, eight fret. A badly intonated guitar will start playing out of tune around there.
If you're playing by yourself, and you don't play a lot of big chords higher up on the neck, you might never really notice your guitar is a little off. The more complicated the music you play gets, and the bigger the band you play in, the more critical intonation becomes.
In a three piece band with bass and drums playing blues and rock, it's not nearly as big a deal (assuming your guitar's "close" but not perfect) as it would be if you play jazz chord melody, solo fingerstyle arrangements, or share chordal/melodic duties with multiple guitars, or a keyboard player.
If you're a strummer who only plays open-position chords, you might never even notice your guitar doesn't intonate that well.
I have a couple of guitars with fairly primitive bridges (vintage Danelectro, anyone?) that are close but not perfectly intonated, but I rarely get in trouble with them in the situations I play in - even with a plain G string on a straight, uncompensated saddle.
Another thing about playing single notes and leads is that a halfway accomplished player often bends strings a little automatically to compensate for slightly sour notes, something that's near impossible to do with chords, of course.
In any case, it's nothing to obsess about if things sound "in tune" to you and other people you play with.
taabru45
Enlightened Member
I've heard some good blues played on crappy guitars and crappy blues played on good guitars....the old blues guys drank a lot of gin...and I really don't think intonation crossed their minds...I sometimes wonder if tuning did either.... play on and dig the music with the guitar you're using....different guitars bring out different responses in playing...fun to discover different musical selves....but I like good intonation too, some of the old timers just played so........much.... I think Bukka White played a guitar one time that had its top held on with safety pins... :lol: :lol: 8) :wink: Steffan
Walter, thank you for the reply, that is a very easy to understand answer.
I mostly play chords from frets 1-5, with most of the bar chords I know being accessible no higher up than the 7th fret n a B7
I doubt I will ever be playing much jazz or anything that requires "big chords". My main goal is just to be able to play in my local blues jam with the guys down there once a week and otherwise I would be playing old blues by myself. I don;t really have aspirations to be in a band at this point other than to have other people to jam with and play blues with. So it sounds to me like the answer would be to go with an unwound G at this point, seeing as intonation wouldn't come into play as much for the style of music I aim to play. And it would make sense why my instructor says to go with a wound G as he does a lot of harmonic stuff and plays jazz which would require perfect intonation.
Thanks for the info sir
I mostly play chords from frets 1-5, with most of the bar chords I know being accessible no higher up than the 7th fret n a B7
I doubt I will ever be playing much jazz or anything that requires "big chords". My main goal is just to be able to play in my local blues jam with the guys down there once a week and otherwise I would be playing old blues by myself. I don;t really have aspirations to be in a band at this point other than to have other people to jam with and play blues with. So it sounds to me like the answer would be to go with an unwound G at this point, seeing as intonation wouldn't come into play as much for the style of music I aim to play. And it would make sense why my instructor says to go with a wound G as he does a lot of harmonic stuff and plays jazz which would require perfect intonation.
Thanks for the info sir
taabru45 said:
I always wondered if Skip James planned to play in the wild off the wall tunings he played in or if it just happened and sounded so damn good because he was so skillful! haha
I'm going to guess Son House worried more about his whiskey than he did his tuning! :lol:
yettoblaster
Member
MojoTooth said:
Doesn't sound like it will be much of a problem for you either way. My advice would be to go with what is comfortable for you at the present time. In the future you may address the issue again when you hear a problem.
For now it sounds pretty settled.
There may come a day when a guy is doing something you want to do, and it seems it requires a plain G string to do it.
For my own needs the G string changes back and forth, and sometimes that requires I alter the bridge or saddles.
Besides the intonation-up-the-neck issue, there is also the volume balance between the strings that is another factor. Generally the pickup's polepieces can compensate for that though.
Keep playing, and listening to the players you like! Some of the best music has been played without regard to technical perfection. Blues is about getting ideas across and saying something that satisfies and expresses an emotion or tells a little story: sometimes with a bent note. It don't matter if that string could be perfectly intonated once it's bent to the pitch you "ear" in!
yettoblaster said:Blues is about getting ideas across and saying something that satisfies and expresses an emotion or tells a little story: sometimes with a bent note. It don't matter if that string could be perfectly intonated once it's bent to the pitch you "ear" in!
YES, this is what I was getting at. Exactly. You put it into words what I was trying to elaborate one.
I haven't had any issues bending the wound G string yet, and I have been able to get the pitch I need from my bends.
Thanks for the input!
The bridge on my X-160 is set up for a non-wound G string. The other day I put a wound G string on it, and I didn't notice any intonation problems. Someone else with betters ears then me might pick up an intonation problem, but it would be subtle at best.