Guitar Feels Stiff

West R Lee

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I agree. I also think much depends on how you like to play the guitar. A flatpicker might like a heavier gauge string, but a fingerstyle player might like something softer and more pliable. As far as the John Pearse strings mentioned by the OP, I think the 80/20's and the Silk and Steel in light gauge are some of the softer, more easily manipulated strings I've played.

West



setup looks pretty good to my eye on my D-40....I'm no luthier....but I've had my hands on more than a few guitars. When one moves from a small body, electric, or light gauge string guitar to a dread setup with 13's.....they are bound to feel somewhat 'stiff' methinks.
 

Rayk

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setup looks pretty good to my eye on my D-40....I'm no luthier....but I've had my hands on more than a few guitars. When one moves from a small body, electric, or light gauge string guitar to a dread setup with 13's.....they are bound to feel somewhat 'stiff' methinks.

yeah like playing a rubber band then going to a bridge support steel cable LOL

I mentioned above the 13's are tuff stuff on anything other then flat picking bluegrass or open tunings (just my opinion of coarse )

if standard tune is what jmascis is playing then try 11's see how it goes then. Heck I used 10's for a ton of years on my dreads .
 

jmascis

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Yeah I have .12-.53 in standard tuning. When I drop tune to Eb it does feel better. Just makes it hard to accompany people unless I capo the first fret or transpose on the spot.
 

Rayk

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Yeah I have .12-.53 in standard tuning. When I drop tune to Eb it does feel better. Just makes it hard to accompany people unless I capo the first fret or transpose on the spot.

Maybe drop to 11’s
Not to sound rude but age , finger strength and tenderness of the finger tips can come into play as well for discomfort.
 

walrus

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Maybe drop to 11’s
Not to sound rude but age , finger strength and tenderness of the finger tips can come into play as well for discomfort.

Well, I've got one of the three (age). I dropped to .10's to increase playability, and I'm enjoying them.

walrus
 

Rayk

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Well, I've got one of the three (age). I dropped to .10's to increase playability, and I'm enjoying them.

walrus

Good deal walrus age is catching up with me as well . 😁 Oooo me back ... cut and split a large hickory tree been feeling it two days now lol
 

walrus

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Ray, you posted above that you used .10's for years - why'd you go back up to a higher gauge?

walrus
 

Rayk

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Ray, you posted above that you used .10's for years - why'd you go back up to a higher gauge?

walrus

Ahhh very good question and the answer is 97% of the of the music I write is in a opening tuning .
I use open D lately also C , F# it varies .

Light gauge strings tuned low don’t perform well and lose intonation and offer up more flub and flutter so heavier strings correct those issues . 😁
 

walrus

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I almost hate to say it, Ray, but that makes perfect sense!

walrus
 

jmascis

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Maybe drop to 11’s
Not to sound rude but age , finger strength and tenderness of the finger tips can come into play as well for discomfort.

That's not rude at all -- all tips and ideas welcome.

I'm young and have no history of arthritis in the family. Fingers are strong with nice calluses. I play bass (using the fingers), which have much heavier gauge strings, and there's no real issue other than some minor cramping in the meat of the left hand after an hour or so, and that seems random -- probably based on what I'm playing.

I'll consider trying .11s. This will require a new setup, correct? Never went that low on an acoustic and fear it might have no bass response at that point. Tuning flat might be a better option. It's just a pain because my lady plays, and she is always in standard on her short scale.
 
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Rayk

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That's not rude at all -- all tips and ideas welcome.

I'm young and have no history of arthritis in the family. Fingers are strong with nice calluses. I play bass (using the fingers), which have much heavier gauge strings, and there's no real issue other than some minor cramping in the meat of the left hand after an hour or so, and that seems random -- probably based on what I'm playing.

I'll consider trying .11s. This will require a new setup, correct? Never went that low on an acoustic and fear it might have no bass response at that point. Tuning flat might be a better option. It's just a pain because my lady plays, and she is always in standard on her short scale.

How long have you been guitar ?

Are you chord playing bassist or single note pro ? Lol
No new set up for changing string gauge unless action is incredibly low and you get fret buzz .

I so want to play this guitar lol ok your wife plays what does she say about it , I’m sure she strummed it some yes ?
 

Kitarkus

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I'm going to try some custom lights on my NH D40 tonight. Action seems fine to me with 13's on it...it ships with 13's from the factory....but like Jmascis....my guitar feels stiff as a board too. Even easy open chords are very hard to finger cleanly....and for clean tones it requires a LOT of force.

If I don't bond with this one by the weekend.....back she goes....and it would be a shame....because I like the price, build quality, neck, materials, and tone. I sold my only electric guitar today for a price beyond what I should have received. If the D40 gets returned....I'm gonna be mighty tempted to find the small body of my dreams :) I'm not an old man (yet)....but I'm leaning away from dreads and towards small body guitars. I seem to fight the little ones a bit less and thus enjoy them more.

This new (to me) F-30NT is a dream to play. The guy I bought it from had it strung with silkyy 10's! I immediately put EJ16's on it and it plays fantastically (withholding any 'like butter' comments here in attempt to stay on topic).
 
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Rayk

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Long scale guitars create higher strin tension so a good reason why 13’s May feel hard on the fingers .

If pressing down on the strings is hard then the set up is off ie saddle height or nut height and for reason this post in pondering nut height keeps popping into my head .

Has there been any up close photos to show the nut height or sting height ? If your guitar and Pittpastors ?

Side shots to show a clear picture of string height at the 12th fret and one slight of 90* of the nut and saddle height .
 
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Rayk

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Had to dig up a 2006 penny to match LOL 12fret looks close to mine . I did not take a pic of the penny lol

Here are my specs on my CV-1 and I just tweaked the action it was higher few days ago and did it by eye.

String height at nut first fret , Low E .013-High E .012
string height at 12th fret Low E .108 - High E .062

some pics also
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Rayk

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let me add that the strings are not gauge'd at the nut so the inner string height can and most likely does fluctuate , if you look at the high E pic at the twelve fret you see B string raising just a tad above the E the main factors are the radius of the saddle and or nut / string height or both ! most people and yes me in this case lower the action mostly by trimming the bottom of the saddle but it's better to shape and reduce height from the top and then adjust intonation. I don't have a radius tool ( Yet !) so another job by eye but I only shaped the Low E side as it was off the worst. Top shaping is the more technical correct way to do it way I feel , either way working the bottom is fine for most of us hard part (enter another tool) is getting the bottom perfectly flat . also one only hopes and many don't mention it but the saddle slots can have inconsistent cuts so that has to be checked as well . :)
 

jmascis

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How long have you been guitar ?

Are you chord playing bassist or single note pro ? Lol
No new set up for changing string gauge unless action is incredibly low and you get fret buzz .

I so want to play this guitar lol ok your wife plays what does she say about it , I’m sure she strummed it some yes ?

My lady plays one of those tiny Martins. It is SO easy to play. She's in her first year of playing. So, when she played this Guild she hated how big and difficult it was to play.

I've played since I was 15, and I'm 40 now. For about 10 years in the middle I was overly busy with work and didn't play a lot.

On bass I mostly do single strings, but have been getting more into chords lately.

I've only gotten into acoustic guitar in the past year or two. Mostly grew up playing electric. I did have a cheap acoustic that was a bear to play growing up, and learned on that thing...I still own it, and it feels less stiff than the Guild. Oh well. I will keep trying, and if I can't jive with it I will have to sell it. It's a shame because it's a great guitar in every other way. It definitely feels less stiff after the luthier lowered the bass side action a few weeks ago. It's at 2.5mm now, which is about standard for an acoustic, so I'm afraid to go lower.
 

jmascis

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I'm going to try some custom lights on my NH D40 tonight. Action seems fine to me with 13's on it...it ships with 13's from the factory....but like Jmascis....my guitar feels stiff as a board too. Even easy open chords are very hard to finger cleanly....and for clean tones it requires a LOT of force.
.

That's exactly what I'm dealing with and feeling. The action seems fine on mine, nut and saddle look good, setup looks great overall...so it's hard to figure.
I have the same problem with easy chords being unusually difficult to get to ring clearly. Stiff as a board in the neck...to me it feels like the neck. So maybe it's the pieces of wood they used on these? I wonder if adding a little more relief would help it.

I felt this when testing it out, but figured it was just the old strings that were on it or that it was never played and broken in. I guess I was wrong.
 
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