Squeaky strings

Elio

Student Of The Blues
Normally, I don't worry about  my fingers squeaking on the strings since I  don't generally hear it though the amp, but on my 6th Street Shuffle I can definitely hear squeaking on the recording I uploaded. I was using both pickups and  had the pickup volumes up a little higher than usual,  which is maybe the reason why.  How do most guitar players  minimize the squeaking?  Is it just a matter of a lighter touch when sliding around the freeboard? I have gone as far as oiling  the strings. ...well ok, not really,  but I did use string conditioner on them, which seems to help a little.
 
L

Lame_Pinkey

Guest
Elio when you are changing chords, up - down the neck (as in barre chords) you'll hear that "sqeaky" sound as you drag along the strings... listen to Tony Iommi  dragging along those strings !
Some things you can do to lessen it are - change to flat wound strings. Turn the gain down or off. Don't use an overdrive until you can control that 'dragging' sound satisfactorily.
These things should help.

LP
 

JN99

Hang Fire
Or simply lift your left hand completely off the strings - hard to do but no squeaks that way!  As LP says, a lighter touch but sometimes a piece is demanding such that it makes lifting completely off the strings difficult if not downright impossible where lightening the touch definitely minimizes the noise.  And rolling the guitar volume off helps too.
 

Silicon Valley Tom

It makes me happpy to play The Blues!
Recording yourself is a good idea for many reasons, and one is you can listen to the end result.  Now you can work on resolving what you have detected. 

What I was taught was to lift the tips of the fingers off of the strings a minimum amount, to enable you to move your fingers to the next required position.  Typically, that entails moving your finger tip straight off the string you are on.  Then you place your finger or fingers squarely on top of the string your are about to use.  If you attempt to drag or pull the finger off at an angle you will hear a squeak in many cases.

Doing simple warm up exercises can help your technique in many ways and one is to be sure that you are able to move from one note to another without unwanted sounds.  Include chord changes in your warm ups.

One thing to consider is your guitars setup.  Lowering the strings (without hitting the frets) will result in less tension being required.  Another is the strings you use.  Flat wound will help.



Tom
 

Elio

Student Of The Blues
Thank you for all of the great suggestions. This forum has been incredibly responsive for every questions I think I've seen asked.  I have never played with flat-wound strings but I am starting to get close to needing to change them, so I may give flat wounds a try just to experiment. Meanwhile, I'm working on my technique.
 

Elio

Student Of The Blues
I just realized that I never responded to this with a final outcome, so here goes. I ended up putting flatwound strings on my semi-hollow body Ibanez and almost immediately afterward found Rue's post with her not too happy experience with them.  I have to say that the first time I played with them, I thought the same thing.  They really sounded a little flat and lifeless, and they do seem a little sharp when you slide on them.  After having them on for a while now, I think I've decided that I really like them.  I can compensate for the flatter sound with my amp and tone settings, but there is a really nice tone I can get out of them that is definitely mellower and more subtle than roundwound strings, and it seems to really accentuate the tone of the semi-hollow body.   Now, I'm ready for another string change but I don't think I'm ready to go back to roundwounds. As a side-benefit, my wife doesn't complain about the squeaking, which she describes as being like "fingernails on a chalkboard."
 
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