Bending | String under or on

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Re: Bending | String under or on

Post by RionZ »

Up and down sides to both in my experience.

I find the low frets on my Gibson tend to encourage me to slide more in my playing, e.g instead of doing a hammer-on/off i'd slide up or down to the note. Also, it just feels more "slick" moving up and down the neck as you hardly notice the frets are there (some have described jumbo frets as akin to playing a ladder!). The downsides are the aforementioned difficulty in doing bends without catching the adjacent string - obviously more of a problem if action is also low. And... in comparison to the tall frets on my Ibanez, it feels like less of an "accurate" guitar for runs and scales.
All of the above could be inverted and applied to the taller frets as advantages/disadvantages, so the Ibanez is very accurate for fast playing - my fingers just seem to land in the right place. Also, the action can be ridiculously low but still not an issue in terms of bends because you have room to push the string down while bending. On the other hand, it does feel a less comfortable moving up and down the neck due to the mass of the frets.. added to the fact that Ibanez floyd rose guitars have a very flat profile. I definitely prefer the Gibson for rhythm and chordal playing, but that may well be more to do with the thin neck and more rounded fingerboard profile.
In my mind the Ibanez is for "master shredder" type stuff whereas the Gibson is more rock n roll :)
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Re: Bending | String under or on

Post by Wonks »

apaclin wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:18 pm
Wonks wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 10:13 am Can you just confirm which end of the pocket the shim went, A or B?

It's B of course.

You can put a shim at either end to get the neck angle correct, though I really wouldn't want to put one in position A unless there was no other option.

But if the shim was in position B, then I've no idea why you can't get a decent action.
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Re: Bending | String under or on

Post by zenguitar »

We're gonna need a bigger shim!!!

Andy :beamup:
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Re: Bending | String under or on

Post by Wonks »

:thumbup:

It's weird to need one that's so large on a guitar from a major manufacturer. Unless someone's had a go themselves at changing the angle on the heel themselves in the past instead of fitting a shim.
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Re: Bending | String under or on

Post by merlyn »

What I notice about the two photos is that in the first one you're using three fingers, and in the second photo you're using two fingers. It is harder to bend using only two fingers. The strings can make a noise as they bump into each other. To get around that it's possible to use the first finger to mute. You can try bending with your pinky, which means there are three fingers bending, plus the first finger to mute.

Try playing a phrase with a bend at the end and see whether 'under' or 'on' happens.
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