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Dull Sounding Notes, Too Many Overtones
ghodaddyyo
The slums of OCNew
Hello everyone, I used to post here and study gypsy jazz quite a bit several years ago, but have got caught up in other projects and neglected my gypsy jazz development.
After a recent trip to Italy, where guitars were brought out (classical guitars) after dinner and limoncello, I broke out into my renditions of Bossa Dorado and For Sephora. The family we were staying with loved it! It reinspired me to dust off my Saga Gitane 255 once I got back stateside and devote myself to getting better at this style. I've pulled out all my old books and without any other musical projects hindering me, I've really been able to dedicate myself toward technique and repertoir. It seems to be coming along very well. My goal is to be able to better improvise all these arps and licks I've been studying instead of "blanking" out or fumbling when it's my turn to go!
I've been pouring over all the archived threads about "wetness" and have concluded that my guitar is suffering from this as well. It can be quite annoying to hear my A and D strings ringing out in harmonic overtones even though I'm playing notes on the B string. That is something I can live with, but what really aggravates me is the dull tone of the notes I'm getting, particularly on the wound strings. No pop, no snap, no bark. Just a dull thud. I've tried a few different things to address the tone, but they seem to alleviate the issue only briefly. I've shimmed the bridge with a variety of items and materials to raise or lower the action as high as 3mm (I now feel good at 2.5mm), checked and rechecked intonation, added or removed relief to the neck, and tried every pick thickness and material I could get my hands on. The best the guitar sounds is when I put on new strings (Galli cause that's what I can afford), but that brightness and pop I enjoy dissappears within a few days. All of the guitar's components are stock. The guitar seems to come alive more when the weather is nice and warm, but dull as anything when it gets cooler.
What sort of things can I try to get more pop out of my wound strings? Would a better bridge help? I am not currently gigging and it is not feasible for me to purchase a higher end guitar at this time. I just jam with a group of friends on a weekly basis (mostly straight ahead jazz, and oldies, but I make them learn some GJ) but have any eye out for more public jams in the future.
After a recent trip to Italy, where guitars were brought out (classical guitars) after dinner and limoncello, I broke out into my renditions of Bossa Dorado and For Sephora. The family we were staying with loved it! It reinspired me to dust off my Saga Gitane 255 once I got back stateside and devote myself to getting better at this style. I've pulled out all my old books and without any other musical projects hindering me, I've really been able to dedicate myself toward technique and repertoir. It seems to be coming along very well. My goal is to be able to better improvise all these arps and licks I've been studying instead of "blanking" out or fumbling when it's my turn to go!
I've been pouring over all the archived threads about "wetness" and have concluded that my guitar is suffering from this as well. It can be quite annoying to hear my A and D strings ringing out in harmonic overtones even though I'm playing notes on the B string. That is something I can live with, but what really aggravates me is the dull tone of the notes I'm getting, particularly on the wound strings. No pop, no snap, no bark. Just a dull thud. I've tried a few different things to address the tone, but they seem to alleviate the issue only briefly. I've shimmed the bridge with a variety of items and materials to raise or lower the action as high as 3mm (I now feel good at 2.5mm), checked and rechecked intonation, added or removed relief to the neck, and tried every pick thickness and material I could get my hands on. The best the guitar sounds is when I put on new strings (Galli cause that's what I can afford), but that brightness and pop I enjoy dissappears within a few days. All of the guitar's components are stock. The guitar seems to come alive more when the weather is nice and warm, but dull as anything when it gets cooler.
What sort of things can I try to get more pop out of my wound strings? Would a better bridge help? I am not currently gigging and it is not feasible for me to purchase a higher end guitar at this time. I just jam with a group of friends on a weekly basis (mostly straight ahead jazz, and oldies, but I make them learn some GJ) but have any eye out for more public jams in the future.
"Aw, that's just pillow talk baby!"
Comments
First of all, welcome back to the community! I'm a baby still, but love this music and its people....so, nice to meet you here.
I've a DG-300 (soon to retire - I have a luthier guitar a few weeks away). I can tell you that getting a Dupont bridge from Michael made a noticeable difference. That said, alot of the "wetness" I perceived in my guitar was, ahem...moi-meme, and it probably wasn't so much an intrinsic "wetness" as just poor or sloppy technique on my part. I've worked pretty hard at rhythm and can now say, at least I can be pretty much as dry as I'd like, though there, yep, there's still some odd pinging here and there. A friend told me, wisely, I'd say, don't buy a better guitar until you can hear the difference.
Sounds like you're in a very different place from me, you've a lot of experience, but for what it's worth, I did find a bridge made a discernible difference (and this is the only mod I made - that, and I went from Argie 11's to 10's).
Good luck!
Paul
pas encore, j'erre toujours.
'm
Galli silk and steel, right Eddy?
pas encore, j'erre toujours.
My experience as well. I've tried Galli's a couple times, disappointing results both times. But that might just be this guitar, too...will be interesting to try on my next guitar.
Thanks, Eddy.
pas encore, j'erre toujours.
The GSB and GSL strings are their newer style strings which are coated and last quite a long time for most people, usually much longer than Argentines.
M