A good guitar for working on USX?

[spork99]

I hope this question isn’t too absurd…

I’m trying to get a handle on downward pickslanting / USX picking, which so far doesn’t really feel that natural to me.
(At least not the way I think I understand it anyway.)

I’m much more comfortable with DSX, and I’m totally fine with that if it’s my destiny. However it’s bugging me that I can’t really get the USX thing and I’d like to at least feel like I’m giving it a fair try before I give up on it.

I’ve mostly been practicing on my Strat, because it’s a very comfortable guitar to play. But I feel like the top knob maybe gets in my way because it’s so close to the strings…Like I feel like I need to angle my hand down into that area on downstrokes so that I can properly go up and away on the escaped strokes…but I keep bumping my knuckles into the knob.
So also I sometimes try moving my hand more towards the middle pickup–but then I tend to bump my hand or the pick into the pickup. Both of these situations seem to interfere with me getting that beautifully smooth and efficient back-and-forth motion that we’re all after.

None of this really makes sense of course, since both Yngwie and Eric Johnson are Strat players.

Anyway, I’ve got some other guitars in my collection …a Les Paul, a Tele, a Wolfgang, a PRS…
Particularly the Les Paul is a whole different story because the strings are considerably higher off the body and also there’s no middle pickup to get in the way…but it’s definitely a different feeling experience because – among other things – when I plant/drag my fingers on the body it’s just a bigger distance there so my fingers get extended more. Which I realize sounds like a win-win, but I really can’t say that it feels any better.

So I’m wondering if there’s any particular guitar that lends itself more to the USX technique.
And I know that the short answer is “whichever one feels the best to you, Ben” …but since the motion itself still never really feels natural to me, I’m wondering if any of these different guitars might at least give me a better opportunity to properly learn and evaluate the technique.

Again sorry about the potential absurdity of my question-- but I’m just curious if this is something that anyone else has ever considered?

[Frylock]

@spork99

So also I sometimes try moving my hand more towards the middle pickup–but then I tend to bump my hand or the pick into the pickup.

One solution re: middle pickup, assuming the strat has a pickguard, is to turn the height adjustment screws to lower the middle pickup to be flush with the pickguard. I think Ritchie Blackmore was the first to popularize that.

Another mod that requires slightly more know-how, but is reasonably do-able, is to change the wiring to relocate the volume knob one hole down and remove one of the tone controls. Then with a little soldering you can rewire things in a “one volume, one tone” setup with knobs positioned more similar to what you find on Charvels, Ibanezes, and other superstrats.

[Johannes]

@spork99

So I’m wondering if there’s any particular guitar that lends itself more to the USX technique.

I don’t know the answer to that question. But I think I know what @Troy would say – that variety is good for learning. So keep trying the technique on different guitars to challenge your motor system.

[Johannes]

@Frylock

Another mod that requires slightly more know-how, but is reasonably do-able, is to change the wiring to relocate the volume knob one hole down and remove one of the tone controls. Then with a little soldering you can rewire things in a “one volume, one tone” setup with knobs positioned more similar to what you find on Charvels, Ibanezes, and other superstrats.

Yes, this is what I did on my strat! It turned out very well. However, playing any other strat now feels extremely awkward!