See, for me, this is where I think I was getting it wrong for years. Once I stopped using my fingers to initiate the bends and started engaging forearm supination, bends became a lot easier.
right! the fingers are static and work with the wrist pivot. my bending/vibrato is a an act of the wrist and fingers simultaneously … cant stress enough to watch the jeff watson video. finger placement must be ahead of the wrist for proper pivot.
I just started taking Curcumin tablets as recommended by @fenrirokie and I;ve been taking Vitamin D3 and Magnesium for a while now. Not tried Krill oil, I guess it’s similar to the fish oil omega 3 supplements, maybe I should try it, certainly won’t do any harm.
I would love a scalloped neck yes, but that’s not in my budget at the moment.
Really with my finger problems I shouldn’t be playing at all or shouldn’t be playing the Strat at least.
No matter how much tell myself not to stress my fingers too much I always end up playing bends and 3NPS stuff, it just happens. The only real way to avoid it is not to pick the guitar up at all.
I’m just watching the Jeff Watson video, good stuff !
Krill oil is a super food. excellent for cognitive function, joints, inflammation in the body.
I agree with @Prlgmnr and @LuckyMojo - Guthrie Govan for string bending. Excellent teacher, easy to understand, wickedly great player and very cool British humor. He also shows techniques to avoid pain while bending strings.
@slyvai You mention having the same gauge on both strat and LP. Just a thought, that the longer scale length strat could use a lighter gauge. I have a strat and tele - I use 9’s for the Fenders and 10’s on my LP’s. I just got 9.5’s and am about to try them on my LP’s. The shorter scale LP goes better with a little heavier gauge than the Fender scale length. Just a thought …
I’ve noticed one of my main issues is that after a few cycles of vibrato on a bent note, I kind of “slip” and hit the string above the one I’m bending and get that kind of “double bend” sound. I’m trying to use my pointer finger to push the above string out of the way with mixed results so far.
Basically I’m having trouble digging in on my bends. I pick at my nails so they’re basically nonexistent – so maybe growing them out would help?
@Catmandu: Yes I did have lighter strIngs on the Strat than the LP before, I had standard 10s on the Strat and Skinny Top Heavy Bottoms on the LP but because of my finger problems I’ve changed them both to standard 9s.
Maybe I need to go to 8s on the Strat. In fact yesterday I broke the E string on the Strat and didn’t have another 9 so has to put a 10 on which is certainly not what I wanted.