DSX on low strings - no palm support

Playing Technique
#1

DSX player here. Everything falls apart on the low strings, especially the low E, especially when muting, ESPECIALLY on tune-o-matic or arch top bridges.

With my DSX hand position, the contact point with the guitar is the base of the thumb and the thumb side of the heel of the hand. And on those kinds of bridges when I’m positioned to play the low E, there’s no bridge left to rest on. My hand is just hanging out in the breeze in thin air. And if I try resting on the guitar body, it’s so much lower that the angle of the hand totally changes so you have to build a while separate technique just to play the low E.

I want to play metal so alternate muted picking in the low E is key to everything. I’ve been trying crazy stuff like building hand rests above the low E strong on the body so there’s something to rest on to maintain the consistent lateral hand angle used when playing the higher strings.

Anybody else dealing with this? Help!

#2

Video is going to help. Even better would be to post a technique critique and see what CtC says. I am guessing solution is probably to supinate your forearm more to allow more flesh anchoring and allow for palm muting because you could be overpronated towards thumb

#3

These are the worst. lol I have adapted to playing on a TOM, but I’ll always prefer bridges that are lower to the body.

I think it’s important to understand why it’s an issue - what’s happening is the loss of support while playing the lower strings causes picking depth to become extra difficult to control, so picking the string is now “hard”. The key is to find some other way to support.

One possible solution: Andy James used to play on a TOM back in the day, and you can see that in his faster playing he always presses his ring finger into the body of the guitar, so that’s his form of added support.

Two other guys to look at are old videos of Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin. Al played a Les Paul, and John an SG. I’m not sure offhand how exactly they went about playing on the low strings, but they certainly had no issues, so that can also be a route for you to explore.