While gathering chops, should we be using ONE guitar?

Playing Technique
#1

If this has been asked before then I apologise!

obviously there is a difference in feel and hand positioning when switching between different guitar types, something I’m sure most or all of us are used to, but what is the consensus on switching guitars while actually getting the basics down?

to be clear, I’m not a novice, but I am trying to taking my picking to the next level, like all of you(!), and sometimes I wonder if I should just practice high-level picking techniques on one type of guitar, instead of switching daily between strats, my tele, my RG and my PRS.

sometimes I get a bit stuck and wonder if it is the small change in hand positioning which is the culprit. I see Troy apparently playing any random guitar at 110%, so I know it should eventually be less of a problem, but what about in the earlier stages?

any thoughts?

3 Likes
#2
2 Likes
#3

I’m not a professional; I had a bunch of guitars I got rid of for various reasons, they were all boutique etc. After I found the YJM, I couldn’t be bothered with any case beauties; this one guitar took over my life, now I’m just going to get more of them with different pickups and configurations. After a year of playing just this one YJM exclusively, tried a non-scalloped Kotzen Signature tele the other day, didn’t go down well, to say the least,

Could be a good or bad thing, depends. For me it’s keeping things simple and consistent, my GAS is now limited to one species of guitar :smiley:

2 Likes
#4

look at it this way. 6 months of focused practice can totally revolutionize your picking…you can stand to play just one guitar for that long lol

#5

Jon you make a point. I’m thinking about Jim Clark, he reaced anything he could get into :grin:

#6

Hi StratRG,

from my experience I would say yes, change them.
Not randomly, but when you feel you are hitting some kind of barrier. That’s what I did along with trying different picks in these cases. It helps in what Troy described as tiny variations in hand positioning. So trying a different guitar/pick and sometimes going back to the one before helps to cross that barrier, at least for me.

Of course you can still have a main guitar or even more so pick.

1 Like
#7

According to this:
https://bulletproofmusician.com/a-practice-strategy-that-will-help-you-play-more-accurately-when-it-counts/
we should benefit from practicing with different guitars.

#8

Change guitar, change what you play, change where you play, change how you play, change everything you can and see what it does.

1 Like
#9

Thanks for that. Interesting article and makes a lot of sense.

otoh we can also just use it as an excuse to buy more guitars :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

1 Like
#10

Huge fan of switching instruments. Even when I think I’m doing fine on one instrument and I don’t need to do this, I sometimes begrudgingly have to pick another instrument because it’s the only one I have available. And many times, when I do that, I learn something. And I’m not talking about fancy advanced things, I’m talking about basic stuff like where do I place my hand and how do I make a certain motion work with smoothness.

In general, I find myself switching between 22.5" scale, 24" scale, and 25.5" scale guitars, two different size acoustic bodies, strat bodies and the Les Paul carved body, multiple bridge types — with and without tailpieces — and mandolin, F-style, A-style, and classical bowl back. It’s quite a variety. Honestly, I’d prefer to play one instrument all the time and be done with it, but I’m almost certain I’m better off with all the moving around I have to do.

It’s very hard to predict when you will or won’t learn something by moving around, so it’s difficult to say how you should decide when to do this. I don’t know what the formula should be. I can say for sure that locking yourself into one instrument, one form, one motion, etc. especially if you’re in the learning stages, and especially if you’re not hitting it out of the park already, is probably a negative. It’s an extension of the old approach of hammering away at the same exercises and patterns day after day, very slowly, with no variation. It just leaves no room for natural variety that all of us had when we were kids and trying everything and learning everything.

Edit: To be clear, I’m not saying you must change instruments all the time. I know that’s not always practical. I just mean that if you’re trying to acquire a new motor skill, there should probably be some source of variation, even if it’s little things like changing up your form, musical material, pick type, sitting vs standing, etc. Lots of little things you can do to help yourself feel what is common, and thus functional, about all these ways of playing.

And here’s some more mandolin!

5 Likes
#11

I’ll say this - almost all of my practicing has been on fairly similar guitars, superstrats with either traditional Strat bridges or fairly low profile recessed Floyds, arm contours, and 25.5" scale necks, and beyond that I’d estimate that at least half of my practice time has been spent on one particular Strat, and Inca Silver American Standard I saved up for years to buy in high school, that I’ve owned more than 20 years now. And, in some ways the fact that most of my guitars are relatively easy substututions for each other makes it easy to jump from one to the other…

…but the odd man out, a PRS Singlecut, feels WEIRD when I try to do fast alternate picking on its nonrecessed TOM, and that’s definitely a problem if I ever in a pinch needed to do some fast picked stuff on that guitar. :rofl:

1 Like
#12

I think what matters here is whether you’re trying to acquire a new motor skill, or whether you’re playing music with skills you already have. New skill acquisition is where I think the variety is necessary. Feeling around to replicate the same motion on a Les Paul where you’re sitting up on what feels like a raised platform, versus a slab body, where your arm feels flatter, teaches you what it is about that motion which is fundamental, and what isn’t. You’re recognizing a familiar face in a different outfit.

5 Likes
#13

Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me, Troy.

#14

I had struggled getting forarm rotation to make sense on my Les Paul for more than a year. After switching to my Kramer I made some progress after a few months that I then feel I can transfer back to my Les Paul as well. So I wouldn’t switch all the time if you are learning a specific technique, but definitely try other guitars to learn something on them as @Troy stated.

Quite a few pro players stay with one bridge though. Kerry King stated he stayed on the Kähler because every other bridge required a (slightly) different palm muting technique.

2 Likes
#15

I think it’s necessary to play on different guitars. In my imagination, a guitarist should be fine no matter what kind of electric guitar he/she grabs. If I give Eric Johnson an Ibanez guitar, I believe he can still play the pentatonic runs as easy as drinking a cup of water.

Several years ago I was a 100% Ibanez fan. One day a bro gave me his tele and asked me to play. I remembered, that was a nightmare to me, because I THOUGHT I can shred on that without problem. I played only on my Ibanez for the first 3 years before I studied in US because we were not allowed to try guitars at music stores in my city unless we buy them. That’s why I have trouble playing the other guitars.

Now I use two Strats and a MusicMan ( sold a Gibson Les Paul last year) and they are enough for my playing. Also, I go to the guitar center (located at time square in NYC) twice a week to try different guitars. They have tons of guitars that you can try freely before. But now it seems not friendly, for those guitars over 1500 are all locked on the wall…

#16

Which they let you try if you just ask them :slight_smile: Miss that room and a particular 57 junior…

#18

Yeah, if it is not in rush hour.

Last time I asked for trying the new Ibanez AZ with green body, I was told to wait a second until they were free, but actually I waited for over 15 minutes then I grabbed a random one.

Since I visit there frequently, to me, it feels a little bit awkward to ask for trying a locked guitar each time without buying. Hope that they don’t remember my face lmao. But I did order a musicman directly from guitar center at the end of 2018, which is too much for me. This makes me feel free to try all of their guitar at the store. ( not include those two rooms. I occasionally go to fender room to try the amp, but not the PRS/Gibson/MusicMan/high price guitar room, which makes me feel like walking into a luxury clothes store, the air is heavier there somehow lol)

#19

I strongly believe switching instruments helps, and I have experience to back it up.

For over 8 years I had only one guitar to practice on, my old, trusty Dean Vendetta - cheap, entry level instrument, equipped with permanently locked Floyd Rose bridge so the neck was slightly wider that a regular version with Tune-o-matic. Still quite slim for me though as I am over 6’2’’ and have quite large hands. Being kind of used to this one and almost never having chance to try anything different I struggled to play anything on my brother’s Les Paul copy.
Recently I bought an 8string, which is absolute unit of a guitar - neck is absurdly wide, scale an inch longer, strings substantially thicker in the bass region.

Guess what - got used to it quickly, struggled to play on Vendetta. After a while, switching back and forth both guitars feel comfy and I have no issues playing either one of them, be it racing-horse Vendetta, 8-string monstrosity or even my brother’s tiny (compared to mine) Les Paul, even though I still don’t have much experience with that one as I come to visit like 1-2 times a year.

I think there is a reason to that - neuroplasticity.
I feel like the more different variations of one thing you try, the better you get.
Also I believe that coordination relies on key reference points on the instrument, i.e. the bridge position and string/fret spacings. Our brains are very good at adapting and once you get the basics down, it all becomes very natural and intuitive.

TL;DR - the more instruments you practice on, the easier and quicker it gets to get comfy with the next one.

1 Like