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Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I'm a Fender guy from way back as well. Another 'tweener model you might find interesting is the chambered EA-68 Viper. They're readily available on the Bay as well as through members here. GC regularly plays one in his current show. |
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Posts: 382
Location: USA | Welcome to a whole new world |
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November 2008
Posts: 83
Location: North Wales, UK. | Prof,the Viper looks tidy to me and the reviews back it up in good style. Might be temted later on but I need to get the neck setup sorted on the 1986 as it leaves a lot to be desired.
I have only had it a week and 1st impressions apart from the playing action, Nice acoustic sound and very nice electric sound on my Fender 185 Professional amp. I am very much a newcomer to Ovation and have a lot to learn just like Styll said.
Bye the bye I have changed the Adagio 11 thou strings on it for a set of 8 thou same and it is much easier to the hand.
Gonna bash on and toughen my fingers up like they used to be when I was playing regular.
Regards,
dave3dg |
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Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | I'd venture an opinion that 8s are way too light for an acoustic guitar. Put some 12s on it, check to see if you can take some shims out to lower the action and go from there. You need something strong enough to make the top vibrate. I've got some 10s that I haven't used, because I don't know if they will drive the top. Never heard of anyone using 8s. |
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Posts: 4413
| 8s????? The Pontypool Front Row must be spinning in their wheelchairs to think the Welsh are now such wimps.
8s are super wimpy on an electric.
You need 10s minimum to get a decent acoustic sound - 11s better. 12s if you must. |
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Posts: 83
Location: North Wales, UK. | Hells teeth lads, my little pinkies were assaulted by those telegraph wires. :eek: I havn't played much in the last five or so years and I was well used to light strings.
In fact, the acoustic volume and depth has obviously reduced but is quite nice in a reserved way. Anyway when I go electric I can just whang the volume knob up a bit :D .
These ultra light bowls are not renowned for there acoustic qualities.
Ah, scroeder m8 our North Wales forefathers started out our heritage by rolling boulders off the mountains and shooting arrows onto the English just outside of Chester, we would have done better by stringing our bows with 11's and 12's to get more range. :D
Seriously the 1986 is not a prolific acoustic and I doubt ever will be but it has a very nice bright ring even with the ultra lights.
Regards,
dave3dg |
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Posts: 3969
| 8's?!?!? Really?!?! You need 12's at the least, mate. I don't know how you can get ANY sound out of her with 8's. It may not be the cannon a deep bowl can be, but you'll get a lot more volume and tone out of her with heavier strings. Your fingers will get used to them quickly, too. |
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Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | People post on this board all the time (or they used to until we ran them off) asking what's the best way to toughen their fingers or what strings would be easiest on their fingers.
Using anything under .12's on an acoustic guitar will seriously cut the volume and tone. Suck it up, put on some decent strings, and play. You're fingers will toughen up quickly enough. I lose calluses about every other week. They just split and peal off. My fingers are tender for a day or so as I play and then toughen up again.
I can tell you that I only notice my fingers being tender when I play by myself. When I'm with other people or playing in front of others, I never notice my finger tips.
I heard in an interview with Roy Clark that when he was first learning, he'd play until his finger tips were raw and bleeding, then go soak them in ice water to get them numb, and start playing again.
Don't be a wimp. You wanna play? Just do it.... |
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Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I don't ever remember losing a callus. Could this be because of technique, such as using less finger pressure than others? |
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Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | Possibly. I know I really grab a guitar neck. I've always had trouble pushing electric guitar strings out of pitch..... |
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Posts: 2985
Location: Sydney, Australia | Doing pull-offs is nasty on calluses, particularly if you tend to flick off by dragging the string sideways as part of the motion. I was practicing this one day and noticed tiny bits of skin flying through the air. Like others, I've found that giving the callus a smoothing over with a nail file prevents loosing a whole callus. |
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Posts: 83
Location: North Wales, UK. | Its not just the finger segs or calluses in my case it is my style of playing. Telegraph wire gauge of strings just don't suit me.
I am sure we all know that heavy gauge strings sound a lot better on an acoustic and especially on my ultra shallow bowl, but it still sounds good on the lighter strings. It still sounds tidy on leccy too. |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by schroeder:
8s????? The Pontypool Front Row must be spinning in their wheelchairs to think the Welsh are now such wimps.
8s are super wimpy on an electric.
You need 10s minimum to get a decent acoustic sound - 11s better. 12s if you must. The irony here is thick enough to cut with a (Low tension) # .10 e string. |
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| Hey I've just got a couple of sets of 11s. (although in both sets the low Es are 47s....) |
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Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | My dental floss is thicker . . . |
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Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Random thought-- I don't even use .008's on my electrics...
[except the G octave on the 10 string] |
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November 2008
Posts: 83
Location: North Wales, UK. | Man, I am wondering what sort of guitar players we have here??
Maybe you should consider taking up the drums if you like big, thick things in your hands so much.
I have been doing it all wrong over the last 40+ years it seems. I am going to spit all my dummies out all over the floor and turn the thing into a plantpot. :eek:
I can hang it from the eaves with those heavy engineering cables I took off it.
I still have my Strat and thats a proper leckie guitar. :p
Regards,
dave3dg |
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March 2005
Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | Although Ovation made several notable attempts at the electric market, most of them were acoustics. Ergo, most of us would be acoustic guitar players. From what little I know, people generally use lighter gauge strings on electric guitars than they do on acoustics. |
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December 2001
Posts: 7210
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I don't usually go any lighter than 9's on Electrics. I like 10's, mostly because I use a tremolo bridge (Kahler mostly) and anything less than 10's starts to get hinky imho when using a tremolo. I may even use 10's on my 10 string. |
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Location: North Wales, UK. | The obvious downside of choosing light gauge strings and adapting your style to suit does give a disadvantage when attempting to play a guitar whith heavier stringing. WhatI mean to say really is that I am cwap playing on heavier strings. Can't seem to press the mothers down enough.
When I started out playing a couple of years ago the choice of guages were very limited. What we call 12 gauge were light in the early 60's. Also the type of guitar and a sprung tremelo bridge design make a huge difference. I use 9 gauge Fender bullets on my Strat and can bend strings one hell a of lot better than the 8 gauge on the 'O' and thats down to the trem springs.
I think we have a converter in my son-in-law who had a go on the 'O' both acoustic and leckie and was well impressed. I think his Yamaha acoustic is endangered now.
Regards,
dave3dg |
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Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4026
Location: Utah | Originally posted by dave3dg:
WhatI mean to say really is that I am cwap playing on heavier strings. Can't seem to press the mothers down enough. Due to a recent thread on using mediums, and needing to try a song in a drop tuning, I tried some mediums on my O. It sure sounds superb in the drop tuning! But even after 3 weeks I can't play it at concert pitch without causing joint pain. Old age seems to be creeping up on me. It'll be back to lights (12's) at the next string change. |
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November 2008
Posts: 83
Location: North Wales, UK. | & Mark in Boise: You are quite right m8 couldn't have said it better. Even though I have an 'O' it will not make me an acoustic guitarist to the same standard as most of you guys. My 'O' is not quite a complete acoustic and is certainly not a solid electric but it sits in between very very nicely. No complaints.
& FlySig
There's no doubt the mediums/heavies sound one hell of a lot nicer than any lights acoustically.
Playing in pain takes all the fun out of it. You could try Glucosamine & Chondroitin 100 mg tablets they are well known for easing joint pain.
Regards,
dave3dg |
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March 2007
Posts: 840
Location: CA | Watched a thing on biography channel the other night on Heart. Nancy Wilson said something to the effect of "I learned to play on a cheap guitar with thick strings and high action. It made my hands so strong that now I can play anything."
Personally I'm lucky. My ear isn't good enough to hear the difference between various types, thicknesses and makes of strings. So I just buy the cheapest ones. Okay, okay. Not completely true. But paying double for some sexy phosphor-nuclear-dilithium-crystal strings that sound only marginally better than yer basic cheapie D'ads doesn't make enough sense to me to do it on a regular basis. |
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