bluesway

hehehe/ mine just arrived yesterday, too....same guitar...i was all pissed off that my figured top wasn't bookmatched, but then i moved it in the light and the patterns of the wood were visible from different angles....beautiful.

stupid questions get stupid answers stupid magazines get stupid readers life's too short for hating just look at the pictures. i would like to buy a few beers, sir. /thread.

to everyone who asked, i sent the book.

Weird. Im guessing bad habits from never being formally tought on guitar??? yup, but you can train yourself out of them. i taught myself, too, until i went to the university...that was a pretty harsh wake-up.

Yes, I anchor my pinky - so much that it has actually worn a hole straight thru the finish between my pickups: well, dude, CUT YOUR NAILS!!!

If you look at high-end jazz boxes, they don't call the floating pickguard a pickguard. They call it a finger rest. that's something carried over from long before the time when plectrum technique was carefully studied in the same way that classical technique was. It no longer applies. and if you think about it just from an efficiency standpoint, the anchor is a crutch. A variation that i take on it is this: i do a "loose fist" type of picking and my highest knuckle on my pinky (the one closest to the nail) will sometimes slightly brush the pickguard. it's not an anchor, but more of a 'guage' to keep my picking level....well now, it's more of a habit. when i REALLY want to get great tone out of my guitar for a particular run (like the head in a ballad, for example), i have to move it from there and position my hand differently, but i usually DO have that pinky-knuckle skimming along the top of the guitar surface somewhere.

no, it's bad technique. Howard Roberts addresses it concisely in his "jazz guitar technique in 20 weeks" book: The right hand seems to be the greatest limiting factor for most modern-day guitar improvisers. It appears that once a style of picking has become habitual, it is very difficult to change, and frequently, total retraining is required. So, taking into consideration that there are many techniques one may use to execute a given passage, we must constantly remind ourselves that flexibility-the ability to adapt the right hand to a variety of moves- is the key to longevity. The big thing to avoid is any kind of anchor system that inhibits freedom of movement. Observe anchors at the elbow, at the wrist, grasping the pickguard with the little finger, etc.; all of which may be functional for a specific sound, but should be viewed with caution when considered as the basis of overall right hand technique. Remember: keep it loose! - like a guy strumming a ukelele in a pineapple field. If there is any rigidness in your picking leverage system, it can stop you like a brick wall when tempos get fast. I'm pretty much 100% in agreement with him...especially at bebop gigs. :crazy: PS - if anyone's interested in a pdf of that book, btw, PM me with your email. (sorry, howard. )