Re: fingernails

on 1/8/01 3:25 PM, tuning@egroups.com at tuning@egroups.com wrote:

>> Try using your fingernails in various ways for more sounds.
>
> Yes, all of that. The problem with nails is stopping the squeaking.
>

Unless I'm reading something wrong here, I've always found squeaking to be a
left hand problem, alleviated by careful lifting of the left hand fingers
off of the string before shifting position. If there's any harshness from
the nails, all rough edges should be smoothed out.

This guitar vs synthesis dialogue is quite interesting, sorry to not have
jumped in sooner, I'm now just starting to get caught up with all the tuning
digests since the beginning of the year.

Seth

--
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
email; seth@sethausten.com

"The secret to staying calm in a crisis is in not knowing all the facts."
Lefty, "Lives of the Cowboys"

Seth Austen wrote:

> Unless I'm reading something wrong here, I've always found squeaking to
> be a
> left hand problem, alleviated by careful lifting of the left hand
> fingers
> off of the string before shifting position. If there's any harshness
> from
> the nails, all rough edges should be smoothed out.

It comes from the nail sliding against the string. I've got an example at
<http://x31eq.com/guitarsqueak.wav>, about 110 kB. You can
hear the effect, mostly before the attack starts, and then at the end as I
damp with the nail.

The pitch for a normal sample seems to be consistent to within a few
cents, so that's good.

Graham