Anyways tuned it all the way down to C and tried playing my exercises ( I don't usually learn songs just practice certain things like scales or arpeggios or chords, and as days go by I evolve the exercises to more difficult ones as my own skill increases ) , now at this tuning the coiled strings behaved very oddly as they were too lose to make chords ring out nicely and not much good to pick on single notes either. It got just a lil bit more cumbersome, not really difficult. The thin strings on the other hand got a lil easier to play on O_O. My left hand needed less effort to move around faster and with just a lil adjustment of my picking style I could keep up with the increased speed.
Basically I like very slack spaghetti like string tension. It feels smoother to play on in general. Though it would seem i need to get a custom string set next time. Since i like the coiled strings to be tight and rigid to get a nice sound out of them. And somehow playing fast on coiled strings is really easy.Ill take a nod from yngwie's custom gauge set, 8 11 14 22 32 46. the thickest string is the same as my current 10 gauge set. While the rest are thinner than the 9 gauge set. This type of gauge set is apparently called Hybrid gauge. Where the thin strings are thinner and the coiled strings are thicker compared to the normal string sets.
Well its rather out of the ordinary. But well it suits my out of the ordinary style so i don't really mind as long as it works for me.
Ive also tried adjusting the string action even lower to the one i have right now. Sure it feels a lil easier to shred on....but it just feels weird too. I am one of those unfortunate ppl who cant stand the sound the guitar silently makes when the string even glances on more than one fret. It just annoys the crap out of me, if I turn up the volume even then my rather delicate fingers somehow pick it up, to me it feels like the sustain is going off somewhat, to me it feels like Im cheating a lil bit too :P. As mentioned before about metalheads do keep it low it just doesn't feel right for me.
Its also not only the feel that Im annoyed about. Since I have a TOM bridge (google it if u haven't already :P) I cannot adjust each string height individually. Meaning when I lower the thin strings to a nice amount the thick strings touch two frets at almost each position. Now Ive been told that its not a problem at all. Oh but it is. its a huge problem since it sorta cuts away the growling sound the guitar makes right after I hit a chord on high distortion, I really like that "roar" kinki has. And at lower settings the sound is very percussive and also has lesser sustain. Im afraid that is an absolute no no for me. I love playing heavy distortion rhythm guitar bits.And I love the ringing sound the strings make at high gain.Songs like Temptation- cradle of filth shows a really good example of a nice sounding rhythm guitar.
Ive also noticed many shredders (the ppl who play so fast u cant tell what they are doing) have really shitty rhythm tones. Well now it finally makes sense to me as why it is that way. Its no wonder some guitarists are hailed as heroes while others who play just as fast are known only as mediocre in sound. Its a very subtle difference perhaps to the average ear. But just try listening to someone like Steve Vai. He would sound so much smoother and clearer compared to most guitarists. Its easy to see how high string action really cuts out the weird ambient 'noise' that most electric guitars have, sometimes its the amp, sometimes its the guitar's own hardware noise,sometimes its sloppy playing but a lot of times its the slight double fretting sound you subconsciously hear even with distortion.
It looks like Ive come to a decision then. High enough string action so there is no double fretting from the areas i play on. And hybrid strings to accommodate my style of picking and of course my rather weak left hand : P.
This is going to hurt actually, high action always means my mistakes would be more pronounced and of course have to rely more on palm muting as well. But Im slowly getting better at it so I guess in good time Ill be fine. Besides, this is just another challenge really xD
To make things a little easier i dug the nut joint a lil bit, just for the thickest string so playing rhythm bits are now a lot lot easier than before xD. I dont see any need to to lower all the strings from the nut joint, adjust only when needed.
Back to practice.
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