“Dude, I can’t get that big bend. What’s the deal?”
That’s choke-out.
Choke-out is that ‘dying’ of a note. A note that failed to ring out, or one that dies off as you bend is said to have choked.
Choking is often experienced when a player tries for a biggish bend, and most often on vintage-style guitars.
Read MoreFrom time to time I encounter an ’S-Shaped’ Neck. This means that you may well come across one too, so it’s good to know what the story is.
It’s a guitar or bass neck that has (usually) two humps.
It’s not that uncommon for any neck to develop a hump—sometimes called a ‘ski-slope’—at the last few frets (and there are some things that can aggravate this).
Read MoreIf you’ve read Sketchy Setups, you’ll probably have spotted that I mention the importance of using the right sized wrench for adjusting your truss rod.
Well, let me just mention it again:
IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT SIZED WRENCH!!!
Seriously. Really important.
This is especially true of guitars and basses that use an hex/allen wrench.
Read MoreI feel that I should add a consideration to my occasional rants about making sure that your instrument is setup for your music and your style.
That’s the consideration that style and skill-levels may well change over the years.
Now, this might mean that you tweak your guitar or bass a little here and there as you feel your playing needs change.
Or, the other option is to set-up your instrument based on how you want to be in the future.
Read More
