Because you’re providing relief. The 25.5” scale just wasn’t designed for .52 in mind go this reason, and it’s clear with the evolution of longer scale lengths for bigger strings.
I’m getting into country too. Funny thing is the licks are all the same from jazz to blues to metal to… it’s just how you play em. But note for note identical in concept.
Have you considered learning jazz?
I’ve spent the last 5y on a jazz fusion deep dive (bass and guitar) and my playing especially my picking hand has markedly improved. I tabbed this song on UG a few years ago.https://youtu.be/KG7fIFuQTMw?si=KyjC28y1WgfM8F9C
I too also have a pickup question. I’ll be refurbishing my Telecaster here soon and looking for higher power humbucking stacked or rails Tele bridge pup and something compatible for a full sized humbucker in the neck that I can dial the tone back for jazz.
Something in the DiMarzio family.
Music today follows a very predictably pattern that Ed wasn’t bound by. I think at heart both him and Alex were jazz players in a rock world. Their father was a jazz musician, they both played piano and had congenital exposure to both jazz and classical vocabulary (like Rick Beats son Dylan)...