How light/heavy is your touch?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SpiderWars
  • Start date Start date

How light/heavy is your touch?

  • Piano hammers

    Votes: 5 18.5%

  • Heavy

    Votes: 9 33.3%

  • Medium

    Votes: 6 22.2%

  • Light

    Votes: 6 22.2%

  • Like a butterfly landed

    Votes: 1 3.7%
  • Total voters
    27
SpiderWars

SpiderWars

Well-known member
Just curious, I've seen great players with seemingly heavy-handed touch and also with touch so light it doesn't even look like they are fretting notes. To some degree a light touch is considered good/pro but I'm not sure how SRV could wrangle that heavy vibrato from 13s with a light touch, altho when he sat down and played Riviera or Lenny he could play with a light touch at times too.

Also think about how loud it sounds when different players play an unplugged electric guitar. Some guys are loud others you can barely hear anything at their normal playing volume. Both shred. :dunno:
 
Years ago (like when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I realized I was squeezing the shit out of the neck and that it was hindering not only my speed but my playing in general. I made an effort to try and lighten up on my grip. Over the years it just evolved. Add arthritis to the mix and I had to switch to 8's to even be able to play and some days my hand hurts so bad I can't play bar chords without being in agony. When I started playing 8' I had to lighten up even more. So while I picked light touch I probably should have gone with the butterfly.
 
Mine is on the lighter side and actually pretty funny why that is.

When I was in high school in the 80s, I hated changing strings. I still hate changing strings more than anything in this world. I also hated my guitar going out of tune. Because of this, I never wanted to break one so I would play light. I guess over the years it became part of my style or tone, etc. I see people in the store playing really hard and makes me cringe. LOL! Although I know that there are a lot of folks who play that way.
 
I don't have the bad arthritis, but i struggled with gripping the neck like a bat. I have worked on lightening my frets, sometimes it is hard to separate the right and left hand when you are really kicking ass with the right and I will over fret sharp. but i can also nail harmonics flawlessly. I spend a little time each week watching the tuner while I am playing and making sure i am not over palm muting or fretting. I got away with it for too long with an evertune, so i have to retrain myself
 
If I don't go with stainless frets, I'll start wearing nickel in the first month :lol: :LOL:
 
I’d say I have a light’ish to medium touch on the fretting hand. I think my right hand is pretty economical as well. My right hand is more medium attack. My other guitar player in my death metal band... his hands and fingers flail about like they’ve got epilepsy yet he’s a dam precise player. It cracks me up!
 
I'd like to say my touch is medium or light, but I am pretty ham handed so it is probably heavy =D.
 
varies, sometimes very light, other times I dig in.
 
I've been playing for 33 years and have always owned guitars for a long time before selling. I currently have at least 3 guitars that I have owned for 15+ years and there hardly any sign of fret wear on any of them

Safe to say I have a very light touch haha
 
Light touch here.

Was tempted to tick the butterfly option but went with "light"... :confused:
 
I've never had to have my frets leveled or replaced. Maybe I haven't kept anything long enough or maybe my fret hand is light, but god damn if my picking hand isn't only heavy handed ham fisted down picking.
 
I didn't consider frequency of fret levels/jobs as an indicator of heavy touch but it makes sense.

I have a habit of trying to vibrato too much and I think that contributes to fret wear but in any case I have had to get fret levels/jobs many times.
Maybe I'm heavier than I thought.
 
If my guitars could file assault charges on me, they would.
 
I have a light fretting hand under all conditions, and a relatively medium-heavy picking hand for rhythm, but ease up for leads and can get extremely light.
 
I don't know if Steve Vai has a light touch but he certainly appears to when I see his videos.
 
lightest touch ever - Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom. He also plays with mandolin type picks. I asked him about it and he said it came from playing the violin when he was a kid.
 
I used to be super heavy-handed, but lately, I don't play as much as I used to, so I feel I've lost some power in that regard. I like to think I'm medium-heavy, though. I really like the tone that comes from picking hard.
 
splatter":2yud4o6g said:
Years ago (like when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I realized I was squeezing the shit out of the neck and that it was hindering not only my speed but my playing in general. I made an effort to try and lighten up on my grip. Over the years it just evolved. Add arthritis to the mix and I had to switch to 8's to even be able to play and some days my hand hurts so bad I can't play bar chords without being in agony. When I started playing 8' I had to lighten up even more. So while I picked light touch I probably should have gone with the butterfly.
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I have had a similar experience, mostly related to arthritis/stiffness in my left hand. Some days I would struggle; needing a LOONG time to warm up and other days went smoothly from the moment I picked up the guitar. I went down to 8s and haven't looked back. I did need to adjust to a lighter touch though, it gets real easy to fret any string sharp when you go to a lighter gauge. But switching to 8s has been a great decision for me. Tonally, I have an upper mid 'sizzle' similar to the VH1 high end since switching to them. No other perceived difference. Maybe a little bit when I play clean, but that's all.
 
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