Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

Desert

Desert

New member
So I was checking out a couple of Chris Duarte instructional vids on YouTube.

I read once that he liked 11s, down a half step, and low action.

I had no idea how low he meant, until I saw these.

The strings are laying on the frets! Still sounds great through the amp, though. Anyone here have a guitar that has great tone, even with crazy low action?



 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

I prefer low action on my guitars and they all get a great tone (IMO).

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Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

I guess it really depends on your touch. I have a pretty aggressive attack so I prefer my strings up a bit. The other thing I have noticed is some guitars play well with low action where others don't. SO I try to get the instrument to play where "it" wants too! I have some guitars that are fairly low and others that are higher. Like I said it depends
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

I reject your premise.

That video sounds like a guitar with low action.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

on the other hand, the action on my jaguar is low as hell on the treble side and i do fine.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

ImmortalSix said:
I reject your premise.

That video sounds like a guitar with low action.
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Are you sure?

A. I think the mic is picking up the acoustic sound of the guitar. I've listened to this dude for almost 20 years...live and cd...and never thought he sounded like he had a low action guitar

B. Could it be because you're watching up close, him relaxed in a chair, and can tell that he's not working at it.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

Bludave said:
I guess it really depends on your touch. I have a pretty aggressive attack so I prefer my strings up a bit. The other thing I have noticed is some guitars play well with low action where others don't. SO I try to get the instrument to play where "it" wants too! I have some guitars that are fairly low and others that are higher. Like I said it depends
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I agree, and also say that this extends to tone of each guitar, as well.

After seeing these vids, I decided to step into crazy ultra-low action myself.

Of my three main axes, two responded fine and still sounded fat, even with the strings hitting the next fret on medium strike, which I did not expect.

The third went into dental plinky land, so I put it back to where it was.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

whatshisname said:
Yep. You can tell that the strings aren't breathing enough. Too "plinky".

Nothing against his playing at all, but it sounds like ass to me.
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It's easy to tell when you're watching the vid.

Can you honestly hear that on his cds?
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

I haven't watched the vids yet, but Dan Erlewine gave his specs as this:

GHS Dynamite Alloys 11,15,18,30,40,50
Relief: .017" at the 9th fret. That's a lot of relief.
Action at 17th fret: Low E=7/64" High E=5/64"

That's high action. This was from the "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great" book published in 2001.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

I wonder if he's still into heroin or if he's clean now. One thing I've noticed about guitarists who've been into that drug is the extremely creative approach they all have. He's got a lot of abstract ideas in his playing that you don't always see.

I like his playing, and low action is his preference, but I think his tone would be better with medium action. Too much fret noise, and the strings don't ring bold like Stevie's strat. I don't think he necessarily needs high action to have bolder tone.....he just needs to get the strings off the frets. Luckily, he runs a really beefy amp setup to offset it.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

Oh, I didn't mean to say it sounded bad, just that it sounded like a guitar with very low action.

And yeah, the fact that I could see that he wasn't "going at it" along with the primer of "this guitar has low action" certainly influence my opinion.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

Buzzing on the frets is one thing, buzzing so badly you hear it through the amp is another - and a properly set up guitar with low action should have neither.

I've never heard any difference between high and low action.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

Some very famous tones included slight fret buzz... usually because the person built/set up their own guitars.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

ImmortalSix said:
Oh, I didn't mean to say it sounded bad, just that it sounded like a guitar with very low action.

And yeah, the fact that I could see that he wasn't "going at it" along with the primer of "this guitar has low action" certainly influence my opinion.
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I agree, I can't make my mind up on it, lol.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

Chad said:
I haven't watched the vids yet, but Dan Erlewine gave his specs as this:

GHS Dynamite Alloys 11,15,18,30,40,50
Relief: .017" at the 9th fret. That's a lot of relief.
Action at 17th fret: Low E=7/64" High E=5/64"

That's high action. This was from the "How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great" book published in 2001.
Click to expand...

I've seen that before, and I've been somewhat skeptical that he actually used that high of an action on a regular basis.

In my guitar repair shop days, I have some guys come in and set up their Strats like that, and i remember seeing them later on in the local bars, just killing themselves..they not only looked miserable, but it came through in their playing.

I also remember the guitars not sounding as good, too, like maybe having the strings so far from the soundboard took away something.
 
Re: Texas Blues Tone and Ultra Low Action???

He's strangling the life out of that poor guitar with such a low action. He's clearly spent a lot of time learning and playing over SRV's licks, but he will never get Stevie's big bell tones with the strings flapping around on the fretboard like that. If you want to get chords and notes to really ring out stridently, you need to raise the action past the point of 'comfy.'




Cheers........................................ wahwah
 
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