How do i dampen squeaking

[bunmiadefisayo]

Hi all, i bet you know the squeaking i mean...the one the guitar makes when you change chords witht eh same shape. Is there any way i can dampen the sound? I have tried lifting all my fingers and quickly putting them back in the chord-shape position but i find that that wastes so much time as i can never get it back into place in time. I use an acoustic by the way.

Thanks.

[Danny C.]

A buddy of mine got some fret ease or something like that. Its a spray that makes your fingers glide across the neck better, and quiets the squeak.

[bigbuda]

You could always try pressing harder....... :)

[bunmiadefisayo]

You could always try pressing harder....... :)

I would but the string gauge is too thick and hurts the heck out of my fingers if i press any harder. :(

[pure]

keep pressing hard until one day it dont hurt. duh

[rockonn91]

guys, i dont think the question was one about the formation of the chords and pain involved but rather the squeak when changing chords and sliding across the strings.

this is something that takes time, eventually it will just come naturally.
the trick is to have your chords memorized so that you can brainlessly get to the position with accuracy. in this way you can slide to the next shape with your fingers off the fretboard intirely. in the meantime, for sliding to the next chord, what you want to do is lightly mute the stings with your right hand and very lightly slide along to the next one.

for acoustic, when playing chords, there probably shouldnt be all that much sliding anyways- it depends on what chords your doing. you need to analyze the chords is ways that you can keep a continous stum. for instance, if i were playing a progression of

G-C-D

i would strum the g chord, i would take those open stings in the g chords, strike them while changing to the C chord, strum the c a bit, then stike the last 3 stings and hammer on a D chord and strum, and that chord has some open strings, (the same ones as G) so i'd strike those again to switch to G.

this constant strumming, using the open stings to your advantage, helps a WHOLE lot.


hope this helps.

[bunmiadefisayo]

it does a lil bit. The thing is i usually want to play progressions like Cm7, Fm7 and TGm7 and such progressions that involve extended chords.

[earthman buck]

What do you have against the squeak, man? I love the squeak!

[markc2005]

What do you have against the squeak, man? I love the squeak!
+1
if the transition between the chords is quick enough and accurate enough then i find the squeak if eliminated.

[Jon Broderick]

I find that this can really be a problem on some setups and not so much on others. An acoustic played thru an electric guitar amp accentuates (in my experience) the squeaking. Also, some acoustics, for reasons I don't know, squeak more than others.

My techniques :

1. strum during chord transitions to cover the squeak (as noted above)
2. fully lift the fingers (this is possible, just no fun)
3. use chord shapes that are near each other on the fret board (instead of playing barre chords up and down the neck)

Hope that is useful.

Jon

[TreeGodfather]

How about trying different strings? Some strings are horrific for sqeak while others are less so. I'm running Ernie Ball Super-Slinky on both my Strat and acoustic. (yeah, I'm wierd, but it sounds killer).

Or...

You could play the sqeak into your style ala Stevie-Ray Vaughn.

[R. Shackleferd]

Yep, I'm in the camp that loves the squeak. Sort of like even the most distorted or modified (with effects) guitar signals can still have that noise...and to me it's a reminder that there's a human factor there. Same goes for acoustics. Remember ya'll, we're guitar players, not piano players. We can get all kinds of noises out of six strings...grow to love and use 'em all.