I am in Afghan right now and bought a fender starcaster. Some of the notes would not sound on the guitar. I changed the strings and put on Ernie ball slinky strings. I now have trouble with bending. I am a new player, however when I bend a string the sound goes away, and in order to get it to sound through the bend I have to press on the strings so hard that my finger turns purple. I dont think it should be that hard. So is it really that hard, or is there a problem with my strings, or just because i have a "STARcaster" and need a better guitar?