that pesky squeak

[greygoose625]

Often I hear acoustic guitarist squeak.  Many cross over from electric view as natural sound associated with acoustic guitar and become deaf to the squeak.  

The winding on lite gauge strings is finer and lessens the squeak and some spray Finger Ease on the strings......that helps.......but doesn't address the squeak.

There are three causes for squeak:  changing position squeak caused by leaving your fingers on the wound strings while moving up & down the neck....simply lift your fingers off of the strings when changing positions......the silence is less noticable than the squeak and with practice the silence becomes less.

Next squeak is the take off squeak:  caused by starting a position change before the fingers are off of the strings.......simply lift finger up before moving.

The third is the shift squeak:  holding a chord or a particial chord down while moving remaing fingers to other tones:  this is the most difficult but the softer squeak of the three.  Being aware and not let the anchored fingers shift can reduce the squeak.

I will not address right hand fingering at this time.

Your Washburn guitar is a good sounding guitar and with skill it can sound great.........hope this helps..........Jane Against Squeaks......janeguitar.com

[mcloud10]

Or...you could use D'Addario EJ51 recording strings on your classical guitar like I do.  These are lightly polished to reduce the wound string humps.  They work beautifully and lessen the squeak considerably.

Good tips, BTW.

Mark

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'73 Washburn W240 (Finished!)
'08 Washburn D10SCE
'08 Washburn D10QBK (Son's)
'09 Washburn C104SCE Classical
'89 Washburn C10N Classical
'73 Sivertone Model 319