Bill Dutcher – Modern Acoustic Guitarist

Back in my ‘band days’ I loved shredding lead lines on an electric guitar….I still do! Playing that style on the acoustic can be a bit daunting due to the heavier gauge strings.  Trying to do whole step or step-and-a-half bends can set you up for carpal tunnel syndrome pretty quickly.  Here’s a few tricks to make things easier…

On a standard set of acoustic strings the “G” string is usually a 0.24 guage…plus it’s wound.  The G-string of a standard set of electric strings is usually a 0.15 or 0.16…and it is not wound.  A solution is to substitute that wound G-string on the acoustic set for a wound 0.22 or even lighter.  The 0.22 has a smaller diameter core which equates to less tension…therefore easier to bend.  Another solution is to use a ‘hybrid set’ of strings.  In other words the bottom three strings are standard acoustic lights and the top three are a few millimeters lighter, or ultra-lights.  This way you still get the nice fat low end with your chords and you get the ease of bending on the top three.  You can even use this set up and tune all strings down a half step to E-flat which would make things even a little easier.  Keep in mind that if you decide to switch to this set up you may have to have the guitar re-set up and intonated.  Now start shreddin’!