I began playing Ibanez guitars from day one. Was always a fan of the Satriani/Vai style of playing. Then, a quick switch even to Les Pauls was possible, when Slash came along. Humbuckers were seemingly easy to play and articulate. It was easier to get a nice tone from a HB than a single coil, and I sort of always ignored single coils. For some reason, i steered away from Strats. Never knew what to do with them, and always thought they sounded weak and puny; sometimes bordering on the wimpy side of tones.. My idols then were people like Satch, Slash, Petrucci, Gary Moore... Mostly HB players. My playing techniques were very much focused on making the guitar sound as cohesive as possible, whether plicking one note, or playing chords. Everything needed to be tight and compact. After a while, I realised my playing was rather stiff, and though fluid, it wasn't really alive. Just going through the notes. I sort of fell into a tur for a while, and retired my guitars for a couple of years, only touching them on rare occasions.
Then, almost 16 years later after SRV's death (2 years from that retirement point), I sort of picked up a strat just for the fun of it. Simply because I was in Japan, looking for something to buy, and since I was there, and had CHOICE of Japan Strats, I grabbed a 68. To be honest, I tried playing the thing, and I realised that I'm still playing like I used to on all those guitars, and somehow didn't find the experience exciting or satisfying.
Yet something was different. This guitar sort of challenged me. I couldn't play it as easily as I did my other guitars, and had to fight with it tooth and nail to get a decent tone. I had no clue what it was that was different, just that I sounded BAD on a strat. My pure chance, I started getting heavily into the blues, and went on a vintage music kick. Stones, Clapton, SRV, Hendrix, Deep Purple, Knopfler etc etc. I suddently realised that while I had been playing for quite sometime before this, I couldn't really play what I was hearing on those records. Especially what I heard on SRV's stuff. I went on to try learning some SRV songs, and realised, my picking technique, fretting technique and even strumming techniques needed to change.
The sad thing is, the strat made me realise how limited a player I was, and how narrow-minded I used to be. I realised that I could not play a strat decently, no matter how technically proficient I thought I was.
Once I managed to identify what those things were and how to do them, I began realising what I tone machine a strat could be with JUST the neck single coil. I began to hone my skills even further using a single coil and shaping my attack and phrasing. My legatos took on slightly different forms, and I realised that I just had to play a strat different from anything else with a humbucker. I learnt to rake, scrape, chug and slide like I never had to do before.
This led to a flurry of sessions strictly with a strat in the last 2 years, forcing myself to play cleaner than before, and since a strat is so unforgiving, I had to pay closer attention to what I played. When you have less gain to hide behind, you have to make your notes count. I had to begin crafting my improvised melodies even more carefully than I did when I was playing with humbuckers.
Then I eventually got into Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top. Boy, that really screwed my head. The way they made those humbuckers snap and bite like single coils was mind boggling. Again I had to relook at my playing style, and I realised I had to change again what I was playing on an LP. I was now (ironically, thanks to the strats) able to play cleaner and differently on any guitar. The strats changed the way I played for the better, and forced me to be less reliant on gear, and more reliant on my hands and ears.
Now, I'm thankfully able to play all sorts of things. From Gary Moore to SRV to Satriani to Petrucci to Nightwish to Muse. It's sort of moulded my playing style into something that my friends have said it sort of defines me. All because I went to try to learn something different because of an irritating design with single coils. That sort of got me out of a rut that I was stuck in for more than 10 years. I now see the value in all sorts of guitar types, from Gretschs to Jaguars to Teles to ES335s etc etc. And the best part is that I'm now able to sound decent on all of them. (I think)
Anyone else have this sort of epiphany in their playing because of a different type of gear?
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Originally Posted by thegeezer
Do you find the single pickup limiting? or liberating?
