PJ-Bassist

Thanks @Dad3353 - I will practice daily over the coming week and see how I get on with them. It's been a very frustrating evening - I've struggled to play anything I wanted - even what I thought would be relatively easy songs I'm struggling with because I just can't get my hands in the right positions, or have my fingers cleanly out of the way of other strings so as not to accidentally mute them. Unfortunately when I correct one, I make the other worse.

On my tour de tone I'm currently giving some Newtone Masterclass strings ago. Sound every bit as good as the Ernie Balls but not coated. The tension does feel a tad higher despite being toubd cored and luckily I bought two sets as the G string gave out on me tonight whilst tuning after adjusting the truss rod a little. Still need to give the Nexus strings ago and have been reading lots about John Pearse strings so may also try them out.

Yes, the guitar in the Avatar is the one I'm playing - I do really need to find a better Avatar for both here and Basschat, and I probably need to update my username since I'm becoming a regular on both ! Thanks for the advice, part 1 is fine - I can get a clean sound when I just using my index finger to barre. It's when the others come in to play it starts to go wrong so I like the idea of practicing by adding one at a time! A question, what is the correct, or rather, most effective way to Barre - i.e. should the finger be flat across the fretboard or at a angle? And how much should my finger extend above the top of the fret board, is it best to keep a relatively small amount poking up using more of the upper finger for the barre or is it more effective to have more showing and using the lower parts of the finger?

Thanks @ezbass - some useful stuff. I'd also recommend these videos for anyone keen on learning Fingerstyle Travis Picking Lesson: Some easy Fingerstyle songs for inspiration

Thanks! After posting this I saw one of your older posts in the theory / technique section on videos for newbies. The second Rick Beato video kicked off with some tips on playing Barre chords that seemed pretty helpful. I agree that picking the strings to play is the right approach but I feel that you have to have the foundation right first to make that a choice and not a result of poor technique :).

I still can't master barre chords and I desperately need some help from the GC community. I just can't get a clean sound out of all six strings when playing barre chords! F Major and A minor are the two I'm trying to master at the moment. I just can't get a clean sound out of all six strings no matter what I do. Has anyone got a link to a good instructional video to help, or some pointers to help me get it right? Typically it's the 1st and 2nd strings that are dead sounding. Thanks PJ

Sold to a guitarist friend of mine.

Sold to a guitarist friend of mine

Now £450

Knocking a little off the price, now down to £400.

I'm really enjoying a lot of Paul David's videos on acoustic playing. He has a fair number of top n song lists (which are interesting to identify study pieces) like I linked above but also some interesting tutorial videos too, a couple I'm working with at the moment are the John Mayer percussive slap technique and travis picking.

Had some Everlasts in the house so stuck them on the Auden to see how they compared to the EXPs it came with. To my ear they're much brighter and more alive than the D'Addarios. Will give the Rotosounds a go next.

My new acoustic has been strung with D'addario EXP coated phosphor bronze strings. Nothing wrong with them and the guitar sounds great but for some reason I have something against D'addario as a brand. With bass I typically favour La Bella strings, though the New Tones on my Shuker are great! I'm going to pick up a few sets of spare strings for the acoustic and assuming I stick with coated the phosphor bronze flavour I was wondering what the communities favourites are, so please vote :).

Ha, here you go. The full body picture is a stock image from google, the other two are from the store's website but are of the actual guitar I walked out with. I was originally looking at faith's but they only did the cedar / mahagony wood combination with a 45mm nut. The Auden had it in a 43mm and the overall feel and playability of the guitar is wonderful.

Quick update on my post - I got an appointment at a store not far from me today and had a chance to try out some 43mm and 45mm guitars. I did not get on with the 45 at all and walked away with a lovely Auden Happy days!