Printable Version of Topic
Click here to view this topic in its original format
GMC Forum _ PRACTICE ROOM _ Strap Height = Important !
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 10 2012, 11:36 AM
I just adjusted my strap height so that my guitar is sitting a little higher and it's made a massive improvement to my playing. Why ? Well, because it makes it easier to hold my picking hand at the angle that suits it best. Rather than resting over the strings from above it's more to the side which is much better for me. Also I noticed my shoulder is lower and at a more natural position so there's less tension.
Sometimes the needed adjustments are not in the way you hold the pick or the type of pick etc, but in the angle that your arm and hand approach the guitar and that's where strap height is important. We're all different so some of us need it low and some need it higher. There's no right or wrong way but there will be a way that is right for you 
Any of you guys chance upon some dramatic improvements when you adjusted your strap height ?
Posted by: snackajacks Aug 10 2012, 11:42 AM
Yes when I just played my first gear I wanted to be as badass as slash, so I set my strap really low almost to my knees, Now I make sure that its more in my upperbelly this way I can get my thumb better at the back of my neck and makes me able to stretch my fingers more.
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 10 2012, 02:45 PM
this way I can get my thumb better at the back of my neck and makes me able to stretch my fingers more.Yeah, there's always a balance between looking cool and being able to function !
Posted by: Gitarrero Aug 10 2012, 03:48 PM
First of all I wanna look cool, so the guitar has to be low 
Seriously, the strap height I use now is great for my right hand...but my left hand is struggling a bit. All in all I feel comfy with the strap height I use now.
Posted by: Narzsa Aug 10 2012, 03:57 PM
Sometimes the needed adjustments are not in the way you hold the pick or the type of pick etc, but in the angle that your arm and hand approach the guitar and that's where strap height is important. We're all different so some of us need it low and some need it higher. There's no right or wrong way but there will be a way that is right for you
Any of you guys chance upon some dramatic improvements when you adjusted your strap height ?
This is insanely good advice. I used to try and look cool by having the guitar as low as possible, but after it bit me at a gig and I noticed that nearly all shredders carry it a lot higher I made the switch. Man, massive improvement. It also keeps you closer to how you play sitting down, making the transition all the more smoother.
Strap height and pick type and 2 of the easiest and quickest things to change that can have huge improvements to your playing
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 10 2012, 04:12 PM
Seriously, the strap height I use now is great for my right hand...but my left hand is struggling a bit. All in all I feel comfy with the strap height I use now.
Haha, all I hear is:
1: I wanna look cool
2: I wanna look cool
3: I wanna look cool
4: I wanna.. etc
Strap height and pick type and 2 of the easiest and quickest things to change that can have huge improvements to your playing
Yeah, it just seems so blindingly obvious and people always talk about it but sometimes it takes years before you really get it right !
Posted by: Mudbone Aug 10 2012, 04:16 PM
I used to wear it like Tom Morello (really high) and that made playing much easier. But the past couple of years I've been playing strictly in the classical position when sitting down, so I try to replicate the same height when standing up.
Posted by: casinostrat Aug 10 2012, 05:09 PM
I keep my guitar fairly high when I play, someone told me once I was wearing it Beatles style rather than Slash style. Most of the time I use a Les Paul and I have to be able to reach everything. I'm only 5 foot 4 inches tall and if I wore that guitar slash style it would be practically bumping against my ankles!
Posted by: Yash Aug 10 2012, 05:27 PM
I have my guitar just under my belly, and till now, it works as good as I am sitting, I don't notice much difference yet
Is that the look cool height ?
Posted by: Todd Simpson Aug 11 2012, 04:24 AM
Yup 
Amazing eh? That one adjustment can make a HUGE difference. It's all of these small adjustments/bits that come together to really help make playing easier and eventually better/more expressive IMIHO.
The physics of having it a bit higher just help everything IMHO. Better angle for the hand and arm/Reduced tension/reduced fatigue/better fret access etc.
It does look cool around ones knees of course, but if you are playing complex stuff, you end up having to pull a Zakk Wylde and put your leg on the monitor and balance the guitar on your knee to raise it for leads
All that said, (insert disclaimer) as you mentioned everyone is different so some folks may somehow play better/faster/more precise with the guitar in Slash mode. Slash does fine with it But yeah, he does the same tricks as Zack for raising it up during complex leads.
Todd
Sometimes the needed adjustments are not in the way you hold the pick or the type of pick etc, but in the angle that your arm and hand approach the guitar and that's where strap height is important. We're all different so some of us need it low and some need it higher. There's no right or wrong way but there will be a way that is right for you
Any of you guys chance upon some dramatic improvements when you adjusted your strap height ?
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 11 2012, 09:16 AM
Indeed. And also notice (this is to everyone) that when Zakk is picking fast on the high strings how he really brings his forearm down and outwards so he's attacking it from the side. Almost as extreme as Friedman but not quite. My approach to that would be to bring the guitar up saving the need to drop your arm down.
Posted by: ElHombre Aug 11 2012, 12:01 PM
sorry but what is "strap height" 
I would like to know
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 11 2012, 12:19 PM
I would like to know
How high you wear your guitar.. adjusting the length of the guitar strap
Posted by: ElHombre Aug 11 2012, 12:25 PM
aha a strap is the shoulderbelt (?)
I had some trouble with that, now I wear it kind of high though, and its almost as comfortable as sitting
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 11 2012, 12:36 PM
I have raised the hight of my strap as well, due to the fact that I wasn't able to play some parts of Voodoo's aongs without being stressed on stage. Indeed, the difference provided by the angles is significant!
Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 16 2012, 09:11 AM
I can't play when my strap is too high. Of course this would make things a bit more comfortable for my left hand, but then I really get into trouble with my right hand, picking (specially our fast stuff) just doesn't feel right anymore, and when it doesn't feel right it mostly doesn't sound right as well ;-), all the chunk and the punch of my picking disappears like that. Of course the strap being too low is also bad, at some point things get bad for my right hand as well and I lose control over my playing, and since we play with In Ear on stage I can't even do the Zakk Wylde trick with the monitor (there are no monitors on stage in BG shows) For me a kinda medium hight is fine, the perfect balance between working and looking cool ;-)
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 16 2012, 10:42 AM
I have recently raised the position of my guitar, because it was simply too low and playing was difficult...to difficult to jump around and do stuff from the perspective of showmanship
Now I look A BIT geeky (because I am tall) but hey, if Tom Morello can pull a stunt like this and looks so damn cool on stage, why wouldn't it work for me?
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 16 2012, 10:45 AM
I wonder if you could request some dummy monitor speakers for your side of the stage, with the speakers taken out so it's lighter to transport ?? Just so you can do the 'foot on the monitor' pose !
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 16 2012, 10:51 AM
John Petrucci has some special foot holders out of what I know
They are actually part of his pedal board!
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 16 2012, 10:53 AM
They are actually part of his pedal board!Now that doesn't surprise me...
Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 16 2012, 02:15 PM
Normally we don't have any monitors on stage but sometimes our crew leaves the ones that the support bands were using, and guess what, I love it, brings back the old school feeling when you can put your foot on top :-)
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 16 2012, 02:33 PM
I bet that using in-ear monitoring must be so much better. However, is there ever a risk that you might have the volume too loud but not notice due to the volume on stage ?
Sorry if it's a naive question, I don't know how it works !
Posted by: snackajacks Aug 16 2012, 03:40 PM
indeed he has, He has 2 metal blocks near his pedalboard which he always uses to put his leg up and pose
Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 17 2012, 05:48 AM
Sorry if it's a naive question, I don't know how it works !
Specially in the beginning there indeed is this risk, yes. Playing with In Ear Monitors is a whole different universe compared to playing with wedges on stage, and you have to get used to it, which can take a while. Most people tend to set the volume of their in ear to high in the beginning, because they are used to the very high volume on stage when playing with regular monitors. It takes a couple of gigs (sometimes longer) to slowly adjust and get used to the new situation, and step by step you will lower the volume, you have to experiment a bit to find the right balance between too high and too low. Setting the volume too low is also not good by the way, your ears might love it, but it will affect your playing on stage, you won't' "rock" when the sound is not pushing enough! And if you plan to switch to an in ear system, there is one golden rule: ALWAYS make sure there are some microphones set up to capture the audience, so you can actually hear them sing and scream, otherwise you are completely isolated and playing the gig won't be much fun.
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 17 2012, 07:48 AM
Haha! Thanks for the insight Marcus! I got a new in-ear system last month - this one: http://www.thomann.de/gb/shure_psm200_e2_set_inearsystem.htm - and I understood it's pretty different for guitar players to get adjusted to the way the guitar sound feels like through the in-ear monitoring system, rather than having the amp boom away in your back. I haven't yet tried it onstage, but I will have the opportunity soon enough
What sort of system are you using, Marcus?
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 17 2012, 08:39 AM
Thanks for the info, that's really interesting. I had no idea about the audience/microphone situation !
Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 17 2012, 07:41 PM
I know your Shure system, as far as I remember this was the first system hat we used back in 2002. Later we switched to a Sennheiser System (no idea what it is called, sorry ) and we are using Ultimate Ears UE 10 headphones with that, in my humble opinion the best headphones I ever used.
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 18 2012, 06:49 PM
) and we are using Ultimate Ears UE 10 headphones with that, in my humble opinion the best headphones I ever used.I have some friends using JH Audio earphones, which were made for their ear shape and out of what I understood they cost about 1000 euro a pair. This is pretty costly but nonetheless it's a great tool, as long as it provides a superior level of control onstage. Tell me Marcus, how does it feel to listen to your guitar in the headphones?
Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 18 2012, 07:07 PM
Our headphones are also molded after our ears, like this you are really "protected" from the outside "noise", you only hear what is coming through your headphones. The UE 10 are also around 1000 Euros, which of course is hellish expensive, but they are 3 way headphones and sound absoutely perfect in my opinion, very balanced, there is no shifting into high or low frequencies like in many other headphones. And after all you don't need to buy new ones every year, so it is a long term investment.
About the guitars sound, well, it sounds exactly the way it is supposed to sound... What I hear in my headphone mix is pretty much exactly the sound that is coming out of my cabinets and what is going through the PA. My sound for the PA is not processed or altered with EQs anymore, actually the signal is picked up by the microphones in front of my cabs and just made VERY loud for the PA, that's it. I remember the day when our FoH mixer came to me during a soundcheck and asked me to come to his place and isten to my sound on the PA, I told him that I liked it cause it sounded exactly like on stage, and he told me that he only amplifies it, no eq, no other effects, no nothing, he said there is no way to improve it any further ;-) And as I said, this is exactly what I hear on my in ear.
In the beginning you definitely have to get used to playing with such a system, but I definitely don't want to go back to wedges anymore, no way! You can move on stage, your sound doesn't change, each band member can have his own mix and we are not interfering with the others mixes anymore, it is absolutely perfect.
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 18 2012, 07:26 PM
That's brilliant to have a guitar sound that great that it needs no extra EQ or anything !
Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 18 2012, 08:13 PM
Yeah, at some point we did some serious soundchecks and then this was solved
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 19 2012, 03:34 PM
About the guitars sound, well, it sounds exactly the way it is supposed to sound... What I hear in my headphone mix is pretty much exactly the sound that is coming out of my cabinets and what is going through the PA. My sound for the PA is not processed or altered with EQs anymore, actually the signal is picked up by the microphones in front of my cabs and just made VERY loud for the PA, that's it. I remember the day when our FoH mixer came to me during a soundcheck and asked me to come to his place and isten to my sound on the PA, I told him that I liked it cause it sounded exactly like on stage, and he told me that he only amplifies it, no eq, no other effects, no nothing, he said there is no way to improve it any further ;-) And as I said, this is exactly what I hear on my in ear.
In the beginning you definitely have to get used to playing with such a system, but I definitely don't want to go back to wedges anymore, no way! You can move on stage, your sound doesn't change, each band member can have his own mix and we are not interfering with the others mixes anymore, it is absolutely perfect.
Everything here sounds heavenly
The bad part is, that in Romania, things are not that nice when you don't have your own sound man or the people at the festivals always treat you like you should be on your knees thanking them for the great opportunity you have received to be on that stage. The organizers simply do not allow enough time for a decent soundcheck and setup if you are not a big name. Both of my bands are now in the mid ground, somehow, but we still get some bad treatment now and then. I don't want to complain or anything, but I am looking forward to that day when I will walk on a stage and be treated decent from A to Z. I don't need a red carpet, just a decent soundcheck
Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 19 2012, 05:32 PM
I perfectly understand you Cosmin, I know exactly what you are talking about, things like that happened to us too. We always have our FoH Mixer with us when we play live, our whole Crew works perfecty and exactly knows what we want, so we don't even need soundchecks, things work fine without too. But this is a luxus of course, without such a crew things would be different and we would HAVE to rely on soundchecks each night as well. We actually still do soundchecks, but they tend to be very fast, liek 15 minutes maximum, and I can't really remember when I had to change something. But as I said, this is the bonus of having a great Crew which is working for us since 12 years.
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 20 2012, 07:56 AM
Well, one of my bands has more people with the same mentality as mine - getting a solid crew together and investing, so that we could be able to offer a great performance and a serious product - both musically and visually. The other band, on the other hand, has a great product already but is not willing to invest anything further and I can't do much in that direction as I was invited to play there - it's not my project - so I am not the one making the rules.
Anyway, I will do my best in growing Aria, the first band I was talking about, which is my child
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 20 2012, 08:14 AM
Anyway, I will do my best in growing Aria, the first band I was talking about, which is my child
When we create something we believe in, I think we owe it to ourselves to see it through all the way.. so go for it !
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 21 2012, 08:12 AM
I am already on the way You gave me an extra boost of energy when I found out that you took the Reckoning's duties on your shoulders. Thank you man!
Posted by: SirJamsalot Aug 21 2012, 08:31 AM
I play with the strap kindof low but not insanely low. The top of my neck pickup is about at my belt line (I don't wear saggy pants )
I've experimented playing with it high and low and right in the middle, and while having it high or right in the middle gives me better reach on the low notes, I critique how I look when I'm playing - I always practice in front a mirror ~ and if you crouch low for rhythm playing in heavy music, it doesn't look right (on me). I sacrifice a little neo-classical playability for the look. But then again, most of what I play is your standard blues style pentatonic rock / licks.
I'll have to say though, the more I play with it strapped low, the more I've been able to adjust. I can pick/play full scales just as fast standing up as sitting down now. Of course, I never practice sitting down anymore. Your body adjusts over time. It takes a while, but if you practice standing all the time, within a few months, it feels natural.
Posted by: Yash Aug 21 2012, 08:34 AM
Yes, thank you !
I would love to see Aria grow more and more, just some more solos I really love Aria, and wish to see them live during my time in Russia You have 6 years Cosmin, get to work Just kidding, keep sharing some good live vids and I'll be happy
Posted by: Marcus Siepen Aug 21 2012, 08:55 AM
Absolutely agreed 100%, why invest in creating something and then stopping somewhere in the middle, like this everything you invested is waisted. But well, if you are the only one in the band with this attitude then there is not too much you can do.
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Aug 21 2012, 09:01 AM
I would love to see Aria grow more and more, just some more solos I really love Aria, and wish to see them live during my time in Russia You have 6 years Cosmin, get to work Just kidding, keep sharing some good live vids and I'll be happy
I hope someone up there will hear you and Aria will perform all over the world
Russia included, of course
Posted by: Ben Higgins Aug 21 2012, 09:21 AM
)You're down with tha kids, man !!
Yes, unfortunately this was always the way and it got to a point where it's just me in the band now. What I did realise was that this gave me absolute freedom then to go ahead exactly as I wanted and not feeling any pressure to keep others happy.. so it's the best thing that could have happened to me
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)