Guitar strings.

One of the presents I got for my birthday was a set of strings for my classical guitar. When I was feeling a bit better yesterday I swapped out the old ones for the new. It’s a different brand that I’ve been using but so far they don’t sound any different. However, I noticed that they don’t buzz as often as the other ones did. Is that actually affected by how the strings are made? I’m obviously not an expert if I have to ask that question. I know how to play the instrument but I’m happy enough without knowing exactly how everything on it works. I probably should be more of a gear-head but I’m not. For all I know it could be the fact that I just played them or maybe even psychological. They didn’t buzz at first simply because I hit the notes perfectly so I loosened up about how well I was going to play.

It got me thinking about the equipment I use, though. How much of my playing has been negatively affected by the fact that my equipment hasn’t been quite right? I don’t mean tone nor am I excusing bad playing. But there have been buzzing noises and badly played bar chords which make me wonder about how I might sound better had I spent more on the guitar in question. My three-hundred dollar Gibson plays better than my hundred-dollar Ibanez. I couldn’t help buying the Ibanez, though. It just looked too cool in the store. When I bought the classical I didn’t know or even care that much about the quality of the instrument. I was in high school and was focusing on what I could afford. My bass is cheap, too. I didn’t get that to be a bassist, I got it for home recordings. I discovered that through its defects and an effects pedal I can get some really cool sounds out of it, anyway.

I shouldn’t dismiss the possible psychological component to the playing on these new strings, either. Whatever gets me to play better is fine by me. I’ll see where I’m at as I practice with them more. I am worried how the first string is going to keep in tune as I didn’t quite string it properly. I think it will be fine but I would hate to have to go out and buy another set of strings to replace just the one. I know you can usually do that with steel strings but I don’t think I’ve ever seen nylon strings sold individually. (That reminds me, I still owe a friend of mine a string. Apparently they don’t like being hit with screwdrivers….)

It could also just be that my playing is getting better. I’ve been bad with practicing over the last few weeks but otherwise I don’t think I lost my skill too much. I want to be better but at least I’m not getting worse. If this is true that the strings can help improve my playing than I have to think about what other changes I can make to my equipment. I’ve always been partial to fretless necks. I don’t want to change any of my current guitars for that, though. Would it really be worth it in today’s economy to save for yet another guitar?