Problems with a "small" guitar

A

asi9

New member
Have you seen those little miniature flying-V guitars? They one one pickup, and one control: volume.

I wanna use one of those on stage. We play heavy metal and are really goofy, so you wouldn't find a more comical image than me coming out on stage with a tiny guitar that puts out heavily distorted sounds like Pantera (just for the stage though, not in the studio of course).

I thought about getting one of those and just putting a really good pickup on it.

But there is one problem I'm coming to that might keep me from doing it: our tuning.

We tune to "drop Dflat" (Db, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb), so I have to use heavier gauge strings to keep them from flopping around. Would putting heavy gauge strings on a little guitar like that cause hella bad intonation problems? Would there be any way of remedying that?
 
Hey, Hix.

I haven't played metal for years, but I'll tell ya: its not a sloppy genre. Regardless of how it sounds to folks who aren't into it, you can't have too much crappy gear (or chops) and get away with it.

Asi9: My guess is that intonation comes from string length matching up with fret spacing. The thickness of the strings shouldn't matter. What you do have to watch out for is warping your neck. If you use really heavy strings and play really hard you may have to have the neck set up to handle the heavier load.

Take care,
Chris
 
Alright cool... thanks!!!

Yep, in defense of the metal thing, it takes serious precision to create the feel and groove. You have to be able to play your riffs like a machine.

Although I must admit, when playing live, you can get away with a lot....
 
Listen children, and I shall tell you a tale...

Once upon a time, long, long ago, in the land of California there was a band, and the name of the band was Van Halen. In the band there was a guitarist, and his name was Eddie Van Halen. He was known throughout all the land as a guitarist of extraordinary cunning and skill.
But after completely bewildering and amazing all his guitar-playing peers with guitar solos such as "Erupton" and "Spanish Fly", he was looking for something new. And he found something new: a little guitar.
He saw someone playing it one day, this little Les Paul shaped guitar, and decided that it was just the creative spark he needed. He bought one and replaced the pickups in it, and began writing songs. Right away he new something was wrong. Because it was so very small, standard tuning would not work on it.
Eddie fretted and fretted about it, and at last struck on a solution: He raised the tuning an entire step, so that his open "E" string actually sounded an F# pitch. Now the strings didn't flop around so much, and his band mates could still play along without too much trouble, since F# was a fairly common position.
And they all lived happily every after.

If you would like to know more about Eddie Van Halen and his adventures with the little guitar, visit your local libraray. Listen to the songs "Little Guitars (Intro)" and "Little Guitars", on the album Diver Down, by Van Halen.

Aaron
http://www.aaroncheney.com
 
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