Finger squeak

Hi all Muffknuckle here. Hope this is the right place to ask this. I am picking up guitar after a 25 year absense due to hand injury. Love playing guitar and Im concentrationg on technique and not letting old bad habits back in. (Funny but yup… they are still ther). I was wondering if anyone had any ideas/ fixes for string squeak? I only get it a tiny bit just as Im moving my index and second fingers while playing scales or stretch a chord over 4 frets. This tiny squeak is driving me bonkers. :joy::upside_down_face:Any ideas?
Strings are Martin silked 80/20 phosephore on a Takamine F360S acoustic.

Welcome to the Community, Dean. I suggest you observe closely how you are placing and lifting fingers on and off the strings when playing scales. Usually the squeak is caused by fingers staying pressed to the strings when moving fingers up and down the neck. Based on your description it didn’t sound like this was the case when you experience the squeak?

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I had Martin strings on an acoustic and they were so squeaky a mouse must have made them. Switch out for something else like Elixir and your squeak might become more tolerable.

I would suggest as @jkahn said, trying coated strings, like the Elixirs , or I think D’addario do some coated string too. Worth trying at least, you can always go back to your original choice if you don’t get along with them. :slight_smile: I moved to Elixirs and I’m quite happy with them, but I didn’t move for squeaky reasons.
Or maybe try lifting the finger slightly more before moving.

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We’re talking about playing an instrument with wound strings. There are going to be peripheral string noises. Trust me when I say no one listening to you will care. Once you are proficient enough you will be on to the next note or chord quickly enough that it wont matter.

As for switching to elixirs, they just sound dead to me. That’s introducing a new problem trying to solve an old one. We all have different ears I suppose. Play on playa!

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Good advice! Thank You. I have been on a mission to correct my technique and this is probably an important part of all of it. I know if I do not get this corrected it will come back to bite me later on.
I will slow down and concentrate more on this as you suggest. Thanks for the help!

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I kind of agree about the elixirs sounding dead. But they do lessen the tiny string squeak. I had some Nano in .012 on this guitar and went back to the Martins for tone.
Maybe Ill try the Polyweb next time. I agree with CT that no one will notice, but I do. So I am going to fix this. I am no longer a performing artist and doubt that will ever happen again.
Thank You for the help! I appreciate all and any replies/help.
Be well and Thank You

Can’t comment on any differences in strings and how squeaky they are, but I’m one of those that takes it as a natural sound of playing guitar to be honest!
Absolutely get it’s personal though and if you hear it and don’t like it it’s something to remedy. Interesting to read people’s experiences of different brands!

Hi Dean
I use Martin MA540 Authentic Acoustic non coated phosphor bronze 12’s and don’t suffer from string squeak.

Your right. It is interesting. I suppose everyone has a different guitar and play various styles and genre. Different tone they prefer. I spent a good 2 hours working on the tiny squeak problem I have and thanks to everyones suggestions I am gaining ground. I thought for awhile that maybe I had sandpaper stuck to the ends on my fingers. :no_mouth:. We all have our little things we work to perfect.
Thanks

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