My Washburn acoustic has a much wider fingerboard than my Fender. Moving between the two always causes problems. I follow most of Justin’s lessons on the electric but if I then go to the acoustic to practice a finger picking tune I am all over the place and it takes ages to get accustomed to it again. Back to the Fender also causes problems for a while but not so bad.
Anyone else experience this issue? Any tips would be appreciated.
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Yes I go through phases of playing my accoustics rather than my electrics - and vice versa. It always takes me a few sessions to get back used to either one.
I have three guitars. All are electric, but the necks are different in various ways on each, but my width change is not as drastic as with your acoustic. One is pretty neutral for neck shape with mid-length scale, one is very thing with long scale length, one varies in thickness with short scale length.
I had minor disaster coming from my fingers when picking up a different guitar initially. I have noticed that it is improving a lot as I frequently cycle thru each guitar. After about 4 weeks having the third, I don’t make a mess of fingering as much and it lasts a lot less time, only a few minutes.
I try to rotate through each guitar per day. I think this helps me adjust quickly. Hopefully you can try that and see the same.
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I see it as just one more skill to learn. How to adjust to whatever guitar you are playing. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
I switch between a 52mm nut and a 46mm nut and 25.6” scale to a 24.85” scale. I thing the scale length is more difficult for me to adjust to at this point. Sometimes a little off or over the fret.
Your Washburn is probably 44mm and the Fender is probably 42mm. I bet it is the fretboard radius that you notice more.
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I think @Jamolay is on target with his comment. I often switch between my electrics and my acoustics. It is the neck radius, 9.5 for electrics and 15 for acoustics, that causes the most issue. I find bar codes and inadvertent muting of strings are the things that I need to be conscious about.
You are right. The nut dimensions are not that much different at 44 and 42mm. I hadn’t realised that most of the problem is being caused by the differences in fretboard radius. Thanks for pointing that out.
Well at least I know I’m not alone in experiencing this issue. I guess I need to just keep on practising, keep on switching and it will come.
I do think you can feel the difference between the nut widths, I just think it is easier to adapt to than other aspects. I no longer notice the 6mm difference with my guitars.
When I was playing electric and switching between the 42mm and 44mm nuts, I recall being amazed that it seemed that 2mm mattered so much. It was probably my lack of experience. The fretboards in that situation were 15” and 20”, could have been a factor as well. Both seem pretty flat, but it is a larger difference than 9.5” to 12”.
When I first got my acoustic after learning on my electric for more than two years, I felt like I was starting over.
The difference in saddle radius was a big challenge for me (9.5” on electric and 16” on acoustic) especially when strumming.
I spent a couple of months playing my acoustic almost exclusively and when I picked up my electric, I found that I was much better at some things and worse at others.
Around that time, I heard an interview with Jerry Garcia where he described the electric guitar and acoustic guitar as two totally different instruments, which made me feel better about my struggles.
Now, after a few months, I am happy that I have both as they each get me to focus on different skills which complement each other and make me a better all round player.
Absolutely this.
You can always play one guitar with one size of strings, and stick with that. But Changing between guitars, string gauges, fret widths, radius etc etc is a skill. Getting used to all that and leaning your playing and style to the instrument in front of you is well worth the effort.
Imagine having GAS and only being able to play one type of guitar!
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Just choose ‘relic’
Have you checked the setup on your acoustic? I pretty much stopped playing my acoustic as I found it so much more difficult to play than the electric. I hadn’t even thought about setup on the acoustic but when I checked there was way too much relief in the neck and the action was way too high. I straightened the neck, lowered the bridge saddle and it’s so much easier to play to the point where there’s not much difference between my tele and I can’t put it down again!
I am going through a similar situation. I play acoustic most of the time but find praticing some lessons, especially the barre chords easier to learn on the electric so I start there.
I am on Grade 2 Module 12 and that lesson is geared towards electric so I have been playing the electric exclusively this week, the longest I have played it ever. I try and get 2 hours in per day.
What I notice this week is that because I have pretty thick calluses on my fingers now and the electric strings are so much thinner, I have trouble feeling my way around the thinnest three strings. No big deal, just part of the journey I guess :).