Author Topic: Why do strings roll under my fingers when doing string bends?  (Read 187 times)

jazzyvee

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I've been doing a lot of guitar playing at home of late and will hopefully back doing guitar gigs this year.
Anyway when string bending on one of my guitars, I notice the strings seem to roll along their axis under my finger as well as bend so that they would tend to slip underneath my fingers whilst bending rather than move out of the way with my fingertips. The action on this guitar is not high but not as low as my other guitars. It also has a Wilkinson whammy bar which does tend to move when bending also. Any ideas' where I should look for a solution? Is this something to do with the action or the springs need tightening or something else?. My strat doesn't have this problem and it has a low action and also has a trem-setter as standard which keeps the bridge solid until I move the bar.
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elwoodblue

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Why do strings roll under my fingers when doing string bends?
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2015, 01:04:38 AM »
I've been trying to figure out those mechanics too,
radius/action/fret height and of course fingers (length of nail, angle of pressure,technique,etc.)are the first things I think of.  
 
 If I have an eureka moment, now I know where to share it. I'm real curious to the answers this thread will bring. ;)

pauldo

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Why do strings roll under my fingers when doing string bends?
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2015, 10:42:09 AM »
Grabbing at straws. . .  
Maybe the frets need to be dressed?
Perhaps there is enough surface roughness that won't allow the string to slide?
 
Try polishing them up and see if that changes things.

peoplechipper

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Why do strings roll under my fingers when doing string bends?
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2015, 12:30:25 AM »
My guess is radius...if the fretboard is flatter than your other guitars you would be pushing across and slightly up as you bent and with a flatter radius you may be actually be reducing pressure against the string a bit; mind you, I don't bend strings much on guitar so this is just a guess...

jazzyvee

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Why do strings roll under my fingers when doing string bends?
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2015, 08:22:56 AM »
I did a setup on the guitar last night adjusted the neck to lower the action and now it's fine. The intonation needed a bit of a tweak too.
The sound of Alembic is medicine for the soul!
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