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I recently listened to a few acoustic guitar albums and again was a little distracted by the sound of guitar string squeaks ! If you are familiar at all with the guitar, the squeaks are caused by your finger moving over a string to change chords or go to another fret.
I tend to listen to most albums intently so the string squeaks become an added nuance or sound to the recording. I really don't mind the squeaks in the end I just hear them all the time and I squeaked a lot myself when I played regularly years ago.
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I really like them !!
I'm sure a purist would say that they shouldn't be there, but I love hearing how a guitarist - particularly with acoustic - moves their fret hand.
Tracy Chapman's Fast Car is a good case in point...
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depends on how much I guess
yea, if I'm listening to just an acoustic guitar number, it can be distracting from something else
if I focus on it. Once I recognize it's there, I train my brain to ignore it.
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Must have it in the mix - one sure way of telling that you're listening to a real guitarist. I think it adds something to the music. The harmonics generated by that (at times) colour the sound. Wish You Were Here is my example.
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I think it a bit like cheating to remove them .
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I usually like it.
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I think removing 'squeaks' is like airbrushing a models photo.....you're not presenting a true image. As a guitarist I find it a bit irritating with new strings which squeak more than a mouse on helium, but thats my own playing. But in professional music, 'squeaks' like 'taps', 'rattles', 'spangs' and 'ripcrunches' are just part of the rich texture that is the guitar sound.
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It's all part of the music, you shouldn't get rid of it. Just like if a singer farts on a vocal take, i'd prefer to leave it in for originality and musical odour.
Hello, I'm new to the forum but this subject came up because I was shopping for a guitar and the review for one I liked on youtube had a crazy loud squeak. I don't think people should digitally try to remove it but they should try to find techniques to remove or eliminate the sound in their playing. I honestly don't know how much control players can have over it but it is clear that some players to try to play in ways that reduce or eliminate it. I didn't think about it much until I was reading a book on African guitar styles and they said they try not to squeak at all. I think it said they lift the finger completely off the string when moving to the next note or chord. I've seen other videos where a guys says if you slide much faster and curve your finger a bit you can greatly reduce it. So yeah, I'm in the camp that doesn't like it on acoustics, especially if it's equally as loud as the notes. In Queen's "We Will Rock You" I love it because it adds a cool rhythmic elements. Some of the creaks and sounds of an instrument is ok as long as it doesn't deter from the music. Cheers.
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Tony Bourge left them on Budgie's Breadfan and they just add to the air of menace! Drum pedal squeaks are another matter, however. Manfred Mann decided to leave Chris Slade's squeaky drum pedal on the Solar Fire album and I find it really annoying.
[video=youtube;6SnucuJJVQQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6SnucuJJVQQ[/video]
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