# Playing Style



## Justinator (Jan 27, 2008)

I was looking at my strat recently and noticed how much I scratch up the body with my pick just above the strings. I tend to play close to the neck while resting my arm on the top of the body, so when I play hard the pick sometimes makes contact with the body above the pickguard, hence the scratches. On my other guitars I rest my hand on the bridge sometimes but with my strat I dont like to be so close to the knobs, I want some space to move around. I prefer the more mellow tone I get playing near the neck as well.

I want to know what technique you guys use for your picking hand and why. Does anyone rest their pinky on the pickguard for support?


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## rhh7 (Mar 14, 2008)

Like you, I pick near the neck...don't mind scratches in the least...back in the day when I played a Les Paul, I took the pickguard off. When I put together my OOO acoustic, I did not use a pickguard.


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## Nickelo (Apr 9, 2007)

I used to do the "pinky plant" to support my hand. I found it restricted my playing a bit, even though I will go back to it, although altering it so I plant my pinky and ring finger as well.
Now, I lightly rest my palm on the strings near the bridge. It took some time to get it down without applying too much of a mute. but I find there's barely any restrictions and my alternate picking is better.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I sometimes rest my pinky--it depends on what I'm playing. I don't if I'm using my fingers, or strumming chords. But for single note stuff I usually do.

As for picking--I pick all over the place--depending on what sound I want--on my electrics that's usually between the pickups--but I will pick near the bridge to get a different tone--the strings are tighter there.


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## Justinator (Jan 27, 2008)

I dont mind the scratches either, just gives the guitar more character! lol I change where I play sometimes too, if i need a nice crunchy sound I'll move towards the bridge. I'm interested to see what the most common technique is, or if people change them up all the time.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Sometimes I rest my pinky.

I thought this was going to be about "do you play similar to hendrix, vaughn, slash" etc haha.

I have pick marks on the upper side of my LP and the pickguard - it's my daily player, it's expected.


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## Gizmo (Aug 7, 2008)

Not really much to do with scratches but no matter how hard I try, I can't avoid hitting my pickup selector switch so when I play hard, it ALWAYS migrates to the bridge.

I even bend the switch over at right angles but it makes no difference.

I guess that's a result of playing too many Gibsons when I was learning.


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