The Gretsch Streamliner is a great choice for an electric fingerstyle guitar. It also offers excellent string separation, making clean picking a breeze. Tonally, it offers much of what the Les Paul does, but it offers significantly better ergonomics, making it more comfortable to play while seated. While mostly known for hard rock, the Gibson SG is also an incredible fingerstyle weapon. Mark Knopfler and John Mayer use their Strats to great effect when playing fingerstyle. The three single coil pickup layout and dual tone knob setup allows for an enormous tonal range, which is definitely helpful for varying your sound when fingerpicking. The classic SSS Stratocaster is one of the most popular electric guitars for fingerstyle. The guitars listed below are some of the most popular axes used by famous fingerstyle players. If like most people, you’re not able to buy a whole selection of guitars, try to find one that offers versatility through variations of pickups and tone and volume pots. The best guitar for the job is the one that suits your genre and style of play the best. Like anything else in the guitar world, there’s no one right answer. What Is The Best Electric Guitar For Fingerpicking? 12-gauge strings, making mistakes easily noticeable. This is especially important when using light gauges such as those found on electric guitars because subtle movements are amplified way more on. When playing with bare fingers, you have a much better feel for the strings, which will make it much easier to control volume and attack, letting you switch between warm and mellow, or bright plucking sounds. Playing with bare fingers does have at least one significant advantage over using picks, though – control.
These are great for players looking for the kinds of extreme clarity that aren’t possible when playing with fingertips alone. Of course, you don’t have to, but remember that playing with the fleshy pads of your fingers will provide a much more muted tone and may require you to play harder to bring up the volume.Īlternatively, you can invest in a set of fingerpicks that slip over your fingertips and thumb. This is something a lot of fingerstyle musicians do in order to get a cleaner sound. If you plan to play a lot of fingerstyle and don’t want to use picks, you may want to grow out your fingernails just a little. The short answer is no, you don’t need special picks to play fingerstyle. Do I Need Any Special Picks To Fingerpick With An Electric? When playing this style, your thumb plays downstrokes, while your fingers pluck upstrokes. When playing fingerstyle on an electric guitar the technique should be the same as with an acoustic, that is, using your thumb for the bass side (E, A, and D strings), and your index, middle and ring fingers on the G, B, and high E strings respectively. Secondly, the string tension on an electric guitar is lower than it is on an acoustic, another comfort increasing factor. Firstly, the lighter string gauge is easier on the fingers than the typically heavy acoustic strings, and as you’re using your fingers as picks, this will definitely be more comfortable. It is important to preface this section by stating that fingerpicking is a highly technical skill that takes time to master, with that being said, if you choose to start learning this technique on an electric guitar rather than on an acoustic, you might actually find that it is easier. Is It Easy To Play Fingerstyle On The Electric Guitar? Final Thoughts On Playing Fingerstyle On An Electric Guitar.Midnight In Harlem – Tedeschi Trucks Band.Which Famous Fingerstyle Songs Were Recorded On Electric Guitars?.What Is The Best Electric Guitar For Fingerpicking?.Do I Need Any Special Picks To Fingerpick With An Electric?.