Tapping.. any need for a special setup ?

[mindwalker]

Hey guys,

To make a long story short, I have an Ibanez GRX40 (with powersound pickups and a really low action) which I can use to tap easily enough. Just pressing a left finger is enough to make a sound come of it.. and then plucking slightly the other notes with the right hand works fairly well.

Recently I have bought an Ibanez RGT320 (high end Ibanez) which comes with DiMarzio / Ibz pickups. Action is still low though higher than my GRX40 (I'd say about 2mm on the wound E which is 5/64th of an inch). Well to my surprise tapping is MUCH harder.. pressing the string with my left fingers alone is nearly not enough to make any sound.. plucking with my right hand has to be done pretty hard and it makes it much harder to play something such as Van Halen's Jump solo tapping part.

So is this more of a problem with technique or gear ? Do I need hotter pickups ? Will lowering the action be enough ? Or do I just suck ? How do you guys do this ?

[Magical Muffin]

Might be your strings, maybe your action too, but I have pretty high action on one of my guitars and tapping is pretty easy on it, especially when tuned to Eb (It has 10's on it)

What string gauge do you use? Is it different to your other guitar?

Try tuning down half a step to see if it makes it easier to tap.

[mindwalker]

Humm... could be the strings then. My other guitar has Ernie Balls gauge 9 but this new guitar I'm not sure cause they're still the strings that came with it. They feel to me like gauge 9s too but I remember reading somewhere that Ibanez came stock with D'addarios although I couldn't confirm this information online right now....

[Big Job]

Hey man. I think that this might just be an adjustment issue. You should be able to utalise any technique on any guitar. For instance, you could - and some people do - tap on a bass guitar. Its just a case of adjusting physically to the instrument. Strings or pickups shouldn't be an issue for you.

Chris