Where do you keep your right hand?

[deeaa]

Just occurred to me today - somewhere along the line my right-hand position has changed quite drastically.

Unless I'm terribly mistaken, for years I would keep my right hand right at the bridge, resting on the bridge more or less, and that'd be something to watch out with trem bridges, which is why I remember I did so; and later when I played an LP quite as my only axe I rested my hand apparently right in front of the bridge, as I pretty much eroded all plating off the bridge pup.

But, now in recent years, it's been completely different. I find I mostly play and pick my guitars smack in the middle of the pickup area, i.e. somewhere front of the bridge pup. And quite often I will have my hand even well much more forward, quite often even find I'm strumming over the 15th fret or something in certain passages.

Now, is that something that just comes over the years when you've hard-wired the string positions in your brain and no longer need the bridge's affirmation where to pick, or is it a more natural place to pick in strat-style guitars which I've used almost extensively in recent years, or is it because I've gotten my drive and noise levels so low with active pups etc. that I don't need to damp the strings constantly no more?

What is it in your view and style, and where do you pick/keep your right hand?

 

[Commodore 64]

I'm a noob and I like to rest my hand on the bridge. One of the reason I don't like floating trems of any type.

 

[NWBasser]

Kind of a big deal for me.

I typically anchor my thumb on the neck pu. Sometimes I'll float my hand towards the neck a bit for a deeper blues tone.
If I'm playing fast staccato stuff, I may pan to the bridge pu and anchor my thumb on it. Plucking right near the bridge ala Jaco.

If you haven't figured it out, I'm talking bass here and right-hand position makes a huge difference in tone.

For guitar, I typically play with a pick right between the pickups though. Sometimes I'll finger-pick with thumb anchored on neck pu like I do on bass, but I can't really recommend this for guitar. It's not very comfortable and doesn't offer much precision. I also use other unorthodox finger picking and strumming techniques for different sounds. There are likely much better developed techniques for finger-picking guitar than what I do.

 

[Tibernius]

Depends what I'm playing. If it's going to involve palm-muting I tend to keep my hand as close to the bridge as possible, and use my thumb and one finger to hold the pick. I do the same for lead playing as I find I can play faster that way.

If it doesn't involve palm muting then I tend to hold the pick with my thumb and 2 fingers and play further towards the neck, usually directly over the neck pickup. I've actually got scratches on the pickup mounting rings and one corner of the pickup itself from it. :thwap

 

[Tig]

On my wrist. oke

I pick between the neck and bridge pickups, sometimes over the neck pickup, which places my pinky sided palm in the perfect spot for palm muting. Same goes with slide playing and finger picking.

 

[Eric]

I think when playing rhythm stuff, I usually strum right between the two humbuckers, but I do gravitate toward the bridge. When wanking around on leads, I definitely rest my hand on the bridge. Good thing I don't use trems.

 

[groverj3]

Thought I would chime in. I've seen a lot of different methods, and lots of people seem to that theirs is "correct." Personally, I keep my hand pretty close to, or on, the bridge. Both my main guitars are floyd equipped but as long as you don't actively push down on a floating bridge (floyds anyway, can't speak for Ibanez trems) your tuning is fine, this gets way overblown by people who don't like floyds. I also tend to anchor my pinky by the bridge pickup too, but this changes depending on what I'm playing.

As far as holding the pick, pretty standard, between the bottom of my thumb and side of index finger. This is with the rest of my hand slightly open and fingers curled.

Lots of ways work though, I took lessons from a dude that could shred with the best of them and he pretty much made a fist with the rest of his hand aside from fingers he held the pick with. Previously all my teachers had told me that technique like that wouldn't allow me to play fast and clean so take any "advice" given to you with a grain of salt :AOK.

 

[MAXIFUNK]

When playing my Bass it never really rest at all.
While playing guitar I think it depends on which guitar I'm playing but this brings up the question where is it exactly HMM.
checking it out tonight while i noodle around.

 

[deeaa]

I guess it's largely also a matter of what kind of a guitar you play, but I get the feeling it's mostly to do with the sound/style you do. I suppose you can't play very distorted metal sounds without damping it very precisely at the bridge all the time.