Barre Chords - Nightmare !!

[Oldpinkman]

You could always buy a decent guitar

I covet a maton messiah to the accompaniment of gollum noises.

I do have a wee plug in jobbie which does for me too - but never seem to have time to play it.

[The Black Adder]

Yeah, try and lower the action slightly. Might be best to send it to a guru and have it fettled.

As mentioned, for one, practice is the key.
Have you got nails? If you have like me it's time to clip em.
Softer strings maybe? - Not a great fan of soft strings myself but they can be used for practicing quite well.

Buy an air guitar?

[Stratmangler]

Softer strings maybe? - Not a great fan of soft strings myself but they can be used for practicing quite well.

I've never seen soft strings for a Strat (or any other type of electric guitar for that matter)

[Oldpinkman]

I've never seen soft strings for a Strat (or any other type of electric guitar for that matter)

Depending on whats fitted now you can get lighter gauge strings. I used to use really weedy ones like 9-42's on electric. Eric Clapton wouldn't last 30 seconds with em. Trouble is, if you change the string gauge you are going to need to adjust the tremolo spring (and strictly, probably the truss rod). I'll never forget the first time I changed string gauge, and nobody explained that to me, and I spent about 6 hours solid trying to tune this guitar which ended up like a banana - made worse because I have a floyd-rose type.

So you come back to a good set-up. But I thought Bev was having lessons, and her teacher would know about action - and she had the action set when she bought it, or am I getting muddled. Certainly, if it hasn't been set up, £60 with a really good guitar tech, for the full monty including a fret dress is priceless. Sooo much nicer playing a well set-up guitar.

But I expect the issue is practice - and you'll get it in the end. It wasn't so long ago I threatened to put mine on the fire cos I was never going to be able to play an A open major chord (fat fingers).

[Stratmangler]

I agree with you about practice being the likely cause of the issue, Richard, but as has also been said in the thread there could be an issue with setup.

Fender USA (and Bev's guitar is an American Standard Strat) are usually OK with their setups, but they're not always spot on.
The first thing I did when I got my American Deluxe Strat home was whip the strings off and set it up for a set of 10-46 strings, and adjusted the truss rod and action.
The guitar left the factory with 9-42 strings on, and I prefer a slightly heavier string gauge.
The factory setup was decent enough, so if I'd been happy about the string gauge used I more than likely would have left the setup alone.

[The Black Adder]

I meant lighter gauge... sorry.

[Stratmangler]

I meant lighter gauge... sorry.

[Ninanina]

Fender USA (and Bev's guitar is an American Standard Strat) are usually OK with their setups

Yes my main Strat is an American Standard and my teacher has checked it out for me and believe the action is as low as possible so I can't use that as an excuse, my other Strat is a cheapo Idonesian one (which actually plays quite well!) and the action is still pretty low set..

Today, in my lesson, I managed to do the F barre chord a few times pretty well so maybe the practice is at last paying off... I can't do it well every time but I think I might be getting there..

[Stratmangler]

I can't do it well every time but I think I might be getting there..

It takes time, but it will come.
You'll be doing Andy Summers type stretches before you know it!