Well, a question that has been very much on my mind lately, and particularly on my fingers, is: How do you know if you just need to keep on mashing those strings down and turning your fingers into hamburger meat or get a different guitar?

I have a Yamaha, which I've been plunking around on for the past year or so and have been seriously playing for the past several weeks. I'm getting better, but it hurts like the dickens on my left hand. I had the action lowered, but now the strings seem to buzz at the slightest provocation, and I either am buzzing strings or deadening them. I'm trying to learn to fingerpick, so the muffled strings are especially noticeable and unpleasant.

And I just don't know if I need to soldier on or if there's something wrong with my guitar...

Wonderin in ... oh. No longer in Wyoming, WW