Bwl, I think that open string thing is mostly a fender problem. I play a little electric on an old fender jaguar, but I'd probably play more if I had an sg or something else. I'm comfortable with barre chords, but fenders are thin and stringy, and just don't strum nice. They whack and bite ang jangle, but I can't get the meshed strum sound I can get with a good gibson. It limits what I want to do with electric to singy line bits, and percussive picking.