Ok, my guitar is a littly dirty. The strings are like 3 weeks old and have a little more natural oil on them than I usually allow to accrue(sp?). As this is my baby, I tend to keep it quite clean and usually perform general maintenance on a regular basis(string changes, tightening and a total cleaning, wipe-down and polish-just a chamois cloth and some elbow grease.)

But I've been slackin for a few weeks and have allowed my axe to acquire some natural 'funk' you could say. I played tonight, ran through my usual warm-up and proceeded to shred in a few keys for about 45 minutes over some rythms that I've had in my head for a while. Smooth as silk I tell ya.

Now, my questions are:

Was it the combination of grease on my hands and on the strings and fretboard that allowed this intense event to occur?

Is there any other way to simulate this environment on a regular basis? Cheaply?

I did tune to C# standard, could that've been the catalytic factor? If so, would changing to higher gauge strings take that smoothness away?
(I play a Fender Tele Cust FMT HH, string-thru bridge, relatively responsive to standard intonation methods.)

If anyone could help me figure out why exactly it was so smooth playing, I would be very appreciative. ANY advice welcome.

-Big T