Resting your arm

Ray

Well here's something that is so darned obvious but you know, I never ever considered it. I mean, I knew about it but didnt give it a second thought hey. I read about it somewhere and was wondering if anyone here ever thought about it and that is : how you hold your guitar with the strumming/picking arm. well, the arm attached to the hand doing the stuff. And this is specific to acoustic guitar and what I did is picked up a guitar and started klapping it and then clamping it with the arm at different pressures and spots and amount of arm clamping it and heck ja - the sound changes quite drastically sometimes. Then you give the strings a good whack and put your had behind the bridge and then lift it and then below the bridge and all over other spots on the guitar and all the time the sound changes. And then I moved the guitar away from my body and strummed and brought it back in and the sound changed. Bit it is so obvious.

racman

Yes, quite correct Ray, it does make a difference in damping out the soundboard etc.

In addition to this there are some players who hold the guitar quite close and "choke" the resonance of the back (classical players I believe have known about this for years I believe). Tim McKnight has developed his "hollowback" concept which essentially is a double back with bracing in between the two pieces. This allows the inner back to resonate/float quite freely and be unaffected by the players body (or belly ?). An additional benefit is that one could use a more decorative piece of wood for the back and sides and the actual tone wood for the inner back and sides. I know Tim has made a quite beautiful Birdseye/quilted Hollowback Maple SJ guitar with rosewood inner back and sides which will result in a rosewood tone rather than the bright maple tone.

He is currently building another in the same woods I think - see build thread here: http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192880

The description on Tim's website as well which explains everything in great detail: http://www.mcknightguitars.com/process.html

Keira-WitherKay

yep racmans said it all....

? but i have my 5c worth to add........

as the back also resonates and if you hold it up tight to your body you dampen it ...... thats why classical and spanish guitarists hold the guitar that the presure in on sides not the back ...... but it only is practical if you sit in a classical position with the guitars bottom either on your right thigh ( which is more traditional flamenco ) that means the neck is almost 45degrees pointing upwards ( i play like this a lot .even see my profile pic..... my body is a few mm away from the back with guitar resting on the top of my right thigh clamped with my right arm ) or the traditional classical position with ones legs splayed and the guitar resting on left thigh and the bottom pressed in on right thigh........ this way or should i say both ways enables the back to be free and the tone definitely or should i say noticeably improves.......... but any one using a strap ect or standing must realise that there's the tradeoff of the body dampening the back

also it is possible to lightly touch the back or have the pressure say only on the upper bout lightly against the body ......so even if the back is partially free it will sound better long as you don't squeeze it into your body that kills the acoustic tone.......

however i found ... if you doing gigs and plugged in ........ with undersaddle pickups it minimises the effect ( almost negates it ) as the majority of the sound comes directly from the saddle........ so then playing with a strap ...plugged in .... is no prob ........

but i have found with my classical ibeam pickups i use that is not an undersaddle but attatched under the bridge inside the guitar so effectively picks up the vibration from the top and in fact the whole guitar is active back and sides too......... it effects the sound much more if i dampen the back hence my technique of holding the guitar on my thigh but i do always sit and play .......... so it is practical for me....... and of course unplugged or if you using a mic...... it makes the guitar sound so much more "alive" if you can keep the back free to vibrate...........

a good test is if you plug your guitar in ....tap on the top and sides and back........... if the pickup picks up the tapping loudly as the i beams and dual systems ( cos of the microphone) do....then you will hear a noticeabe effect plugged in if you dampen the back or don't ...

but most steel strings ( unless they dual source) tend to get 98 % of the pickup sound from the saddle so you would not have a prob at all......... thats prob why only classical players seem to worry about the back being free to vibrate

Ray

Uhm, so a bit of effects available here maybe. So soes anybody see any wisdom in using one of those armrest jobbies then?
http://www.jpstrings.com/braccess.htm

darxx

ok so this video may or may not have anything to do with what you are concerned with here, but yeah on an acoustic in particular position of the picking/plucking/strumming/beating/tapping hand can give you some very cool and interesting effects. just quickly did a youtube scower for percussion styles and this was the most relevant vid i found in a short amount of time, and it may illustrate an example of how very versatile percussive guitar can really be.

good luck, and fiddle more with those different sounds you can get out of your acoustic. they rock.

and then there's this. (mostly emphasising on the intro, not the song that follows that.

hope i could be of some help here. ^^

Sebastian

sherbit very interesting topic... one that had completely evaded me before. also begs to ask then if having a heavy amp head on top of a cabinet affects the sound etc etc...

anyone have any clue how this would affect a solid-body guitar?