How to dampen volume?
I'm enjoying my new-to-me archtop, but it's LOUD. Too loud, sometimes. How can I dampen the volume? https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5ebbd42fce.jpg
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Adjust your right-hand technique and/or use a thinner/softer pick - try a Dunlop Nylon .60 to start and work up/down from there...
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If you insist its the guitar's fault its too loud and not your own, then I also suggest a thin wimpy pick, lighter gage strings, set the action as low as possible, use a mute (clip clothespins on the bridge between strings), a cloth stuffed under the strings just behind the bridge, shoot expanding foam into the body (please don't really do this last one). |
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Try this - put a small soft hair tie over the head stock and park it behind the nut. Pull it forward over the nut into 1st fret territory and the open or unfretted strings will be muted keeping the focus on the fretted notes - the overall volume of the guitar is reduced since the number of strings is cut back by muting of the hair tie.
folks who use this are not trying to reduce the volume but it has that effect especially on an unplugged or acoustic guitar |
I favor the fill it up with spray foam idea. Also the don't play it so loud idea. Seriously. If it's too loud, get a solid body electric. There's no way to make a guitar quieter without screwing up the tone, or hurting it, except how you play it. Nice guitar, BTW. I really like the early Silvertones, I have one myself.
One idea that you could try that wouldn't hurt the guitar but would screw up the tone (reversibly) would be to put a piece of closed cell foam insulation under the bridge. Or maybe try filling it up with those foam packing peanuts so there is not much air inside, those you can always vacuum out. |
The piece of cloth behind the bridge trick is good. Appreciable reduction of volume, no impact on tone that I can hear.
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Maybe also consider a bridge with 2 distinct feet (less surface area in contact with soundboard) as opposed to the continuous one you have?
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Lighter strings (or a different material, maybe flatwounds?), lower action are the physical things you can do to the guitar.
A thinner pick is the physical thing you can use to get less volume. Adjusting your technique is the answer you don't want to hear, but it's the best answer. rags behind bridges and hair scrunchies will tame harmonics and pinging from the strings behind the bridge, but they won't do much about volume. If you really want to deaden the body, use upholstery packing. Pat Martino did this for years to reduce feedback on his archtop when plugged in. Stuffed like 10 lbs of it inside his Johnny Smith. It's really for taming feedback plugged in, but it'll make your guitar sound deader than a doornail. |
I tamed a wild 18" archtop by stringing it with Martin Retro Monels. The overall window shattering volume was noticeably tamed and those strings brought out the woody timbres.
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I also find it pretty amazing how much archtops project.
I have a Collings i30 which is thin body and intended to be an electric. When I play it with headphones in the amp my kids complain it wakes them up when I'm playing in the morning. If I'm playing some of my flattop acoustics at what sounds like a louder volume to me compared to the archtop completely unplugged they don't wake up or complain. |
Archtops were designed to be loud enough to replace the piercing tone of banjos in dance bands. Then the got bigger and bigger and louder and louder to keep up with the big bands of the 1930s and 40s. So loudness is their nature. And then they amplified them.
But experimenting with strings is a simple first option. Go lighter in gauge and consider even silk wound steel strings. Maybe the archtop concept is not for you and you would do better to switch to a flattop design. |
Try covering the F holes with pieces of plastic like a non stick pick guard. You can also cut foam pieces to fit in them to help lower the sound from the guitar.
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Regards, Howard Emerson |
Lighter strings WILL drive the top less. But you will be reducing the performance of the guitar. The harmonics, basic timbre, everything about the sound of the guitar will also be diminished. Like putting regular gas in a super-car. Short term it'll slow the car down. Long term it can do damage. In the case of a vintage guitar like yours extremely light strings could result in a backbow of the neck that might not be recovered from without introducing neck twist when heavier strings go back on. Not saying it will. But it could.
No intention of being rude. The guitar was literally designed to be loud. As much as it sounds like work, more controlled picking is the answer. I faced the same dilemma two decades ago when I got into resonators. Maybe look for something with shallower/smaller body. Go test-drive a godin 5th avenue (because you can probably find one at your local GC) and see if a shallow body archtop is more for you. If it is you can start looking for cooler funky vintage guitars of that style. |
Maybe consider Doug's Plugs? Whilst designed to fight feedback, inserting one into an f-hole will certainly reduce volume. I have them in my 1961 ES-175D and acoustically the volume is down about 50%, and I can play to louder electric levels wihout fighting feedback.
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