Acoustic Guitar Stuffing

[todspadinsky]

I am wanting to mute my acoustic guitar but i have a sound hole pickup that gets in the way of a sound hole cover. Would stuffing my guitar with something solve that problem while not affecting the pickup quality? If so, are there certain materials that would best be used to do this? Ive seen Sergio Altamura do something along these lines.

[Tunes]

I do not think your going to find anyone here who will endorse stuffing your guitar with something. We been down this road recently, and the ending was not pretty.

Leave as is and try and find a solution with something that was actually meant to go on a guitar.

[dsamuel24]

Originally Posted by Tunes

I do not think your going to find anyone here who will endorse stuffing your guitar with something. We been down this road recently, and the ending was not pretty.

Leave as is and try and find a solution with something that was actually meant to go on a guitar.

Sorry Tunes, but I think you have it twisted. The reason the other thread ended badly was not that NO ONE here would recommend or endorse filling some portion of the guitar cavity with polyfill or foam or whatever (MANY of us said, "Go ahead, try it out, see what you think, and don't let anyone tell you what you can and can't do with your own guitar"), but rather that several folks got downright nasty in their insinuations that anyone who would try or even ponder such a thing was "wrong" or worthy of being belittled.

To the OP (todspadinsky) I say this: you SHOULD try filling the cavity of your guitar with any number of materials, from polyfill (like out of a pillow) to foam to packing peanuts or even crumpled up newspaper for goodness sake. GIVE IT A SHOT!! Cause here's the bottom line... you have nothing to lose, will do NO harm to your guitar (nothing you would do would be irreversible) and you just might find that something really cool happens that you never expected but really like. Or it could make no difference (or sound very bad) and you remove it and your guitar is back to normal.

If you have a sound hole pickup that is in the way and will not allow the sound hole to be covered, you could try to modify a sound hole cover (if you're willing to lose the investment in the cover if it doesn't fit right after you cut it up) or you could try to make something simple and cover the sound hole in some unorthodox way (not that I have any ideas of how to do that). JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WANT to try and get the muting effect you desire, because, after all, it is YOUR instrument.

If all else fails, you could consider replacing the pickup with one that does not hinder you from using a standard sound hole cover, or perhaps find another guitar to replace this one or to add to your collection that might be a better fit with the muting effect you are after. But if it were me, I'd exhaust all my cheap options with my current guitar first before I'd invest hundreds in new gear.

[Neal]

Y***********

[RussB]

Originally Posted by todspadinsky

I am wanting to mute my acoustic guitar but i have a sound hole pickup that gets in the way of a sound hole cover. Would stuffing my guitar with something solve that problem while not affecting the pickup quality? If so, are there certain materials that would best be used to do this? Ive seen Sergio Altamura do something along these lines.

Try it! The worst thing that will happen is you take the stuffing out if you don't like it.

[todspadinsky]

Thanks dsamuel24 and RussB. I guess it's time to start experimenting. If i discover something out of this I think I will post a new thread about it.

[Neal]

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[stringjunky]

This should kill the sound plenty :

[dsamuel24]

Originally Posted by stringjunky

This should kill the sound plenty :

LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY!!! (how do you get that ROFL smiley?)

[dsamuel24]

Originally Posted by Neal

What.... I'm chopped liver?!?!

Also funny.