Anybody purposely play with a thick long sleeve shirt for better tone?

[mmasters]

I noticed on my Taylor 818 when my bare arm is draped over the top of the guitar it muffles the bass notes some. It's been annoying me for months. However today I was wearing a long sleeve thick cotton polo and playing and I was noticing how much fuller the guitar sounded, particularly in the bass register. I realized the top is able to move more with my thick cotton shirt against it as opposed to my bare arm. Anybody else notice this with their guitar? I think I'm going to have to wear a long sleeve shirt more often or record my guitar with it on!

[llew]

No but I do tend to wear a long sleeve shirt (even in the summer with sleeves partially rolled up) just to keep from smudging up my shade top guitars. Not that they can't be cleaned but I've got better things to do...

[OjaiAndrew]

I haven't noticed any tonal differences but like Llew, I tend to wear long sleeve shirts to protect the finish on my guitars.

[TBman]

I'm going to experiment and see.

[airborne1]

Some folks use an after market arm rest such as the one from John Pearse.

[guitar george]

I usually wear a long-sleeve cotton sweatshirt when playing my guitars in the house. The sweatshirt has no buttons and the soft cotton protects the guitar from scratches and oil from the skin etc. I just tried playing with and without short sleeves and could not hear any difference. Maybe there was a very slight difference that someone with closer-to-perfect hearing would be able to discern. This sounds like a good experiment for "Mythbusters".

[HeyMikey]

No, but sometimes I put on my special suit. I think it helps with the tone... and the chicks dig it.





On a serious note (A#) if I'm not wearing long sleeves I use an old black dress sock with the toe cut off. Great use for old socks... but the chicks think I'm a dork. Guilty.
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[Ncbandit]

After I realized keeping my arm off the top makes a different I add a John Pearse arm rest to every acoustic I own.

[swarfrat]

No, but I wear super thick wool socks when I play for better timing. When my feet are cold, I get 'cold feet' - I feel more nervous and my timing gets jittery.

[L20A]

I use the J P Arm rest on most of my guitars. I'm a believer in the sound improvement plus the gusts helps with sweat Mark's onbthe guitar

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by airborne1

Some folks use an after market arm rest such as the one from John Pearse.

I have one on my Taylor 12. Comfortable enough that people have played it without noticing the armrest. I think they do more on 12s than 6s.

[fazool]

Four decades ago when I was just starting out and had my first (semi-nice) acoustic guitar with a sensitive cedar top, I noticed a significant muffling effect from my forearm.

Ever since then I've been convinced of the tonal loss possible, although not all guitars seemed as sensitive.

I put a John Pearse arm rest o all my acoustics.

[Shadowfox]

I think the smaller the body of the acoustic, the bigger the difference of the armrest. I think for me I never put my forearm on my dread, but my GA I do, so the JP Armrest makes a difference for sure.

[FrankHudson]

I play in a half-way-there "classical guitar" position most of the time which reduces the muffling from an arm on the top.

I have a number of acoustic guitars with matt finishes and I record a lot. I'm partial to shirts without front placket buttons, snaps, zippers or even corduroy or other raised patterns. I'll still move when playing, and that stuff rubbing or bumping on the back or sides of the guitar during a take is not cool.

[Wade Hampton]

I’ve been a John Pearse artist strings and accessories endorser for some twenty years now, but had John Pearse armrests on all of my flattop guitars for years before John decided to make me an artist endorser. The armrests do exactly what they’re designed to do: they lift the player’s forearm off the top, allowing it to vibrate to its fullest possible extent, and in doing so also provide a degree of comfort to the player (with a rounded edge instead of the 90 degree corner of the guitar top pressing into the flesh of your arm) while simultaneously avoiding sweat damage to the finish.

So, yeah, you can accurately state that I’m a fan of the John Pearse armrest. The thickness of the shirt material worn by the guitarist generally doesn’t matter when you use one!

By the way, I do have John Pearse armrests on a couple of 12 string guitars, and they’re helpful, but the most dramatic effect that I’ve witnessed has been on smaller guitars. The armrests make larger guitars vibrate more - I’ve got one on my McAlister acoustic baritone guitar - but the before and after comparisons are more dramatic the smaller the guitar happens to be.

Anyway, anyone can test whether an armrest will improve the sound of a guitar with this simple test: play a vigorous first position E chord with your forearm laying on the guitar top. Then while the chord is still ringing, lift your arm off the top.

With most instruments you should hear a difference in the resonance of the guitar once your arm is off the top. If the top is solid spruce or cedar, the improvement in tone should be even more noticeable. So if a Pearse armrest gets put on the guitar, then you’ll have that tonal enhancement without having to lift your arm while you play.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller