Guitar friendliness

[tripleblessed]

When I was small (late 40s-early 50s) we heard predominantly mountain folk playing old time and bluegrass along side of country on WSM, WLAC, WCKY, WWVA, WBT, KDKA...... Now more diverse, same music. Heard how it flowed into Hank Williams and Bob Wills, Everly Brothers, blues, rock; lots of cross pollination in all directions. And with Bob, mariachi and polka and cowfolk music meshing with jazz and gospel and all of it influenced by classical and Celtic....
As the Gibson Brothers song says quoting the old timer about what kind of music he grew up playing, "We called it music.". Pretty much everything
north of Paul Whiteman was heard in our home. Love almost any genre.

Am constantly amazed by you guys who play multiple instruments, when I mangle my one. One of my jammers plays 14. 30 years on the road with
Manhattans, B.B. King, Chaka Khan, Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins... And I get to play with him.

I think somehow my body and my strap have a different relationship than most; my guitar sits crossways enough there's less contact with my torso
than many and none with my buckle. Or my sporran. I don't worry about muffled sound, my old Yamaha Red Label has a big voice, like me. She holds
her own even with banjos going. And most damage she's handled came from other folk.

[Nemuragh]

Not kilt related, and surely a thread drift,
...
As for instrument wear, I don't mind honest wear. But I think it's downright silly to intentionally abuse an instrument

..

This is one of the reasons I really can't recommend the Tone-Gard highly enough. Its primary purpose is to keep the back of the instrument from being muffled

Well, since I’m the OP, perhaps I might be permitted a little drift. I’ve never heard of the Tone-Gard but it looks very interesting. As an aspiring luthier, I can absolutely understand what it is supposed to do.

I’m pretty protective of my guitars (and some other string instruments) and, at the moment, I won’t be playing them while I’m wearing a kilt; it just seems too risky, to me. My oldest guitar, incidentally, is a 1969 Ovation Standard Balladeer and it only has one small ding on the soundboard (although I did have to get the headstock repaired after a freak accident).

John

[gsmacleod]

I've not done any playing in a kilt but most rehearsals and almost every performance, I've been in jeans with a belt. Early on I got in the habit of having my guitar rest on my right hip bone. This was comfortable to play while keeping the guitar away from my belt as well as the rivets on my jeans.

Looking at kilted attire, even with a belt, I don't think I'd worry as how I play would keep the guitar away from buckles, chains, etc.

Shane

[kingandrew]

I had never heard of the Chapman Stick. But seeing it mentioned in this thread, I googled it and saw some video. What an interesting discovery!

Thanks,
Andrew

[OC Richard]

Appalachian fiddle tunes...clawhammer banjo and fiddle.

You're talking my language! I deeply love the old Appalachian music, it's in my blood.

Naturally I have a special affinity for our local West Virginia tunes and style.

Dwight Diller is probably my favourite.

There's a story about the old West Virginia fiddler who went down to Galax and saw fiddler after fiddler playing super-fast showy tunes. When asked of his opinion he said

"Them tunes didn't come from anywhere, and they ain't going nowhere."

As for instrument wear, I don't mind honest wear. But I think it's downright silly to intentionally abuse an instrument or "distress" it just for street cred.

I keep my instruments insured via a specialty musical instrument policy, I keep them in the best cases...

People "distress" their instruments?? Wow. Silly, dishonest, and as you say disrespectful to the instruments.

When I was playing my gorgeous c1905 silver and ivory pipes worth thousands of dollars yes I had them insured (the Union has great insurance) and I used a Pelican case. You can literally run those over with a truck.

However I will say that I have always viewed my instruments as tools to do a job, and I am mystified by the class of people whom I call "instrument collectors".

I'm on an Irish whistle forum and people will talk about "their collection" and even discuss how they "display their collection" with whistle-racks. My tools are in their toolbox. Who would display their set of socket wrenches? My instruments are tools too, and they're in their cases.

That being said, an old fiddler/drop-thumb friend has his fiddle and bow hanging on hooks on his family-room wall so he can knock out a tune whenever the mood strikes. He says he does more playing that way.

That guard thing would have come in handy for our guitarist a few years back, when we were playing at an outdoor festival and it was so hot that his guitar melted onto his leg! (He was wearing shorts.) It's times like that that I appreciate my Low D whistle, a hunk of aluminium, no moving parts, and impervious to conditions.

About valuable instruments, due to the international ban on ivory I've sold off my fancy antique ivory-mounted pipes and gone to great-sounding beat-up plain-Jane vintage pipes. My two sets of Highland pipes were both made in the 1940s, look unimpressive, and will out-play anything made today.

[imbrius]

Well, since I’m the OP, perhaps I might be permitted a little drift. I’ve never heard of the Tone-Gard but it looks very interesting. As an aspiring luthier, I can absolutely understand what it is supposed to do.

I’m pretty protective of my guitars (and some other string instruments) and, at the moment, I won’t be playing them while I’m wearing a kilt; it just seems too risky, to me. My oldest guitar, incidentally, is a 1969 Ovation Standard Balladeer and it only has one small ding on the soundboard (although I did have to get the headstock repaired after a freak accident).

John

I typoed earlier - my Ovation is a '72 and it's my favorite of the 4 guitars I inherited from my dad (folk singer/songwriter). To those, I've added 3 guitars and a 2003 padauk Grand Stick. The Ovation is still in 100% condition modulo a chunk missing from the headstock. I'm not going to get that fixed because it happened on my dad's watch, not mine. As my wife puts it, "It's a genuine Michael Lee f***-up."

[Adoom]

I, as others have stated, haven't found an issue...but I'm a bit of a.. err... lets say "young at heart".

My main guitar at the moment is an Ampeg Dan Armstrong, which is fun because you can see a kilt THROUGH it.
When I'm playing electric, I don't wear a sporran, my capo goes on the headstock because I need to remember where I put it. Picks go on the mic stand because I can strum out and grab one. No use putting picks and capos in a sporran where they are not easy to get to. I'm one of those "low slung" guitar players. I play fast and loud if I'm playing electric.

Acoustic is a different matter, I was playing acoustic kilted recently. When I play acoustic generally the guitar is higher. It's above my sporran...but picks are still on the mic stand, capo is still on the headstock. When I drop a pick I don't have time to dig for another. I play short fast songs, the song would be over before I found a pick in my sporran!

As for belt rash, I care more about some of my guitars than others. I feel like a jerk for saying that. But when I am worried about belt rash, even with jeans, I slide my belt around my waist to the 3 o'clock position. But...I also never tuck in a shirt with jeans ...so there's that.

Non-kilted me with my Hag...