whitefang Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Not the kind BIKERS or '50's juvenile delenquents wear. OK, so....I'm sure we've all seen old photos of ELVIS and Ricky Nelson sporting those Martins with the body covered in those hand-tooled leather encasements. There were likely others, but I can't think of any right now. But... I always wondered if those covers had any noticable or profound effect on the SOUND of the guitar. Does anybody know? Whitefang I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannyalcatraz Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 No direct experience, but I can't help but think it would be kind of muffling of resonance. Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: âNinety percent of everything is crapâ My FLMS- Murphy's Music in Irving, Tx http://murphysmusictx.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 I'm sure they helped keep the guitar warm LOL! I have seen the hand-tooled leather covers (mostly a cowboy thing) and I'm sure it was for looks and not to improve the sound of those Martins, Gibsons, etc. Elvis really used the acoustic guitar as a prop and Scotty did the playing in the background with that big box Gibson while Elvis faked it out front. I doubt Elvis cared about muffling the sound while doing his gyrations LOL! I have seen guys like Tommy Emmanuel using those sound hole covers and the guitar sounds fantastic (with him playing it of course LOL!). But I would think he would take it out when playing an unplugged acoustic as it would muffle the sound. I would think it would be a waste of Adirondack spruce to cover an acoustic guitar in leather... Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertbluesman Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 No idea about a leather jacket for an acoustic guitar although I too remember seeing them on famous folks guitars back in the day..... dbm If it sounds good, it is good !! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=143231&content=music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitefang Posted August 31, 2016 Author Share Posted August 31, 2016 LARRY---Hmmm..... I remember once seeing James Taylor on "Saturday Night Live" playing his acoustic with a piece of CARDBOARD taped over the soundhole. At the time, I wondered why he did that. THEN I started noticing special made covers used by others. Seems that Taylor did the same thing some photographers do to save a buck and still get the job done. Example: You could fasten a business card or a piece of index card at the end of your flash unit with a rubber band and bend half of the card at a 45 degree agle towards the top of the flash for diffusion, or go to a photo shop and buy a $45 device to do it with. Gets the same results without hitting the wallet! Another "trick"--- I watched a bit of "Walk The Line" on TV last night and noticed in one scene, Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash was playing his Martin with a DOLLAR BILL folded and tucked into the strings down at the body end of the neck. Probably for some effect, on the level of old time piano players draping TOILET CHAINS across the harps of their old uprights. I imagine those guitar jackets WERE mostly for show, since both the biggest fans of both Elvis and Ricky WEREN'T paying much(if ANY) attention to the TONE of their guitars! Whitefang I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 I remember back in the day having to tear off and use a matchbook cover for a guitar pick. It only worked for a song or two until they came out with plastic coated matchbooks LOL! I still have a buddy that does put a dollar bill in his 12 strings and just keeps a rhythm going when he doesn't know the chords to a song... The sound hole covers were made out of solid rubber so you could crank up an acoustic and not have feedback. They make some very nice wooden ones these days that look good on the guitar, cut the feedback and have holes in the design to allow the sound to come through. They also have sound hole covers now with pickups molded in. I like the sound of an acoustic with an electric guitar pickup on board. The newer acoustic pickups with EQ's, etc., really get a nice clean acoustic sound that sounds great...but guys like Tommy Emmanuel still use the solid covers while playing at higher volumes. I remember back to the 60's going over to a friends house and he had an old upright piano in the basement. Someone decided to put thumbtacks in the hammer heads and make it into a Honky Tonk piano. I started stopping by to play it every afternoon on the way home from school...It was way cool! Later in the 70's I got my Juno 60 Keyboard and one of the settings was Honky Tonk piano. I didn't use it all the time, but for certain songs it brought back memories of that old basement piano! +1 I'm sure those hand tooled leather guitar jackets were/are for show... Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitefang Posted September 1, 2016 Author Share Posted September 1, 2016 So I'm guessing you remember those old "add-on" pick-ups for acoustics that looked like electric guitar pick-ups that attatched inside the sound holes? A thick wire that hung outside the guitar with a socket for a jack at the end? All the tone and volume were still done at the amp? Whitefang I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winston Psmith Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 So I'm guessing you remember those old "add-on" pick-ups for acoustics that looked like electric guitar pick-ups that attatched inside the sound holes? A thick wire that hung outside the guitar with a socket for a jack at the end? All the tone and volume were still done at the amp? Whitefang They still make pickups like that. Some of them aren't bad, for a quick fix, as opposed to the effort and expense of having a nice Fishman Aura system mounted in your Guitar. Back to the original topic; I remember seeing some of those Guitars, way back. It seemed to be about style, rather than function. I can't imagine how encasing the wood in a thick coat of leather would improve tone? Maybe they did the reverse, and killed the tone so no one would hear them over the guys who were really playing? "Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King http://www.novparolo.com https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Fraser Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 So I'm guessing you remember those old "add-on" pick-ups for acoustics that looked like electric guitar pick-ups that attatched inside the sound holes? A thick wire that hung outside the guitar with a socket for a jack at the end? All the tone and volume were still done at the amp? Whitefang They still make pickups like that. Some of them aren't bad, for a quick fix, as opposed to the effort and expense of having a nice Fishman Aura system mounted in your Guitar. IMO a single coil soundhole magnetic pickup sounds more like an acoustic guitar than the bridge embedded piezo elements. I think the soundhole pickups have come a long way from those old Dearmond units from our youth. Back to the original topic; I remember seeing some of those Guitars, way back. It seemed to be about style, rather than function. I can't imagine how encasing the wood in a thick coat of leather would improve tone? Maybe they did the reverse, and killed the tone so no one would hear them over the guys who were really playing? In the 60's Gretsch & Vox both had leather, or maybe vinyl, pads which snapped onto the backs of their 335 size semi-hollow body models. That was an era when people actually tried to avoid buckle rash, & these were marketed as guitar protectors. The pads looked totally ridiculous, & probably killed some of the tone, but possibly they helped with feedback reduction. Scott Fraser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larryz Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 Yeah Fang (and all others!) I have a sound hole pickup somewhere in my stash that you have to control at the amp. It's an upgrade from my old DeArmond like Scott mentioned, that did have a roller volume control on it. I think my new one is made by Seymour Duncan, but I haven't seen it for awhile. I'm going to put it in my old '71 Fender acoustic beach and camping guitar just for the fun of it. I found a chord with a volume control from Taylor that I plan to use. I'm going to cut the pickup chord and solder it to a new acoustic jack/strap holder combo. I love that old sound and I'm going to run electric flatwounds. Next time the buds get together that played with me since '65 in my Ventures surf band, and have seen me play that old beach guitar since '71, I'm going to break it out and have me some fun! You know, since it's got lots of dings and a hole in it, maybe that leather jacket would be a cool idea! I could have a hand tooled surf wave and I have a commercial artist that I played with back in the early 60's that could do the design for me! Take care, Larryz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitefang Posted September 3, 2016 Author Share Posted September 3, 2016 GOTTA look WAY better than that "cowboy on horseback" I've seen painted on one of John Sebastian's guitars! Whitefang I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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