Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello all. This may have been discussed before, but Tony's great tutorial on
installing an armrest got me thinking I want to try this. Does it have any
noticeable effect on the tone of the guitar? I would suppose that it only
removes a small part of the soundboard and so doesn't make much
difference, but I wanted to see what y'all thought. Thanks!

Like you said you are only removing a small part of the soundboard so the affect on tone is minimal. Is there going to be a difference in tone? Well technically yes, but it is going to be so small that I don't believe anyone would notice. Besides I consider the comfort trade off from the arm and ribrest to be worth the unnoticeable sacrifice in tone.

Now I have seen some armrests that remove a significant portion of the soundboard. I would stay away from that anything like that. But the Laskin/Karol style is something I would recommend trying. Ryan armrests are nice as well.

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
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House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
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Hopefully Tony chimes in here. I've heard and played a Karol parlour sized guitar with an armrest and it held its own in terms of tone and volume with a bunch of other guitars that were present.

Interesting questions Hesh!

For a guitar that is built stiff and strong like your typical factory guitar, you probably wouldn't notice much.   On a lightly built top, there would be no change to the highs and mids, but there would be a loss in bass.

That's my opinion, worth everything you paid for it.   
I'll stick to it until someone with actual knowledge on the subject speaks up.   

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

    I've played alot of guitars with bevels of different kinds and have
enjoyed the tone of all of them. As Hesh said above, the structural effects
are the relocation of the physical center of the top away from the bevel
side. While the bridge stays in the center of the overall center of the
guitar including the bevel, it basically puts the bridge off center on the
top plate which will obviously present some tonal effects.

    Havng only worked a total of about a dozen protoypes as I develop my
bevel, I've been pretty happy with the tonal results on my models. Being
so familiar with my own models and their inherent tone foundation helps
to give me a clearer idea of what is happening when I add a bevel to one
of them. The most obvious differences heve been a more directed and
immediate bottom end that more closely resembles that of a piano in
those segments of the note register...especially noticeable when dropped
tunings are used and string tensions are reduced.

    There's no way to actaully appreciate those tonal effects without being
able to try the same guitar with and without the bevel installed or
executed on it.

    The mass of the bevel structure will always add some weight that will
exceed what would be present if only the side were there to meet the top,
even with the actual mass of the bevel being cut out. so the effects of that
weight being added to the side that is beveled will be present, but again,
not recordable without being able to play the beveled and unbeveled
guitar back to back.

    Just some thoughts.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

[QUOTE=Kevin Gallagher]    ........ The most obvious differences have been a more directed and immediate bottom end that more closely resembles that of a piano in those segments of the note register...especially noticeable when dropped tunings are used and string tensions are reduced. [/QUOTE]
Kevin,
Thank you for you input here.
What would you attribute that piano like sound too?
Could it from be added stiffness of the side?

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Yep, like Kevin says, you cant really appreciate any difference because you cant build the same guitar with or without. Interestingly enough though, piano like tones are what this latest of mine has .. thats a good way to describe it, although I called it more even with sparkle.

One thing to consider when you build one is that the top bracing on the bass side becomes more tapered (if you use tapered style bracing as I do) , thus giving the bass side of the top a looser bracing .. this helps with evening the response of the top even though you have reduced it vibrational area - it vibrates easier than a full sized top with std taper to the sides. So the top is slightly smaller, but it also has less mass and stiffness attached to it. I think it all kinda evens itself out

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"