Dampening a dreadnought?

[offrhodes]

Hi,

 

first, I'm not much of a guitar player (but do it anyway and have fun).

Here's my question: a couple of weeks ago I bought a dreadnought-size acoustic guitar, Takamine P1DC SM.

Today I stuffed a T-shirt inside and put in a rubber soundhole cover to reduce volume for home practice. Surprisingly, my wife commented that it sounds better and I noticed the same independently.

At home, this may be my living room which resonates badly below 50 Hz. But I took it outdoors, and still like the sound very much (might dial back a bit, though ... maybe change the XL T-shirt for M-size...)

 

Question: For purely acoustic sound, is it common to dampen a guitar? I've read opinions that dreadnought is already beyond the optimum size for balanced sound, and e.g. for drums, it's not unheard of to stuff in a blanket.

 

[cruisinon2]

19 hours ago, offrhodes said:

Hi,

 

first, I'm not much of a guitar player (but do it anyway and have fun).

Here's my question: a couple of weeks ago I bought a dreadnought-size acoustic guitar, Takamine P1DC SM.

Today I stuffed a T-shirt inside and put in a rubber soundhole cover to reduce volume for home practice. Surprisingly, my wife commented that it sounds better and I noticed the same independently.

At home, this may be my living room which resonates badly below 50 Hz. But I took it outdoors, and still like the sound very much (might dial back a bit, though ... maybe change the XL T-shirt for M-size...)

 

Question: For purely acoustic sound, is it common to dampen a guitar? I've read opinions that dreadnought is already beyond the optimum size for balanced sound, and e.g. for drums, it's not unheard of to stuff in a blanket.

 

 

Well this is just one guy's experience of course, but fwiw, in what is rapidly approaching 30 years of gigging I've never once seen or even heard anyone discuss doing that...

[pianoguyy]

1. Different guitars have different tone (which is why we pick one over another), so maybe you simply bought the wrong guitar. 

 

2. The only reason I would ever consider doing this would be to cut down on feedback during live performances. But the guitar would have to have a pickup, because it would totally change the tone of a mic'd guitar.  

 

 

but, the first rule of music is ---- there are no rules. Do what you gotta do to make it work for you.