Acoustically silent build advice, please?

Posted by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on January 11, 2016 at 6:27pm

After what I personally deem the success of my last build (images of the finished article are available on my page) I'd quite like my next build to be as acoustically silent as possible. I live in a downstairs apartment and English law has a noise abatement rule, that's for the large part unenforced, after 9pm. I'd like to, if possible, use some wooden crutches to make the build personally relevant to me as someone with a mobility disability. I'm pretty sure I've seen a build using them before but for the life of me I can't remember where I saw it to ask the person for advice.

So, what are the secrets to an acoustically silent, or as near to, build? What type of pick up would I need for this? Are there any pitfalls of using wooden underarm crutches that I need to be careful of? I'd have thought the bracing strength wouldn't be great so will use ultra light strings to hopefully avoid any issues. Any other advice?

All offers of help are hugely, massively, incredibly appreciated and thanks go out to you in advance.

Dani :)

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Replies

  • Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear January 12, 2016 at 5:26am

    Thank you all so much for the help. I'm going to try and get some bits for the crutch guitar as soon as possible and get building it thereafter. Meanwhile I've got the new build to enjoy playing :D Being one of those poor aspiring blues players though it's a choice between some of the bits for build number five, the crutch guitar, or an amp with overdrive so I can enjoy the others lol. My uke amp is sooo massively clean it's going in for a sainthood! haha

    Choices, choices, choices!

  • Thomas "Duck" Petry January 12, 2016 at 1:22am

    As everyone else has said, Solid body should work well.  The open crutch should work well too.  What you are looking for is something that won't reflect the sound generated by the strings.  If you were to take a normal cigar box and build it with no sound holes and fill it with silicone it would probably work, but would be rather heavy.  Just think of building a guitar with just a neck and no body.  Probably work as well, but something like a telecaster without a pickup should be pretty quiet.

  • MadGomer January 11, 2016 at 10:52pm
    Yes, what Wayfinder and the others have said, either totally solid or totally open would work for you, and I'd use a mag pickup and headphones to enjoy it in my own little world. You could certainly make a wooden crutch work,just need a little cross bracing to mount pickup, bridge, and tailpiece perhaps. Great concept! I just went to Google Images and typed in "crutch guitar", lots of examples to review.
  • Robert Killen January 11, 2016 at 8:00pm

    Either go solid as Wayfinder suggested, or go open-air like Lane's link. Another open-air concept was this years Halloween contest winner: 306517652?profile=original

    Good luck!

  • Lane Martin January 11, 2016 at 7:26pm
    Google "circuits and strings". I believe he built a ukulele out of a crutch. You could get ideas there.
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