Eliminating pick slap noise at soundhole

[spantini]

I play guitar and bass with a Fender Thin pick. I've used Medium picks to eliminate some noise problems, but I always return to Thins. I don't finger pick guitar, but I do finger pluck the bass when called for. I've been having a problem while strumming my acoustics - on the downstrokes, my pick will occasionally slap the opening edge of the soundhole or the pickguard as I come off the high-E string and make a noticeable "tick" sound which is audible to the ear. This is also very audible to my AT2020 XLR mic when recording. Sometimes I get enthusiastic in my strumming and this "tick" can get pretty loud and, on playback, very sharp and irritating. I can edit these out and it's not a big deal if there are only a few of them, but sometimes there may be a dozen or more. At that point, I'd prefer to prevent them somehow - just make it easier altogether.

Altering my strumming does work, but I find I have to focus 100% of the time and that prevents me from performing the song as it should be. So today I had an idea to put either cloth or felt on the pickguard around the lower soundhole opening. I haven't done that yet, I need to buy the materials first.

I see there are small sheets of felt with self-adhesive backing - peel and stick. This seems ok but can it be easily removed later..? Maybe I can just line the inner edge of the soundhole, the thickness of the top, and not have it outside on the pickguard itself..? One thing about this. . . this is for my Taylor Big Baby and the pickguard doesn't come to the edge of the soundhole, it stops about 1/2-inch from the hole. I'm not really sure at this point whether my pick's "ticks" are coming from the edge of the soundhole, the immediate guardless ring surrounding the hole, or the pickguard itself. I'll need to experiment with placement.

I'm not looking forward to attaching any kind of self-adhering material to the pickguard as it may not be easy to remove. I could buy a duplicate pickguard, cover that and use some sort of less aggressive adhesive to overlay it onto the existing pickguard.

What a mess, eh..?

 

[Old Music Guy]

Hey Zeus Christie, here we go again.
Have you ever thought of playing another instrument? Like maybe air guitar?

 

[R D Smith]

I was using a thin pick for a while and it and my poor technique were causing a lot of noise problems. Maybe you strum harder with a thin pick to get the same sound as a heavier pick? Anyway, a buddy turned me on to Ernie Ball Everlast .60mm picks and it was like night and day. Most pick noise went away and they are not overly stiff. I have tried the thinner Everlast picks but start having noise issues again, the .60mm seems to be a happy median.

 

[spantini]

I went to Wal-ly World this morning (6 AM !) and found some very thin 9x12 felt sheets - perfect for what I have in mind. I didn't buy one because I hadn't found a temp adhesive for it. Found the adhesive when I returned home - let's you reposition after drying. I'll pick them up next trip.

Most of my guitar strumming is very light, I barely hold the pick. Switching to a heavier pick, I maintain the light grip and when I strum a bit harder or don't attack the strings just right, the pick flips out of my fingers - like tiddly winks. Medium or hard picks eliminate the noises but I lose the feel of my strumming.

When I use a thin pick on bass, I choke up on the pick so there's barely any of it protruding. I do that because I go at it hard, fast and heavy on a lot of material - break a lot of picks on bass.

One thing I've been doing while recording my acoustic is to use my single mic (AT2020) at the 12th fret. The thin pick's string slap is less of a problem on playback. The soundhole/pickguard "tick"ing is still too much.

 

[rob aylestone]

This isn't strange at all. many players learn a certain style that works for them that later cause issues. I record sax and clarinet players and some have learned a really strange technique where their finger tips remain off the keys and then they press them quite forcefully, which creates a noise when they touch the pad, then a further one when the pad seats. A sort of double note that get recorded and is not something you can sort out in a DAW. Often recordists ask them not to play like that which gets a 'spock eyebrow' - and the player just cannot do it. Same with the guitarist with the thick picks who don't slant them. Loads of nasty bangs. You cannot change your technique just because a recordist asks you to. I remember a violinist who always breathed out on the down bows creating a sort of whoosh. The pad spantini mentions is a good solution. Old music guy seems to have a very short put-up-ability with this kind of stuff, but over the years I've had to be creative loads of times, and not once was the problem really the players - they do what they do. We just record it the best we can. Telling a pianist to not use the sustain pedal because it creaks just won't fly.

 

[Old Music Guy]

Old music guy seems to have a very short put-up-ability with this kind of stuff,

I'm not an ogre.

 

[60's guy]

There are many pricey options available.

 

[spantini]

Here's where I'm at :

I went to Wal-ly world and picked up a small, thin sheet of green felt. They had all colors and I think this hunter green looks best with the Taylor's wood.

Then I scooted over to the next aisle and picked up a bottle of Tacky Glue. The online description says it can be repositioned but the bottle says it's permanent. It was less than $1, so I bought it with the idea of experimenting on different surfaces to see if it was suitable.

I took a sheet of copier paper, laid it over the pickguard and traced the outline with a gel pen. Then I cut it out, adding about .5 inch to the inside curve of the soundhole because the pickguard stops that distance from the hole. This will allow it to cover up to the edge, and maybe a hair over the soundhole when finished.

I laid the cutout template over the felt sheet and traced the outline with the same gel pen.

I cut out the felt, staying just proud of the lines. Then with a scrap piece of felt, I tested the adhesive on the pickguard. I applied a single drop to the felt and gently pressed it onto the pickguard. I let it sit for 2 hours. It pulled off easily but the adhesive hadn't fully set, so there was a loose pasty gob left on the pickguard which wiped off easily with no residue. Not wanting to just apply adhesive to the whole felt and apply it - letting it sit overnight - not knowing how it would turn out, I experimented with other surfaces. The first was the clear plastic cover of a package of 9V batteries. It's very smooth and, hopefully, not porous. A small piece of felt with a single drop of adhesive was placed onto the clear, flat surface and left to cure for 4 hours. That worked perfectly. Peeling the felt off revealed a nice, clear, flat pad of adhesive on the felt and zero on the plastic. It released easily, was tacky and when reapplied, it adhered nicely. BINGO! Then I needed to find a similar, much larger surface which I could use to apply the whole felt cutout. I found the lid of a small Sterilite storage box was just the right size.

I wiped the lid surface with plain tap water, then dried with several paper napkins. I applied adhesive to the back of the felt cutout - some perfect dots, some uneven strips - and placed it on the lid, gently but evenly pressing all areas.

 

[spantini]

Continued from Post #8

This time, I left it overnight - 12 hours. Before removing, I flipped the lid over to examine the adhesive spots. Some were visible, some not so much. Most of them dried clear.

Looked good to me, so I carefully peeled it off (released very easily) and placed it over the Taylor's pickguard. It adheres beautifully. Perfectly tacky.

I played around on it some and didn't get any pickslap or loud 'tick' noises. I could feel the felt as the topside of my strumming fingers stroked across on downstrokes. The only problem I might possibly have (maybe) could come on some returning upstrokes. Going down, my fingers and pick go beyond the edge of the felt and coming back up may (or not) catch the edge - won't know if this will tend to pull the felt away or not - we'll see. I can always make another which extends lower.

 

[Old Music Guy]

Very ingenious. I admire your persistence.
Unfortunately, you just reduced the resale value of your Taylor to a Goodwill find. Not to mention gluing a putting green on your guitar will have an effect on the resonance of the solid spruce top.
But, who am I to judge. I've done worse things in my life.