What does an old sock have to do with picking well?.......:)

[Swirly]

By the title you may be thinking what the hell is this lad on about. Well ill tell you...


I have been trying to get my speed up latly and been doing a lot of chromatics and notice that when wearing a t-shirt and having my arm exposed i come across this problem:

When my right hand (picking hand) is resting on the guitars body, just infront of the bridge i somtimes notice that my arm can become sweaty, or clamy. Normally this dosnt affect me, but i have began to notice that when playing, my arm restricts me from moving to the correct place in order for me to pick. By this i mean that, although i dont move my arm much when picking, i somtimes move my it ever so slightly up or down to help with the position of my hand, therfore picking better. But due to the clamminess of my arm the friction between my arm and the body is too much and i find myself not reaching the correct string.

Then i saw an old sock on the floor, hmm...how interesting i thought.So i descided to cut the tip off and slip the mofo on my arm, now my arm slides up and down the body.

Im not sure how many other people have experienced this, but it sure helped me.

And i have the bonus of having a Bart Simpson on my arm all the time...what more do you want i ask?

[Rabin]

An arm condom!
prevents lots of nasty things from happening and helps you get back and forth to your favorite positions!

[BucketBot]

I usually wear long sleeved t-shirts but I guess a sock will do.

[Swirly]

I was searching around for somthing long sleeved, but couldnt resist sticking a sock on meh arm

[Reaper]

I usually avoid playing with long sleeved shirts as I find it interferes with my picking. To each his own...

[BucketBot]

I started wearing long sleeved t-shirts because when playing live under the hot stage lights my arm would sweat a lot. It didn't really hamper my playing, I just found the piles of dried sweat on my guitar kind of disgusting.

[BrianH]

I've seen lots of guitarists use wrist bands for the same purpose. Can't say I've had that problem myself.

[VanWyck]

Armsock - functional, fashonable...

[Ving]

I used to use one of those 'tubey grip' thingys that is more generally used to support sprains or when doing high impact sports. It looked like I had an injury all the time though so I stopped using it.

My main guitar is now worn down to the paint through excessive sweat corrosion and it's smooth enough for it not to be a problem anymore

[dex]

Originally Posted by Ving

My main guitar is now worn down to the paint through excessive sweat corrosion and it's smooth enough for it not to be a problem anymore

If you mean that Hamer Californian, worn down to the wood would be a much better description.
And the exposed wood patch is not small either.

ilia

[Ving]

Originally Posted by dex

If you mean that Hamer Californian, worn down to the wood would be a much better description.
And the exposed wood patch is not small either.

ilia

Yeah, that's the one Ilia. I guess your description is a little more accurate

[PerpetualBurn]

heh, i didnt notice the wear n tear on it when i saw the thing... pretty cool axe tho... How did getting that custom guitar go?

R.Llexi.Leon

[Ving]

Hey Rob, I guess either my arm was covering it when I was playing it, or yours was when you were

The custom arrived a couple of weeks ago, and is currently back in the 'shop' having some modifications done to it, mainly pickup configuration at the mo, and maybe a slight neck-shave. Plays very well though...I went for a natural, almost unfinished wood finish so I don't have to go through the years of sweat to wear it down 'til it's smooth

I'll stick some picks up when it's 'finished'...