Armrest on rigel?

[littvay]

Hello everyone.

Has anyone had any success putting armrests on Rigels? How about putting both a Tone-Gard and an armrest? I just got a G-110 and I am toying with the idea. I am a big fan of armrests (and Tone-Gards).

L

[John Flynn]

No actual success, but I looked into it. A carpenter's jack-style armrest won't work because of the rounded sides on the Rigel. The Weber style won't work because of the Rigel tailpiece design. The only thing that looked like it would work is the John Pearse armrest design. It sticks on with an adhesive. Pearse sent me some paper profiles of their armrests. Their "junior" size seems to be pretty close to an acceptable fit on a Rigel.

http://www.jpstrings.com/braccess.htm

Having said that, even though I like armrests on traditional mandos, I finally decided the Rigel doesn't really need an armrest. The edge isn't sharp, the way the Rigel is designed you almost can't get your arm on the vibrating area of the top when you are playing and the Rigel finish stands up to anything your arm can put on it and cleans off easily. All the reasons I like armrests just don't apply to the Rigel, IMHO.

[littvay]

Considering I would never stick anything on my Rigel... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif but thanks...

And you might be right. It is not sharp, the spruce top starts further in, so you are not holding down vibration as much as on a regular build mando. I would not want to swap the tailpiece out, so that is not an option either.

[wsm]

You might want to talk to the guy who makes the tone gard and see if he can build you a tone gard with a partial cage/rest on the front side.