About those magnetic arm rests ...
I actually went and built an armrest using magnets to hold the arm rest in place. The arm rest consists of two parts. The visible outer part--that crescent moon-y thing--and the matching internal crescent that I'll call the interior base. Some magnets were countersunk into the interior base; some are countersunk on the underneath of the actual arm rest on the instrument's top. The arm rest also had a lip on the outer edge to slip over the 90 degree seam around the circumference of the fretboard to keep it from sliding radially. Eventually I ended up with a total of 12 x 1/2" rare earth magnets.
The "success" part of the experiment was (1) it's beautiful without all that hardware and (2) that this construction held the armrest in place nicely. For playing. Even for adjusting a bit along the circumference. No prob.
The "qualified" part of the experiment? The arm rest has no visible means of support. That means it's a mystery why it sticks onto the top. It's an open invitation for someone to touch it. So if someone looks at the very stunning arm rest (heavily burled French polished Texas mesquite) and decides to kind of poke at it or pick it up, because none of us can look with only our eyes, the external arm rest detaches from the internal base. There are all kinds of metallic things in the interior of my Octave for that internal base to stick to: the truss rod nut, the tailpiece, etc., so it's not quite as easy as just turning the instrument over and shaking it out like you would a pick.
So I would say that my experiment was a brilliant qualified success. Which is kind'a like a, what would you call it? A failure.
belbein
The bad news is that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. The good news is that what kills us makes it no longer our problem
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