peiplayer Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Do any of you guys put rattles in your guitars? What do they do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayla Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 I had a friend and bandmate who did, tho' I never understood why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blaster Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Many mandolin players used to put driied rattlesnake rattles in their mandolins. The lore being that it would discourage any spiders from crawling inside. Supposedly Black Widow spiders found the interior chamber of Gibson F5 mandolins very appealing. Of course you wouldn't want to be chopping on a mandolin and have the Black Widow come out of the F-hole very irritated and bite one of your fingers or knuckles.... Now you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayla Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Many mandolin players used to put driied rattlesnake rattles in their mandolins. The lore being that it would discourage any spiders from crawling inside. Supposedly Black Widow spiders found the interior chamber of Gibson F5 mandolins very appealing. Of course you wouldn't want to be chopping on a mandolin and have the Black Widow come out of the F-hole very irritated and bite one of your fingers or knuckles.... Now you know. Another good reason to not play mandolin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoss Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 It's Tradition to put a rattlesnake rattle in your fiddle. There's two lines of thinking for doing this- The Pragmatic reasoning is the rattle keeps spiders and mice from making your fiddle their home. Many old timers kept their fiddles hanging on a wall in a cabin or barn, and it's easy to imagine that unwanted residents would make their claim. The Superstitious reasoning is that fiddle music - and all that was associated with it- was morally wrong. Playing for dances let the devil into your life and the rattlesnake rattle kept you safe- sort of. (The other line of thinking here was that only the devil himself could play the thing right, so the rattlesnake rattle was used for inspiration.) In any event, it became tradition to have a snake rattle in your fiddle. I would never have one in my guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Yet another and another Good luck, especially if playing competitively. It imparts a unique harmonic resonance.... or so they say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobodeuno Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 It's said to provide good luck for your Gibson...but only if you killed the rattler yourself...First I heard of this novelty was back in 1968...when a Texan with a 45 sang for his dinner....he was on the road to Florida for the winter. Had a thousand songs in his head... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red 333 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 I had a friend and bandmate who did' date=' tho' I never understood why.[/quote'] Another reason fiddlers are said to put rattlesnake tails in their instruments is that the tail would resonate, producing a braying sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 My '56 SJ came complete with a rattlesnake tail inside it. While I assume it was to keep the mice out I spent alot of years living in the southwest corner of Mississiippi and learned not to mess with such things where Mojo or Old Scratch might be involved. So there it remains to this day. I know mandolin and fiddle players used to place rattler tails in their instruments. Some say it was for good luck others because they liked the sound - maybe it was an early form of distortion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 No I dont put a rattle in my Gibson, or any other guitar. What a silly idea. My rattle is in my fiddle where it belongs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballcorner Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Interesting stories - thanks for sharing everyone. Here in Nova Scotia we don't have rattle snakes, so I am not sure what people have been putting in their fiddles or guitars - but I will ask around and report back anything that is unique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 I don't like spiders and snakes and that ain't what it takes to love me. like I wanna be loved by you-oo wow, wow, wow wa wow wow, wow, wow, wow wow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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