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Author Topic:  Are you bothered by the term "armpit guitar?"
Mike Perlowin


From:
Los Angeles CA
Post  Posted 12 Aug 2016 10:42 pm    
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I really dislike that term. Does anybody else feel the same way?
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John Booth


From:
Columbus Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 12 Aug 2016 11:11 pm    
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I dunno, I've been playing the armpit guitar since 1960
and the term just amuses me.
Jb
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Ian Rae


From:
Redditch, England
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 12:22 am    
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It's inelegant and neat at the same time. It describes a regular 6-string electric guitar without having to type all that. Armpits aren't nice but it could be worse.
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Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 4:17 am    
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I'd prefer 'axillary instrument' but it doesn't roll off the tongue as well.
I'd never heard of armpit guitar before joining this forum. I'm indifferent to it.
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Dick Sexton


From:
Greenville, Ohio
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 4:34 am    
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Yes.
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Tom Campbell

 

From:
Houston, Texas, USA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 5:34 am    
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Maybe "under-arm guitar"???
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Rick Barnhart


From:
Arizona, USA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 5:37 am    
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No more than when non-steel related forums refer to steel guitars as table steels, etc.
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Donny Hinson

 

From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 6:54 am    
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For over a hundred years, it's been referred to as "straight guitar", so I see no reason to change it now to a two-syllable slang term. What's next? Calling a ukelele a "little-bitty-titty guitar"? Laughing
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Michael Maddex


From:
Northern New Mexico, USA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 8:00 am    
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You got your classical guitar. You got your electric guitar. You got your lap guitar. You got your pedal steel guitar. You got your twelve-string flattop. You got your long-scale electric bass guitar. I could go on into next week, but you got your picture. 'Armpit guitar' seems unnecessary and redundant and more than a little gross to me. Language is a living, vibrant thing. I try to be nice to mine. Some people will go on abusing it long after we are gone. YMMV.
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Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 8:47 am    
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I'm sure not going to say armpit bass.
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Dave Mudgett


From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 9:19 am    
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Not that it matters - but as a guitar player, I don't like the term. The only place I've ever heard that term used is on this forum. To 99.999%+ of the world, it's a guitar - or if you feel the need to distinguish between steel guitar and guitar, it's "fretted", "Spanish", or even "standard" guitar as opposed to a "steel" or "Hawaiian" guitar. And yes, there are such things as fretless guitars, and someone who is into guitars normally describes them as "fretless guitars". The use of the frets to describe a "standard" guitar is an essential distinguishing feature of the way they're played.

"Armpit" is also, IMO, an inaccurate term. I've played guitar for most of my life (I'm in my 60s). I hold a guitar about as high on my chest as anybody I've ever seen - most guitar players these days tend to hang a guitar pretty low, well away from their upper chest entirely. But even my Firebird V, with its extended upper horn on the lower bout, doesn't contact my armpit.

I'm only saying something because the question was asked - feel free to completely ignore this. But next time someone gets in an uproar about the term "country" being applied to that brand of country music known as "modern country music", people who are sensitive about terminology might want to think about their own use of language. It is possible to find even accurate, yet tasteless, terminology for nearly anything. This does not make it a good idea, IMHO.
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Mike Perlowin


From:
Los Angeles CA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 10:14 am    
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We are all familiar with Gibson's terms "SG"ans "ES175 or 335"

SG stands for Spanish Guitar, and ES, for Electric Spanish. Here on this forum, we often use the term "6 string guitar," Which is at least an accurate description.

For some reason, the term armpit guitar really bugs me. I feel it's insulting to the instrument and it's players.
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Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 10:31 am    
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Maybe we can just say AG.
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Dave Mudgett


From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 10:44 am    
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While I agree with your general sentiment, Mike, Gibson's terminology was:

ES = "Electric Spanish" guitar
EH = "Electric Hawaiian" guitar
SG = "Solid Guitar", from the SG model
J = "Jumbo" (acoustic guitar)
SJ = "Super Jumbo"
and so on

Quote:
Maybe we can just say AG.

Charlie, you can call it anything you want. But a guitar is a guitar to pretty much the entire civilized world. If AG was used, it would probably stand for "Acoustic Guitar".
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Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 10:48 am    
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That works.
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Bryan Staddon


From:
Buffalo,New York,
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 11:17 am     Armpit.?
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I thought armpit guitar was when you stuck your hand under your pit and squeezed out smoke on the water!
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Wesley Medlen

 

From:
LaCygne,Ks
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 12:04 pm    
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I agree it doesn't sound good at all. Wes
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Jim Cohen


From:
Philadelphia, PA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 1:26 pm    
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I'm only offended by armpits that don't have guitars under them...
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Jim Fogarty


From:
Phila, Pa, USA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 1:54 pm    
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It's my main axe, and no, it absolutely doesn't bother me in the least. Considering it's kind of the dominant, ubiquitous instrument in Western music for decades, I think it can stand a little joshing.....
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Butch Mullen

 

From:
North Carolina, USA 28681
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 5:23 pm    
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no like
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David Duncan

 

From:
Highland Falls,New York, USA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 6:15 pm    
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I'm with Jim on this!
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Jim Cohen


From:
Philadelphia, PA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 6:18 pm    
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Which Jim?
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David Duncan

 

From:
Highland Falls,New York, USA
Post  Posted 13 Aug 2016 6:26 pm    
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You J.C., I do believe playing is good for the soul but I also understand Michael's revulsion to the term.
It's funny that it makes me think of Frank Zappa's song about parts of your body favorite or otherwise.
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Ben Elder

 

From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
Post  Posted 14 Aug 2016 11:15 am     Way down my list
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There's so much else to be troubled about.

If the term were used referring to me, I'd figure I'd dodged a bullet.
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David Mason


From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
Post  Posted 15 Aug 2016 1:47 am    
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I think, rather clearly, it's a childish, vituperative insult calculated to elevate all us cheese slicer players and ironing board players and string table players above and beyond all those ordinary thrashing, bashing simpletons, at least in our own childish and vituperative minds. Not being so equipped, I always call them UNDERARM guitars. Stylish and 62% less insulting. Very Happy Maybe 47.5%...?
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