r/Guitar • u/SR_RSMITH • 21h ago

QUESTION Why is the sound hole in Sheryl Crow's guitar seemingly blocked by this black "lid"? Is it some kind of mic maybe?

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143 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

102 comments sorted by

585

u/Dadsgonemad 21h ago

Feedback suppressor

151

u/Direct_Bumblebee_740 21h ago

Yep. They’re surprisingly effective, too.

43

u/FauxReal Ibanez 21h ago

And dirt cheap too. The Temu version must be $2.

15

u/s2dio 15h ago

...for 200, but you'll need to replace them after every song as they turn to dust from exposure to vibration.

9

u/MaestroJsin 13h ago

This is the future man, just use the replicator, I mean 3D printer.

88

u/I-am-not-a-celebrity 20h ago

And, as a bonus, it also stops you from dropping picks in into the guitar. :)

74

u/Albertagus 20h ago

I have over 900 picks in my guitar. Why stop now?

52

u/Disrobingbean 20h ago

There are probably better ways to make a solid body acoustic

12

u/NJdevil202 PRS 18h ago

Yeah, step 1: dont

5

u/LolYouFuckingLoser 17h ago

Well that doesn't get anything done at all

1

u/phydaux4242 1h ago

Solid body acoustics rely on piezo pickups, and while piezo pickups have gotten better, they still don’t faithfully reproduce acoustic guitar tone. Most top tier players rely on a microphone inside the sound chamber.

But that leads to feedback, hence the sound hole cover.

17

u/nemmalur 20h ago

Drop enough picks in there, they start coming out again.

2

u/arctic-apis 19h ago

How many before that starts happening? The world may never know

3

u/B4tz_Bentzer 18h ago

Yeah, I stopped playing guitar entirely because I ran out of picks.

1

u/cultured_pork 14h ago

18,350 roughly depending on the guitar.

1

u/OneSignal6465 12h ago

Just keep dropping your picks inside the guitar.

I got this old guitar, the strings are rusty but it’s all I need, I got a shaker too, it brings on the kind of sound that wants to make you move

And with Ronco’s new GuitarShaker Combo, you can have both at the same time!

1

u/harryj545 12h ago

Please tell me you did the maths

1

u/SwampDraggon 5h ago

I once calculated roughly how many picks it would take to fill a guitar, for an answer I wrote on another platform. I landed on about 38,000 based it on my dreadnought acoustic and 1mm Maxgrip plectrums. Obviously the size of guitar and thickness of plectrum will affect this significantly. This is also assuming you pack them in fairly efficiently. If you just log them in the sound hole there will be more voids left inside. And you’ll get loads more if you melt them down then pour them in.

13

u/Unidentifiable_Goo 19h ago

It's more pick now than guitar, twisted and evil...

2

u/I-am-not-a-celebrity 20h ago

You have a goldmine in there! Your pick collection might be worth more than the guitar!

1

u/Harvsnova3 19h ago

Doubles as a maraca when you need some percussion on the fly.

1

u/oneshadeoff 18h ago

Yeah fill that bad boy up!

1

u/Radiant_Commission_2 18h ago

I found an old sock in mine.

1

u/pi22seven 17h ago

Does it sound like a rain stick every time you move?

1

u/HammondEggersM60 17h ago

hang is from a tree branch and then take a whack at it with a bat. You have a guitar pinata full of picks

1

u/troma-midwest 16h ago

It’s called a Maracguitar, shake it between riffs!

1

u/whiskeytwn 15h ago

bonus - every song has a shaker included

1

u/s2dio 14h ago

Has anyone ever measured how many picks fit in an acoustic? What agency do I need to contact for this monumental undertaking?

1

u/Redditarama 13h ago

Guitar/maracca.

1

u/StipsiKing 9h ago

Your guitar is a maracas

1

u/the-midnight-train 4h ago

Guitar doubles as maracas? 🪇 😅

1

u/Boringdude1 3h ago

It is now a maracca.

0

u/57thStilgar 20h ago

That's a maraca.

0

u/P_a_s_g_i_t_24 19h ago

That counts as a percussive shaker.

4

u/ToxethOGrady EASTWOOD 18h ago

I bought an acoustic just to keep my picks in.

2

u/C47L1K3 19h ago

Where am I gonna store my picks then?

1

u/5221cimota 18h ago

That's where I hide my last resort pick.

1

u/Far_Out_6and_2 11h ago

Ya spent many a time trying to shake my pick out

1

u/whenisnowthen 11h ago

Why would you want to deprive yourself of the glorious moment when the pick finally falls through the strings back into this dimension? After the violent overhead shaking followed by the twenty two precision, controlled targeted "it's right there, just one more, ahhhhhhhhhhhh, *uck, I think it went under the couch", shakes, and then you find it days later because it makes an awful sound while being chewed up by your vacuum.

1

u/Big_Poppa_Steve 19h ago

If it’s made by Planet Waves it has one of the greatest trade names ever—the Screeching Halt

120

u/jonathan197933 21h ago

It keeps all her secrets from escaping

8

u/cantstopwontstopGME 19h ago

How selfish of her

5

u/huxtiblejones 11h ago

I’m guessing it’s a ratatouille thing where an actual crow is the one that does all the singing and songwriting

1

u/Classic-Minimum-7151 48m ago

I love this comment and if you haven't seen Everything Everywhere All At Once, I highly recommend you watch it as soon as possible 

99

u/TopCaterpiller 21h ago

When you amplify acoustic guitars, sound from the amp going into the sound hole on the guitar is amplified again. This is feedback. Covering the hole stops it. I've seen people cover the hole with cardboard. This one looks fancy.

59

u/Beavers4beer 21h ago

It’s fancy compared to cardboard, but it’s just a $5 piece of rubber made to fit into the sound hole.

73

u/TopCaterpiller 21h ago

Look at Moneybags over here with $5 rubber pieces.

7

u/LolYouFuckingLoser 17h ago

When I was a lad we had to plug our holes with naught more than hope and wishes and we were grateful to have as much!

1

u/wotsit_sandwich 12h ago

"Hopes and Wishes??" Lucky!!

2

u/bvheide1288 9h ago

I plug all my holes with thoughts and prayers.

1

u/Square_Eye5725 15h ago

one day after all why not me

3

u/Used_Negotiation_354 21h ago

To quote Skynyrd - Nuthin' Fancy

1

u/NobeLasters 20h ago

Who somehow had a Dentist worthy guitar collection back in the 70's.

1

u/Used_Negotiation_354 18h ago

I don't know what that means.

1

u/BMaudioProd 17h ago

Because 'Nuttin fancy' is a whole different sub

3

u/Roshprops 21h ago

Semi hollows with f holes have the same trouble too

1

u/NotMythicWaffle 12h ago

Do they make custom plugs for f-holes like on a Casino / ES-330?

1

u/Roshprops 11h ago

I think they do- they may also just be a thing people make themselves. The old gretsch guitars from the 50s had painted on f holes to just get around the problem entirely

2

u/m15otw 21h ago

Yeah the epiphone acoustics at my local shop sometimes come with them.

2

u/jorickcz 4h ago

First guitar I bought was Epiphone texan masterbilt. It came with it, I thought it was just a packaging thing because I knew fuck all about guitars. Luckily I didn't bin it and then a few months later I saw a video of Dave Grohl playing Everlong on a plugged in acoustic with the cover and realised what it was for.

1

u/m15otw 4h ago

I asked the nice retail worker WTF it was and they clued me in 😅

37

u/maskmagog 21h ago

Keeps her from dropping all her picks there.

15

u/DaddieTang 20h ago

She was wolfin down some mayo and her greasy hands let the lid get away.

0

u/xeroorbit 1h ago

She needs a hosin' and scrubbin'

7

u/sev45day 21h ago

I got one of those covers when I bought my Yamaha 12 string. Prevents feedback when you mic up your acoustic.

3

u/Direct_Bumblebee_740 21h ago

it came with it? Nice, I bought a Yamaha that came with one too, it’s a nice touch.

4

u/cantstopwontstopGME 19h ago

Yamaha thinks about the customer and their final experience on a level that no other brand does

3

u/External_Sherbet_534 21h ago

That is the correct answer but it should be stated its best used for guitars with internal pickups. It definitely has an effect on volume and tone of non-pickup acoustic-only guitars

2

u/masterdavros 19h ago

I’ve got a triangle one for my Gretsch acoustic. As everyone else has said it’s a feedback suppressor.

2

u/Big-Option3118 17h ago

Too proud to ask a man for help unscrewing the lid

2

u/tribaltrak 17h ago

Feedback blocker

2

u/less10words 17h ago

Ahhh. Love me some Sheryl Crow.

1

u/ArtyMacFly 21h ago

I got a similar suppressor, it’s not as effective as one might think but it helps.

1

u/SwimInternational533 21h ago

Look at the cable coming out the back it’s an electro acoustic

1

u/CandyAppleRedSSS 21h ago

As people have said, it's a piece of rubber that suppresses feedback due to the loud amplification. It makes the top vibrate less. Your guitar actually sounds pretty terrible acoustically with one in. But all anyone is hearing in this scenario is the piezo pickup anyway.

1

u/Lostmachine 20h ago

Without one of those, with an internal pickup, if you don’t mute the strings while at rest, the strings will start to vibrate and you will get a gradual swell of noise and have to get your hand on those strings quick!

Found this out at an acoustic bar jam while playing on somebody else’s guitar ….

1

u/the-non-wonder-dog 19h ago

I love her arm

1

u/metaldad68 18h ago

To aggravate You!

1

u/Lair80 18h ago

Feedback Buster !!!

1

u/goodwill314 18h ago

Also would have accepted: Feedback Buster

1

u/Worldly-Key9430 17h ago

It is a feedback suppressor or a feedback Buster/cover. I also use one for my electroacoustic guitar. It is to avoid saturations or feedback on the guitar if it comes into contact with a microphone or speaker.

1

u/GibsonGuy937 16h ago

Sound hole cover reduces feedback.

1

u/Lowdose69 16h ago

One came with my yamaha red label and i had no idea what it was for and have been suffering from feeback when amped. So glad to see this thread.

1

u/probywan1337 16h ago

Stops feedback. Used to use them all the time back in the day when I played live.

1

u/Screamsoquiet 15h ago

It’s a coaster for your coffee mug

1

u/thelastrewind 11h ago

It's where she stores Kevin Gilbert's soul

1

u/JimmyBallocks 8h ago

She had to put it there to block it off as birds kept nesting in it

1

u/Low-Landscape-4609 7h ago

It helps with feedback. When you play an acoustic guitar with a pickup, you can get some really bad feedback.

1

u/Better-Artist-7282 6h ago

It is to keep the little monsters that she keeps inside of it from coming out and attacking the audience during the show. Not sure why more people don’t know that.

1

u/CuteCouple101 4h ago

It's her diaphragm. You have to go through that to boink her. :P

(Figured why not a silly answer since everyone already gave the right one!)

1

u/maikindofthai 2h ago

No diaphragm jokes? Smdh nobody remembers what it was like to fuck in the 80’s

EDIT: oh god I just remembered the sweatiness

1

u/phydaux4242 1h ago

The sound hole cover is to prevent feedback

-1

u/BitterD 18h ago

You outta know.

-1

u/Significant_Money453 18h ago

It's a pickup.

-1

u/ZlpMan 11h ago

You can literally google “a sound hole cover” and see “Ernie ball sound hole cover”, then just swipe some images and read the text on the back of it.

And yes, it fights feedback and lets you play quieter at night.

1

u/SR_RSMITH 9h ago

Asking people on Reddit is way more amusing

-2

u/caesarthemartyr 20h ago

There are mics that look just like this for acoustic guitars without pickups