Armrests on Guitars: The Laskin Armrest and the Ryan Bevel
The Laskin Armrest
The advent of armrests on modern acoustic guitars begins with the superb Canadian luthier and inlay artist (he plays wonderful English pipes too!), William Grit Laskin. In the late 1980s a client of Grit’s mentioned how uncomfortable he found the edge of the lower bout as it dug into his arm. The customer asked Grit whether he could somehow break the corner of the guitar and thereby alleviate the pressure on his forearm. Grit asked how far he wanted him to go, and the customer gave him free reign. The result was the Laskin armrest, an example of which we see to the left. The first “Armrest©” was completed in 1989. Grit subsequently executed the design on the back of the guitar in his “Rib rest©.”