Pickguards on archtops affect DWPS?

Playing Technique
#1

I’ve got a question about how pickguards affect picking slanting on archtop guitars. Archtop guitars and acoustic guitars generally have more space between the body and the strings - most archtop pickguards I’ve seen lift off of the body and reduce the distance between where your hand is planted and the strings. I have a few archtop guitars that are missing the pickguard and I feel like DWPS is a little harder on these because I have to prop my fingers on the body of the guitar to achieve DWPS - but I’m not totally sure. I generally feel like DWPS is easier on a solid body like a strat but these guitars usually have lighter strings and are easier to play in general for whatever reason.

So, any ideas? Does not having a pickguard on an archtop make it hard to achieve DWPS or are there more factors involved/it depends? Also, I’m no DWPS master so that could be factor…

thanks!

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#2

The Les Paul we have here has a carved top and that old-timey tail-fin style pick guard. No influence that I can think of, at least not negatively.

Guitar bodies in general exert an influence in terms of where the arm is anchored, and the position the forearm is in when it does so. This is the more (pardon me) overarching effect of body shape on technique. Again, not positive or negative but you may end up with slightly different form on different instruments as a result.

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