Guitar Supports: The Ergoplays and the Dynarette

Guitar supports have emerged as popular alternatives to the footstool because they allow the guitarist to keep both feet flat on the ground and thus keep the spine straight. This alleviates a lot of back-pain problems and some cases of pins-and-needles on the gluteus maximus. There are many players who are fine with the footstool. However, for many players like myself, a guitar support is the only way that we can practice and perform for extended periods.

I have four guitar supports: One Ergoplay Tröster (aka Troester to us English-speakers), two Tapperts and one Large Dynarette. These are the three most popular ones. My twitter friend Kwan Weng Kin was asking for feedback on the Ergoplays so I decided to put together this post.

These three supports are, in my opinion, the most stable. Unlike lower-bout supports like the Efel and the Gitano, there's no play or bounce in the neck. That stability makes them less portable though.

I'll describe the advantages of each in their sections below but you should note that all of these supports have common drawbacks which are:

• They're bulky and won't fit in your guitar case.
• They can slowly slip out of position when resting on certain pant fabrics like smooth-worn denim. They are more likely to slip if the height of your chair causes your thigh to slope downwards. This slippage can be prevented by placing a small strip of friction liner between the support and the fabric.
• Certain finishes will react from prolonged contact with the suction cups of the Ergoplays. This applies to any support that uses suction cups. It is recommended that your detach your Ergoplay after use from any guitar that has a French-polished or lacquer finish. You can leave it attached to guitars with polyurethane finishes.
  
• The Ergoplays' suction cups will not adhere well (or at all) to certain finishes. These include oil finishes, some French-polished surfaces, "natural" finishes, matte finishes and semi-gloss finishes. In general, if the guitar isn't buffed to a high gloss, the suctions cups either won't stick or they'll slide. The manufacturer provides clear smooth-surface adhesives that you can apply to your instrument. These will provide areas that the suction cups will stick to. I don't really like them.
  

I'm 5'7" tall so that should give you an idea of how these supports are fitting me. Each of these photos were taken with roughly the same distance between my knees.

In case you were wondering, I leave my Ergoplays attached to my instruments which are always hanging either on my walls or on my Hercules guitar stand. I like the the grab-and-play convenience.


The Ergoplay Tröster


This is my favorite support but it's also the most expensive. Some folks worry that the smaller surface area that makes contact with the thigh makes the Tröster less stable. It doesn't. The surface area is big enough and it's all that you need.



The Tröster is fully adjustable with two arms that can raise and angle both the upper bout and (to a lesser extent) the lower bout of the guitar. This allows you raise the guitar and fine-tune the neck angle so it's not too steep. As you can see from the photo, my Yamaha CG171SF's upper bout fully obscures the logo on my shirt yet it's neck is at a lower angle. I can reduce the slope of that angle even further if I wanted to.


The Ergoplay Tappert


I have two Tapperts and here you can see one attached to my Yamaha C40. It has a larger pad but only a portion of it makes contact with the thigh.


The Tappert has only one adjustable arm and it will raise and angle the upper bout. Raising it substantially will steepen the angle of the neck. This can be an issue for some tall players but the neck angle can be adjusted by reducing the distance between the player's knees (which will lift the lower bout). You can see the steeper angle of the C40 in my photo.

For most players, the Tappert is really all that they need. It's the more affordable of the two Ergoplay designs.


The Large Dynarette Cushion


I typically lug the Dynarette with me when I visit luthiers and guitar shops to evaluate new instruments. I don't want to be rude by sticking the Ergoplays' suction cups on fresh merchandise. The main advantage of the Dynarette is that its faux leather surface will not react to any finish. If you have a valuable instrument with a French polished finish and you care more about it than your playing comfort, this is what you might want to get.


The Dynarette works fine for instruments like my LaPatrie Presentation which has a semi-gloss finish. As you can see from the photo however, it sets the guitar lower than either of the Ergoplays; the logo on my shirt is visible. I tend to raise my heels when I use the Dynarette (or rest them on the rollers of my chair) just to get the guitar to the height that I prefer.

Your choice of a guitar support will depend on your body, your portability preferences, and your instrument height preferences. Hopefully this blog post has been of some help to you.