What's Up With The Rattlesnake Rattles?

What's Up With Musicians Who Put
 Rattlesnake Rattles In Their Acoustic Instruments?

      There seems to be a long-standing aura connected with musicians playing acoustic instruments that are holding deep within certain talismans that are the rattles from a common rattlesnake.

     I have occasioned this curious practice living in North Carolina and I have wondered if the tradition goes back to origins in other countries. Rattlesnakes are indigenous only to the parts of the Western Hemisphere. So this may indicate an origin amongNative American Indians.

      I have seen the topic discussed in forums giving many conflicting theories andexplanations for the hard-core believers in the efficacy of having rattlesnake rattles insidetheir traditional acoustic stringed instruments.

      Some of the purposes given seem reasonable and some quite nonsensical to me.

1. To make it project a better sound
2. To keep spiders and mice away
3. It's my good luck charm
4. It is a symbol of male machismo and domination of dangerous forces
5. It vibrates and gives a tingle the sound to the music played
6. All of the professionals use them
7. They give a percussive accompaniment like a shaker
8. We do it because we want to! It is a tradition
9. It cleans the inside of dust and cobwebs

     A while back I myself became the owner of an old guitar that had belonged to my step-father. I knew from occasional picking sessions that there had been three or four 
of the rattles inside. I could not believe that they could make a discernible difference inthe tone or the volume when the instrument was being played.  

    
      I thought it best to take advice from some of the old-timers who engage in the rattlesnake rattle frenzy.

      The expert and professional pickers if there might be any would surely have the most accurate information on the subject.  According to some it is a common practice with mandolins and fiddles.

     The leading expert might be Bill Monroe of Bluegrass fame. His belief was utilitarian in that his mandolin was sporting the rattles in the hope of attracting the dust inside and providing adeeper clarity and sweeter sound.

       There seems to be evidence that static electricity is produced by the movement of a snake's body that creates friction and a static electric current that cannot be dispelled from the body as do creatures that have bodies of hair or feathers.   

    A snake uses the electrical charge for sensory detection of approaching prey, for navigation and preservation of energy.

     The rattle distracts an attacker's attention away from the vital organs and protects by alerting a stranger of it's own peril.

    The rattles it seems generate static electric charges whether they are detached, dead or connected to a living specie. So it is quite feasible that the old-timers had their information correct from the inception of the tradition they had created. 

   It is scientific whether it came from Indian lore or old wive's tales.and cobwebs but that would indicate to me a very dusty environment in someone's habitat.

   Then you have the problem of having a couple of dusty rattles inside your instrument.I think my preference would be storing my instrument in clean case. 

I removed the rattles from from my step-father's guitar. it seems quite pleasant without them and their dusty clutter.