The ToneRite

[simonallaway]

I happened to see this on Stewmac.com:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Accessories/ToneRite/ToneRite.html

It sounds like cork-sniffery to me. I'd love to see the results of a double-blind test.

Opinions?

[John]

What if I strap to my .... uhh, never mind. 

[tubesornothing]

" The intensity of vibration can be controlled by a convenient dial on the power cord. The manufacturer recommends an initial usage of 72 hours, with subsequent usages to maintain and further "open up" the response of the instrument"

I don't doubt its effectiveness,  we see the same thing with speaker break in.  An option is to just play the guitar for 72 hours.  Not only will it sound better, but the practise cant hurt.

[G._Hoffman]

I don't doubt its effectiveness...

I do.


In fact, I question the basic theory behind it.  Old guitars that have been played do, in fact, sound better than new guitars.  But so do old guitars that have never been played.  And frankly, double blind tests are useless for this stuff.  There are WAY too many variables in guitars to be able to make that kind of a test work. 

More to the point, the fastest change in the sound of a guitar comes in perhaps the first 24 hours or so after it has been strung up.  This is something you will never quite get to hear if you aren't building it yourself.  Most guitars, when they are first strung up, are really tight sounding.  But as they sit there under string tension, they change - even if you don't play it.  24 hours latter, they are a LOT more open sounding. 

So no, I don't think these things are worth the money.



Gabriel

[bluesbear]

I don't know about this particular product but an acoustic guitar does sound better the more it is played. There is a great way to do exactly what this product says it does. Set your guitar on a stand facing and about 6" from a stereo speaker. Play a variety of music for several days on the stereo. The guitar is now broken in. Easy!
Dave

[G._Hoffman]

I don't know about this particular product but an acoustic guitar does sound better the more it is played. There is a great way to do exactly what this product says it does. Set your guitar on a stand facing and about 6" from a stereo speaker. Play a variety of music for several days on the stereo. The guitar is now broken in. Easy!
Dave

Or better yet, play your guitar!


Seriously, I don't buy any of these ways of "artificially" aging guitars.  They are just snake oil.  The thing that makes a guitar sound better is time, and you can't fake it.  Woods dry out, finishes keep off-gassing, and shaking your guitar quite simply doesn't effect any of that.  Any benefit from playing is always best achieved by actually playing your guitar.


Gabriel

[simonallaway]

Seriously, I don't buy any of these ways of "artificially" aging guitars.  They are just snake oil.  The thing that makes a guitar sound better is time, and you can't fake it.  Woods dry out, finishes keep off-gassing, and shaking your guitar quite simply doesn't effect any of that.  Any benefit from playing is always best achieved by actually playing your guitar.

Thought so. I needed your confirmation, Gabriel. The guy that taught me all the luthiery I know (not that much) used to site Stradivarius violins as an example of this, but I'd counter with that very same argument as yours. The wood dries out over the years and the fibers simply don't move anymore.

I'd also posit that the sound of a freshly built guitar, and it's apparent softening over the short-term is simply the effect of strings/saddle/neck settling in under tension.

[G._Hoffman]

Well, the Stradivarius thing is complicated.  Unquestionably, the age of the instruments is a big part of their sound.  He was an exceptionally gifted violin maker too, and that is a big part of it.  But every single Stradivarius violin in existence has had its neck replaced.  Or at least every one that is in use in a professional orchestra.  (Back in the late 1800's, Paganini popularized a longer violin neck, which has become the absolute standard since then.)  They are also all hundreds of years old, so they have all had major repair work done to them - and the violin world doesn't have the same level of the "cult of originality" that the vintage guitar world has. 

And then, of course, is the expectations that people bring to a Strad.  Are his violins REALLY that much better than any other builder of that time?  Probably not enough that they should cost double or triple what another excellent contemporary violin costs.  But, just as the Gibson, Fender and Martin names command a premium for guitars, Stradivarius demands a premium for violins.  I mean, what other Violin makers names can you think of?  The only one I can think of is Bussotti, and that's fictional!  (The Red Violin - great movie!)  Now, part of that cost difference is because a Stradivarius (or a Gibson, Fender, or Martin) is a much better investment for a collector, because it will hold its value better - which has nothing to do with how it sounds (I've played some 1930's Martin's that were dogs - woof!) - but the perception that they are somehow sound better is out there, and is pretty tough to get rid of, and not without reason; they are all excellent examples of their type.  So I think a part of those brands popularity is to do with people either not trusting - or not using - their ears, so they want to rely on other people's perceptions, or to rely on the fact that they've always been told "Stradivarius is better!"

But age does make a difference, and it continues making a difference for as long as the oldest instruments I've ever tried.  They keep drying out, they keep moving, and they keep sounding better and better.  Drier is the only word that I can come up with for it, but its a great thing!



Gabriel

[bluesbear]

"I mean, what other Violin makers names can you think of?"

Amati, for one.
On another note, when I was 15 or 16 years old (in the mid '60's), the gentleman who lived across the alley from us was the stringed instrument repair tech for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He lived with his sister who was a good friend of my mother's so we were in and out of the house. He owned many stringed instruments but what I noticed was his honest-to-God Stradivarius guitar. Stradivarius made about 20 in all. It was 5 courses of pairs, as was the style at the time. I've played '59 Les Pauls, ES-295's, and Lonnie Mack's Flying V... through his Magnatone but the real "Holy Grail" experience for me was playing that Stradivarius. I wonder what happened to it.
Dave