Quote:
Originally Posted by Wade Hampton
......It's a subtle process, and it's obviously subtle enough that some people miss it entirely..........anyone who has been in a custom guitarmaker's shop when she or he first strings up a new guitar, as I have, will have heard the remarkable changes to the sound that occur within the first thirty minutes of the guitar being strung up.....
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It is
extremely subtle. I work as an acoustical engineer (34 years now) and it would be quite challenging to design the experiment to measure these tiny little differences. My ear is far better with subtleties of sound than the $30K analyzers and laboratory grade instrumentation microphones that I can access (these are specialty microphones that cost more than my guitars).
Once you have "data", quantifying the changes would be a further formidable challenge. Would a guitar be considered as "opened up" when there is a 3 dB increase in the third harmonic of a given string? What about the fifth or seventh harmonic, or a different forcing frequency (string pitch)? You brain is doing all of this signal processing subconsciously when you listen to and evaluate tone, you just cannot easily put numbers on your brain.
The closest analogy I can make is quantifying the fit of a new pair of sneakers, versus the same shoes well broken in months later. You might be able to quantify the pressure points or tightness at key areas, but
subjective comfort is in the eye (or foot) of the beholder.
Bob Taylor has stated in print many times that he hears three distinct differences in the tone of a guitar during its lifetime. In the
first hour, after about
two months, and again after about
ten years. I have personally experienced the latter two stages with guitars that I have owned.