Dr. Herringbone Tone Traveler. (Review)

[Brushwood]

Originally Posted by DrHerringbone

Hey folks so glad guys are enjoying their Tone Travelers! As for alternate tunings feel free to use the note page. Kevinplarson shared a really really useful graphic with me that I am going to attach that shows the note names and numbers mapped out on the fretboard. It's pretty low res so I will revearse search it for the full res verison but it is still legible!

That being said...

D tuning would be:
D2 G2 C3 F3 A3 D4

DADGAD would be:
D2 A2 D3 G3 A3 D4

Eb would be:
Eb2 Ab2 Db3 Gb3 Bb3 Eb4

Also you will probably hear a little difference after the first 12-24 hours but the real magic window for big differences as far as we've seen is the 72-90 hour time period and then of course the just continue to get sweeter with age/play time (I wish I did too haha).

Best,

Isaac

So, just to be sure, the provided speaker sound/notes of the Tone Traveler can be changed from standard six string guitar tuning for those of us who use mostly alternate tunings like the examples listed here? There’s a way to do this tuning adjustment by using the provided tablet? I normally play my guitar tuned 1/2 step to 1 full step down and use a capo to bring it back up to standard or other tunings if needed is why I ask.

[wcap]

Originally Posted by Brushwood

So, just to be sure, the provided speaker sound/notes of the Tone Traveler can be changed from standard six string guitar tuning for those of us who use mostly alternate tunings like the examples listed here? There’s a way to do this tuning adjustment by using the provided tablet? I normally play my guitar tuned 1/2 step to 1 full step down and use a capo to bring it back up to standard or other tunings if needed is why I ask.

Indeed, there are 5 different "screens" to chose from. The first four (bowed, mando, guitar, and banjo) are preset for those instruments in their standard tunings (I have not checked out the banjo screen - I assume it is probably 5 string banjo in G tuning, but I don't know). It sounds like these preset programs also include major harmonics for each string, but I don't know which harmonics are included.

In the photo here in this link, you can see what the screen looks like when you click on "guitar":

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...e=sh/x/im/m1/1

In this mode you can turn on the tones for all strings, or any combination of particular ones if you don't want the tones for all the strings.

There is then the fifth "screen" you can click on, which is called "note". This is what you see in my photo here (you can see in my photo that when I took this photo I had the sound muted, so it did not blast out my ears while selecting the tones and taking the photo):

[IMG]Tone Traveler setup DADGAD with 5th 7th and 12th fret harmonics and four highest 9th fret harmonics IMG_20240123_214618493_HDR by wcap07, on Flickr[/IMG]

This allows you to select any combination of tones you want, up to a maximum of 16 tones at once. What I have here (I THINK - if I have not made mistakes) is the 6 primary tones for DADGAD tuning, along with the 5th, 7th, and 12th fret harmonics, as well as the harmonics for the 9th fret for the first, second, third, and fourth strings.

EDIT: I think I have the 9th fret harmonics set wrong above - oh well, the 9th fret harmonics are not very loud regardless, and probably don't influence the sound of an instrument a lot.

So, if you just want to use the Tone Traveler on a guitar (or any of the other three instruments) in standard tuning, it is simple. If you want to choose any other non-standard combination of tones, it is simple to do this as well (once you figure out exactly what notes you want - takes a slight bit of brain processing to sort out all the tones for the harmonics, if you want to include them).

With all the primary tones and harmonics running at once as I have things going right now in my little basement bathroom (with the door closed!), the sound is quite something in there, and my daughter is jokingly referring to the bathroom as my guitar house of horrors, or guitar torture chamber! I am preferring to call it my guitar training center, or perhaps my guitar finishing school!

[wcap]

Originally Posted by Brushwood

So, just to be sure, the provided speaker sound/notes of the Tone Traveler can be changed from standard six string guitar tuning for those of us who use mostly alternate tunings like the examples listed here? There’s a way to do this tuning adjustment by using the provided tablet? I normally play my guitar tuned 1/2 step to 1 full step down and use a capo to bring it back up to standard or other tunings if needed is why I ask.

I'm really not an expert here, but I'm thinking that if you normally play the guitar in standard tuning, but dropped down and then brought back up to standard pitch with a capo, you'd probably just want to tune the guitar to standard pitch (without the capo) while you run the standard guitar program on the Tone Traveler.

If you want to run it also in an alternative tuning (as I am currently doing in DADGAD) then you would tune your guitar to that tuning and choose those tones (and possibly also tones for the harmonics) on the Tone Traveler tablet using the "note" mode.

[BlueBowman]

Originally Posted by AcousticDreams

I am also of English/Scottish Cherokee & Mexican heritage( and probably a whole bunch of other stuff)

Many English names come from professions or descriptions of places.
As an example....Pete Townshend of the Who ( whom I personally consider a revolutionary acoustic guitarist with songs like Pinball Wizard and Behind Blue Eyes) The name comes for those who Lived at the Towns....End.

In your case:
"The Bowman surname lived under the Farquhar line in Scotland. The surname comes from the Middle English words boweman or bouman, which in turn derives from the Old English or Saxon words boga (bow) and mann (man)."
Also:
"English and Scottish: occupational name for an archer hunter or soldier armed with a bow from Middle English bow(e)man bouman (from Old English "

I do love that about English surnames! I always think of the English longbowman when my last name gets brought up. In my small part of the world, there's lots of English/Scottish/Cherokee heritage. Thanks for the info! "Townshend" and "Towns end" is interesting also.

So my Tone Traveler was just delivered. Fast shipping and delivery. And let me just say: wow, it's quite an impressive box. All the components are well-made, and the speaker is quite heavy (which makes sense). Looking forward to reading through the manual later and putting this bad boy into action

[Mike Buchman]

Originally Posted by Mike Buchman

NEVER MIND, I found the code and ordered. Thanks!

My TT arrived today, I charged it up and just ran out fur about 3 hours on my 23 year old Martin-00016SGT. I know there is a want-to bias, but I swear to God it sounds better already, fuller resonance, more chime, maybe louder. I am super excited about this!

[Racerbob]

I've had pretty good results with mine. Couple newish guitars responded very noticably. If nothing else "warms up" a guitar for playing after sitting around unplayed for some time.

[Brushwood]

Originally Posted by wcap

Indeed, there are 5 different "screens" to chose from. The first four (bowed, mando, guitar, and banjo) are preset for those instruments in their standard tunings (I have not checked out the banjo screen - I assume it is probably 5 string banjo in G tuning, but I don't know). It sounds like these preset programs also include major harmonics for each string, but I don't know which harmonics are included.

In the photo here in this link, you can see what the screen looks like when you click on "guitar":

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...e=sh/x/im/m1/1

In this mode you can turn on the tones for all strings, or any combination of particular ones if you don't want the tones for all the strings.

There is then the fifth "screen" you can click on, which is called "note". This is what you see in my photo here (you can see in my photo that when I took this photo I had the sound muted, so it did not blast out my ears while selecting the tones and taking the photo):

[IMG]Tone Traveler setup DADGAD with 5th 7th and 12th fret harmonics and four highest 9th fret harmonics IMG_20240123_214618493_HDR by wcap07, on Flickr[/IMG]

This allows you to select any combination of tones you want, up to a maximum of 16 tones at once. What I have here (I THINK - if I have not made mistakes) is the 6 primary tones for DADGAD tuning, along with the 5th, 7th, and 12th fret harmonics, as well as the harmonics for the 9th fret for the first, second, third, and fourth strings.

So, if you just want to use the Tone Traveler on a guitar (or any of the other three instruments) in standard tuning, it is simple. If you want to choose any other non-standard combination of tones, it is simple to do this as well (once you figure out exactly what notes you want - takes a slight bit of brain processing to sort out all the tones for the harmonics, if you want to include them).

With all the primary tones and harmonics running at once as I have things going right now in my little basement bathroom (with the door closed!), the sound is quite something in there, and my daughter is jokingly referring to the bathroom as my guitar house of horrors, or guitar torture chamber! I am preferring to call it my guitar training center, or perhaps my guitar finishing school!

Great info and thanks so much for providing this. I decided to give it a shot and order one and it’s supposed to arrive tomorrow. Btw, how about calling the little basement bathroom…”The Music Womb”. (Womb instead of Room…little play on words )

[BlueBowman]

I've had mine a few days. Jury is still out while I'm waiting for the 80-96 hour treatment on a guitar. I wanna give the TT a fair shake. We'll see.

[atticus1019]

Just got one in last week, left it on when I left the studio on Thursday and I’ll be back to it on Monday. A Martin d35 Seth Avett signature model whose alpine spruce top has always felt a little “tight” to me for lack of a better word. I’m interested to see what happens.

[gfspencer]

I bought a one-of-a-kind Martin small body 12-string. When I first got it it had all of the tone of a really cheap ukulele. I ran the Tone Traveler on it every night for 12 hours a night. It sounds great now.

[Timtamster]

There has not been much proper blinded scientific work comparing guitars "treated" with artificial vibration devices to control guitars not subjected to the same treatment. What work has been done is not encouraging to those who believe in the effect.
Clemens, B. M., Kadis, J., Clemens, D. M., Pollak, E., Clark, P., & Groves, J. R. (2014). Effect of vibration treatment on guitar tone: A comparative study. Savart Journal. https://www.savartjournal.org/articles/22/about.html

A broader review of the "playing in" effect in acoustic instruments is not really any more convincing.
Weldert, G. (2017). Sound enhancement of musical instruments by ‘playing them in’: Fact or fiction? Europiano, 3, 41–43. https://www.researchgate.net/publica...act_or_Fiction

I have not heard of any objective measurements done by those luthiers who take an engineering/measurement approach to assessing resonances/overtones in their builds, other than brief remarks to the effect that their guitars' measurements change in the first few hours after the guitar is first strung up, but not generally after that.

[DDW]

Always interesting the effect of double blind testing on a beautifully constructed theory.

[KevinH]

I cited that same article a year and a half ago:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=653435

because it seemed like an interesting study. But Alan Carruth pointed out that the study used vibration at a single frequency, 60 Hz, which is well below any relevant frequency on a guitar (the lowest resonant frequency is typically in the range of 80-100 Hz). A broader spectrum of vibration, like that you get from the Tone Traveler, or just sitting a guitar in front of a speaker, could be more effective. So I bought a Tone Traveler and did an experiment:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=682438

though not to nearly the detail in the referenced study. Nevertheless, I did see a change in the frequency response of the guitar and heard a change in tone. The Achilles heel of any such study is that it's difficult, perhaps impossible, to associate a particular change in the spectrum with a change in guitar tone, especially when the change is up in frequencies of hundreds of Hz or higher because there are so many resonant peaks. But seeing that a change did occur in a plausible frequency range after jiggling with the Tone Traveler gives me some confidence that the vibration did have an effect. It would be interesting to see a repeat of that study using a more relevant range of frequencies.

Originally Posted by Timtamster

There has not been much proper blinded scientific work comparing guitars "treated" with artificial vibration devices to control guitars not subjected to the same treatment. What work has been done is not encouraging to those who believe in the effect.
Clemens, B. M., Kadis, J., Clemens, D. M., Pollak, E., Clark, P., & Groves, J. R. (2014). Effect of vibration treatment on guitar tone: A comparative study. Savart Journal. https://www.savartjournal.org/articles/22/about.html

A broader review of the "playing in" effect in acoustic instruments is not really any more convincing.
Weldert, G. (2017). Sound enhancement of musical instruments by ‘playing them in’: Fact or fiction? Europiano, 3, 41–43. https://www.researchgate.net/publica...act_or_Fiction

I have not heard of any objective measurements done by those luthiers who take an engineering/measurement approach to assessing resonances/overtones in their builds, other than brief remarks to the effect that their guitars' measurements change in the first few hours after the guitar is first strung up, but not generally after that.