Dr. Herringbone Tone Traveler. (Review)

[Newbflat]

OP here with an update. I had my H&D TOM-M on the Tone Traveler for 48 hours and I did hear results. The notes are fatter/richer and there is a slight volume increase, plus some subtle overtones that weren’t there before. But the biggest increase is sustain, it definitely rings longer. It made a really nice sounding guitar sound a little better, but It’s not nearly as dramatic a change as in the TD-R though. The TD-R is like a different guitar than before. The TOM-M was also a better sounding guitar from the get go though. I didn’t really have any complaints about it unlike the TD-R. I’m pleased and I will put it back on the TT at some point soon.

I noticed that some of the shimmer and plethora of overtones in the TD-R seemed to be drifting away, or at least I thought they had started too. I noticed it after it hung on the wall over night. I played it over a couple of days and it was definitely loosing the new found plethora of overtones, or were the strings just loosing there edge!?. I’m using the word “plethora” because it was almost an artificial level sparkle/ shimmer and unfocused overtones. Like really bright new strings on the first strum. It also seemed to make it somewhat more fussy about tuning, tiny differences seem to really stand out easily sounding out of phase with the next string. It was too much really, I was glad that part was fading somewhat. It had a bit of an artificial sound. But everything else seems to be about where it was with lots of new sustain and a big the increase in openness and richness. Also a midrange bump that sounds better now that the overtones have taken a step back.

Out of curiosity I put it back on the TT with the same strings to see if the zingy overtones would come back. I left it on for 24 hours checked it this morning and they are back, not as much but there again. It was only on the TT for 24 hours and not 96 hours like before so I suspect that might have something to do with it. I’m going to leave it on for another 24 hours and see what happens and see how quickly the zing fades away.

On a side note, the very first thing I noticed today when I took the first big G strum was how much the neck shook. I literally don’t remember it doing that, or at least not like that!. It shook and I could really feel the frequencies oscillating threw the neck. I’m not saying that It didn’t do that before but man was it pronounced this morning. It’s something I would have noticed before but didn’t… so I’m just not sure if it’s new or not.

I’m really interested in how long these improvements last. If it will drift back to where it was over time? Since I rotate between 4 guitars will I need to have the next guitar on sitting humming away to get the best out of it? I’m getting this feeling when I take a guitar off the TT that they are high strung and primed just itching to vibrate, maybe too much so, and then they relax a bit over a day or so. That’s something I will have a better feel for over time.

Anyway, I will up date again in a few days.

[TedBPhx]

I wonder if the TT is vibrating the dirt, dead skin, and other detritus off the wound strings effectively cleaning them and making them zing new.

[Newbflat]

Originally Posted by TedBPhx

I wonder if the TT is vibrating the dirt, dead skin, and other detritus off the wound strings effectively cleaning them and making them zing new.

Maybe, I’m not one to have string issues. My fingers aren’t toxic like my friends are. The strings were newish-ish and honestly I just don’t get that feeling. As I mentioned above, when you take the TT off, the whole guitar it just seems kind of hyper sensitized, it’s just kind of zinging . Over 24 hours or so it seems to relax a little… at least that’s how it seems at the moment.

[DrHerringbone]

We couldn't agree more about when a guitar first comes off the Tone Traveler. I like to say it's like a hot pistol haha. The guitars just tend to feel a little jumpy in your hands after their first big session with the Tone Traveler, but they do mellow out a little (which I think is good). We go around shows (we'll be at amigo in Nashville next weekend) and we always bring some old pre war guitars to show off and use the Tone Traveler on and we typically demo the low E because it shows how much the sympathetic vibrations work on the instrument without driving our neighbors nuts (the low frequencies don't carry across a loud convention hall). I've watched guitars go from barely moving at all to, by the end of the day, vibrating the low E string so hard it is bouncing off the fretboard to the point where we have to switch over to the A or the D string so we don't worry folks!

Thanks so much for sharing NewBFlat and thanks everyone for chiming in.

Best,

Isaac

[kevinplarson]

Can you share what to expect on different types of woods?

-Martin 00-15sm (all mahogany)
-Martin 000-28MD (baked Sitka, rosewood)
-Atkin J-43 (baked Sitka, mahogany)

Does it do much on hog?
What about torrefied wood?

THANKS

[Rumblefish]

Originally Posted by DrHerringbone

We couldn't agree more about when a guitar first comes off the Tone Traveler. I like to say it's like a hot pistol haha. The guitars just tend to feel a little jumpy in your hands after their first big session with the Tone Traveler, but they do mellow out a little (which I think is good). We go around shows (we'll be at amigo in Nashville next weekend) and we always bring some old pre war guitars to show off and use the Tone Traveler on and we typically demo the low E because it shows how much the sympathetic vibrations work on the instrument without driving our neighbors nuts (the low frequencies don't carry across a loud convention hall). I've watched guitars go from barely moving at all to, by the end of the day, vibrating the low E string so hard it is bouncing off the fretboard to the point where we have to switch over to the A or the D string so we don't worry folks!

Thanks so much for sharing NewBFlat and thanks everyone for chiming in.

Best,

Isaac

Can you share your experience as to what the long term effects are? Do you need to keep using it regularly, or does the guitar, at some point, remain opened up? I've heard conflicting, anecdotal accounts.

[DrHerringbone]

Originally Posted by kevinplarson

Can you share what to expect on different types of woods?

-Martin 00-15sm (all mahogany)
-Martin 000-28MD (baked Sitka, rosewood)
-Atkin J-43 (baked Sitka, mahogany)

Does it do much on hog?
What about torrefied wood?

THANKS

Hey Kevin,

We know for a fact that torrefied and baked instruments take a little longer to get results but they get there. It's almost like torrefaction tends to lock the tone of the instrument for a while but I think with ingress and egress of moisture the tone traveler is able to do its thing.

I've seen the Tone Traveler have pretty profound effects on both mahogany and rosewood instruments but there are always a ton of variables (different body sizes, different tops, different sides and back, some instruments are having the tone traveler put on them to loosen them up post neck reset or other repair work, etc) so it is hard for me to say something like, "rosewood instruments will get a low end boost and mahogany instruments will gain more top end sparkle". What I can say is that typically an instruments dynamics tend to become more even (no one string is louder than another given the same picking force), the root note tends to cut through more, and your sustain will increase.

Also I am assuming you're using hog to mean mahogany but please let me know if I'm wrong! I'm new to a lot of the forum lingo.

Best,

Isaac

[DrHerringbone]

Originally Posted by Rumblefish

Can you share your experience as to what the long term effects are? Do you need to keep using it regularly, or does the guitar, at some point, remain opened up? I've heard conflicting, anecdotal accounts.

Hey Rumblefish,

Great question. I think you never quite loose all your progress but guitars can definitely fall asleep. I say its like taking your guitar to the gym or putting it on a treadmill to get it trained up for you to play it. If you miss a week at the gym you don't necessarily notice a huge difference in performance. If you miss a couple months at the gym you might start to notice a change. I think the conflicting anecdotal evidence comes from the fact that a guitar that has been played (or tone traveled) all the time will continue to sound great even if it gets left in the closet for a month. It might fall out of shape in that month but it gets back to being in shape very quickly.

One of the great things about the Tone Traveler that I think doesn't get talked about enough (not to toot our own horn haha) is that it can put hours and hours of play time on your instrument without wearing the frets and finish out at all.

Hope this helps and we appreciate the questions guys thank you!

Isaac

[kevinplarson]

Thanks so much! What is the recommended treatment? How long on TT?

[DrHerringbone]

Originally Posted by kevinplarson

Thanks so much! What is the recommended treatment? How long on TT?

Great question, it depends on the build of the guitar. It seems like the lighter built guitars with less finish react faster. I would say that you will hear a difference after the first 24 hours of using the tone traveler (imagine how long it would take to accrue 24 hours of play time "naturally" and then consider that the tone traveler is always applying a constant amount of energy to the instrument) but I think that for a lot of new guitars the magic window of change is around the 48-96 hour mark but we have yet to find a point where you do not get a return for the time on the tone traveler. I think the fact that it is continuous play, no breaks, no having to sleep or work, that also causes it to have such a big effect.

Sorry for another long winded reply but I want to try to be as thorough as possible.

Best,

Isaac

[kevinplarson]

this is very helpful. Thank you so much.

[kevinplarson]

It just comes with one charger, right? What did you use to charge them both?

Originally Posted by Newbflat

So a few weeks ago after one of the Dr. Herringbone Tone Traveler threads I decided to take the plunge and see what was up with this possible acoustic guitar dweeb snake oil. I have a new-ish guitar that just wasn’t what I was hoping so I thought what the heck, if it works great! If it doesn’t I can sell it to another sucker and move on pretending i didn’t rise to the bait and spent pointless money…. I hate being the mark.

So I ordered it and it came promptly. In the fancy box was a pad and a metal speaker. I had watched all the info on YouTube I could find. The Dr. Herringbone people and their potentially biased testing, Marcel and his oddly incomplete test, plus various other people doing their own “testing”. I tried to work out some kind of test that was as unbiased and empirical as I could and basically came up with nothing. I thought maybe the increased volume both Marcel and Dr. Herringbone showed could be in the software or possibly just the speaker itself braking in…. But I really just don’t have any way of testing that. Then I realized that for me it would be pretty simple. I’m inherently a skeptic and for me to be believe in something it has to really preform. Not in a subtle way, I mean I really need to hear it. I’m very aware of mine/anyone’s ability to convince themselves they hear something that’s not there. Things that have failed… in HiFi …fancy speaker wire, current conditioners. In guitars …bridge pins, better sounding tuning machines and my favorite from a recent thread, wether your guitar sounds better with or without the strap bottom in or out..etc. Pseudo acoustics is real and I really try to not fall for it.

So… the guitar in question. For about 2 months I have had a used Huss and Dalton TD-R custom (madi/ baked adi) I bought without playing. There just aren’t any around to play where I am. I bought it because about two years ago I played a TD-R with the same wood with an un baked top and it was a monster!… incredibly loud and full and also a bit brash and aggressive. I saw the same guitar for sale recently with a baked top and thought the baked top might tone the brash and aggressive side down some.

When it arrives I was underwhelmed. It had a very polite, very sweet and warm sound with very average dreadnought volume. It didn’t really have a dry or vintage tone I could hear, more a modern/new sound. When played lightly or moderately it sounded tight and restrained. If I drove it hard it would bark and had plenty of headroom but was a bit thin and quiet when played lightly and most notable really seemed to lack in overtones and sparkle. The guitar had a surprisingly fundamental sound. I played with various strings and made sure it was at a good place with humidity and such but there was no magic bullet. There was just no getting it to sound like a really nice guitar…. It was a good to average but in no way an exceptional instrument.

This was all a surprise as I have an H&D TOM-M custom (baked adi/hog) that is a truly excellent instrument that beat out every boutique I could test it against for the better part of a year. The TD-R is a 2019 and has very little wear and I don’t know how long it hung in the shop waiting to be sold. But looking at fret wear is has had very little play over the last 3-4 years.

I decided I would not micro manage the testing and give the guitar a full 96 or so hours on the Tone Traveler at full blast without touching it or listening. If I couldn’t hear a really clear difference at that point I figured it’s wasn’t really doing much then. So I set it up in a room upstairs, attached the speaker and started it humming away. Immediately learned the battery didn’t last 12 hours… so with a pause and a recharge it was off and running again, only to realize the battery died again within 12 or so hours. So I changed the area so I could plug in the speaker and pad. Several days and about 96 hours compleat on “full blast/ all strings” I took it off the Tone Traveler and brought the guitar downstairs to play it for the first time.

I guess I will stop rambling and get right to it… It was essentially a different guitar. On the very first G strum it was awash in overtones that just weren’t there before. The strings that were on it (ej17) were about 2 weeks old from before I started the Tone traveler. The guitar sounded like brand new strings except this guitar never sounded like this with new strings. It was significantly louder when playing especially with light or medium effort and much more open and full/rich sounding. It also sustains significantly longer. It no longer sounds noticeably fundamental and has much more rosewood overtone/reverb.

Count me shocked… I was seriously not prepared for there to be that big of a change. It’s not subtle, it’s like a different guitar. Ok… let me try and put this in some normal perspective. If you go into a shop and there are 5 of a kind of Martins on the wall and you play them all. All sound good but two are real standouts and one is the winner and a clear winner when compared to the last place Martin…. My H&D just went from that last to first. I went from sounding like it went from old time to change strings to new strings in 96 hours… with the same strings. It’s now much more nuanced and much more expressive when played and lower to mid volumes. I’m still listening but it boosted the midrange somewhat and I’m still sorting out how to play it as it’s basically a new guitar.

I don’t like reading my own writing about this as it sounds too good to be true. I am not prone to exaggerate, if anything the opposite. But at least on this guitar it has made a really significant change to almost every aspect of the sound. The only thing it didn’t change is giving it a more vintage tone. I don’t sense/hear any increase in ‘dryness’ or any of that old guitar ‘hollowness’ … It pretty much just seemed to affect sustain and volume especially when played lightly or moderately, lots more overtone and shimmer, definitely a more open and fuller sound.

Is there a down side? Not sure… these strings are a couple of weeks old AND were zapped by the Tone Traveler for 96 hours. At the moment there is almost too much shimmer to the strings, like brand new strings. I have never liked ej17’s until 2-3 days or even a week later. These are well beyond that and now border on too shimmery/zingy like brand new strings.. what is a new set going to be like!? There is a midrange bump I think… I’m still trying to decide if it’s a good think or not. It’s sort of hidden behind a lot of new string like shimmer so I’m waiting on judging what exactly it has done to the mids. In a fit of excitement I have subjected my TOM-M to the same treatment. It’s been 24 hours or so and it’s still humming away. I might be having second thought about doing it as I actually liked the guitar right where it was and I had Zero complaints about it. I don’t want to induce anything accidentally so I will take it off tonight and see if anything has changed in a way I might like, or not.

Why did it work? I have no idea…. I suspect my TD-R was a stiff top and not really played for years to it was tight and may have never had the most basic brake in. Very very asleep as some might put it. It WAS changing for me over the two months I had it before the Tone Traveler. It seemed to be opening up and that was part of why I wanted to try the TT (Tone Traveler). I spent good money on the guitar and I didn’t really want to wait a year or two for it to open up. I also have 3 other guitars I play equally so it might even take longer.

I feel I did jump the gun a little on this review as I’m still sorting out what did and didn’t change. I haven’t put new strings on it yet as I’m hoping the shimmer and new string sound will go away some so I can hear the fundamentals and balance better. Or did it do something to the strings that make them brighter and shimmer again!? Did it mess with the over all balance of the guitar which was fine before in a typical scooped dread kind of way…..I’m not sure yet. I do know that it changed the guitar enough that I’m have it to re ***** the instrument and there is a part of me that wonders if you can use the TT too much… I don’t think that happened in my case but it does make me wonder.

Well that’s it, I will amend this as I play my other guitar that been sitting on the TT and as things become a bit clearer where the guitar sits now compared to before.

Just for the record, I bought the TT with my own money and the acoustic forum 10% discount. I don’t know any of the TT people and all I did was buy it off there sight and have had zero contact with them.

[tomcstokes59]

Originally Posted by kevinplarson

It just comes with one charger, right? What did you use to charge them both?

Kevin
The charging cube has two ports - (1) @ 2.4a and (1) @ 1.0a.

To add a little bit to this discussion - I decided to give the TT a go. I also have used a ToneRite and this strikes me as the TR on steroids. The pad seems to last about 12 hours unplugged and the speaker about 24 hours. I have mostly used it on two guitars - Bourgeois touchstone Vintage D and an Eastman E20SSv. The Bourgeois was about 3 months old and the Eastman I just received. The Bourgeois has responded amazingly to several 10-12 hour sessions. Definite increase in volume, sustain, overtones, etc. The Eastman is a little harder to tell since I began using the TT right after receiving the guitar. I have also been playing this one a lot. The tone on the Eastman has gotten more complex with great overtones and definite increase in sustain. It is hard to say whether it is from playing or the TT treatments. I have not had it long enough to say whether the affects are permanent. It is a little on the spendy side. If I only had one guitar that I played all of the time, I am not sure I would have purchased it. I have also not tried the single string or single note treatment that is available in the software.

[flatfinger]

I purchased a TT but haven’t had a chance to set it up and use it yet. What is the reason/desired benefit for selecting a single note?

Also, do the strings get worn out from using the TT? Do I need to change them after every TT session?

[tomcstokes59]

Originally Posted by flatfinger

I purchased a TT but haven’t had a chance to set it up and use it yet. What is the reason/desired benefit for selecting a single note?

Also, do the strings get worn out from using the TT? Do I need to change them after every TT session?

I haven't used the single note function, but my understanding is that it could be used if you a "weak" string on your guitar. Maybe you want more bass or the B string seems subdued.

Strings - I have not replaced the strings on either guitar yet. I would say I have 40-50 hours on the Bourgeois and about 60+ on the Eastman.