Tonewood amp?

[c70man]

Owned one for a year and sold it....somewhat of a learning curve and I kept playing with the settings.

I have to admit, I liked the sounds....kinda regret selling it.

I bought an extra magnet bridge and moved it to other guitars. My 12 string Guild really liked it, but not so much on my Breedlove.

Liked it on my Gibson B25, not on an epiphone slope shoulder. Can't tell you why and I didn't record with it, but venture to say I had my preferences depending on the guitar I was using it with.

Still, it was fun and you don't notice the extra weight of the unit on the guitar.

[Caravanman]

Buy a vox AC30.. connect to boombox V3... Put V3 vibrator on back of your acoustic... Hey presto... Chorus..Reverb.. delay... One hell of a lot cheaper than the Tonewood 😉😉😉

[lkingston]

I love mine. It really makes a difference on certain types of music. For example, I play a version of "Now We are Free" from the movie Gladiator. It is a really great tune for showing off the Tonewood Amp. If someone is visiting and asks me to play and I play that tune, the level of "wow factor" goes up orders of magnitude if I use the Tonewood Amp.

I have a magnetic X-brace in both of my acoustic guitars.

[Brianl55]

Has anyone compared the Tonewood amp to the system used in the Yamaha TA guitars?

[lkingston]

I love that the Yamaha system is built in. On the Tonewood my favorite preset has a mix of reverb and delay. The Yamaha system won't do two effects at once. I can use the Tonewood with nicer guitars.

[GuitarLuva]

Originally Posted by Brianl55

Has anyone compared the Tonewood amp to the system used in the Yamaha TA guitars?

I am fortunate enough to have both. I have an LL-TA transacoustic guitar and they are great in their own right without the transacoustic technology. That being said I wouldn't use the effects from either live only because I have access to better effects with other gear. Could you use them live? Absolutely. Sitting around on the sofa, at a friends house, camping, etc. the effects add a nice touch. The TWA has more effects but most are useless for me to be honest. I usually just use the reverb on it's own or with a subtle chorus.

Ikingston has it backwards, you can't use more than one effect at a time on the TWA but each effect has reverb you can adjust. The Yamaha you can blend reverb and chorus together quite easily which I often do. I think the quality of effects from both are around the same level. However, the transacoustic seems to be more 3D and does make the guitar a little bit louder but the TWA does not.

The TWA of course has the benefit of adding it to your favorite guitar and others but for me I prefer the convenience of the integrated system of the Yamaha. Any other specific questions you have regarding either?

[Brianl55]

Thanks for the response.

I have the LS-TA (all solid wood like your Dreadnought but the LS is more of a grand concert shape).

The guitar is great value for a solid wood guitar even without the effects, but I am blessed with a stunning sounding Larrivee L-03 which has a sweet full tone. The other guitar I gravitate toward is an early 2000's Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500 which is an absolute cannon and to my ears it beats out almost every modern Gibson AJ that I've put my hands on (I've not had the privilege of playing a vintage one). It's also the least expensive guitar I have.

The novelty of the effects is starting to wear off and I am thinking of listing the TA for sale. One of the best parts of owning it is handing it over to another guitar player who is not aware of these guitars and seeing their jaw drop when I switch on the effects.

[Vognell]

The Tonewood amps are fun. Its nice to add some chorus, verb, or delay to your unplugged practice time. Would probably be a good solution for a living room performance.

I have the Yamaha LS-TA with the Transacoustic system as well, and the Tonewood gives you a better, more natural, more "tweakable" sound. The LS-TA is still a good guitar, but the Transacoustic system is not as flexible, nor does it sound as good.

Great thing about the Tonewood amp is being able to set up several guitars to work with it, and swap it around as you like.. The Yamaha Transacoustics come up short in this respect as well.

I think its worth a couple of hundred.

[Per Burström]

I have the ToneWood Amp, and the X-brace magnetic holder in two guitars. I haven't used it for a long time though, but it's a nice piece of kit where I primarily enjoy being able to add a touch of reverb both to give some ambience and a little boost to the guitar in a sterile environment like a living room. But the drawback is that it add weight to the guitar and has so-so battery life.

I have tried the Yamaha Transacoustic guitars many times in music stores, and while they are nice guitars they are a bit heavy for my taste, and on the electronic side their system is simply too limited.

In May this year I finally got the LAG THV10DCE Tramontane with the built-in HyVibe system, and when it comes to flexibility this is miles ahead of the ToneWoodAmp as it has it's own app where you can build your own effect banks. The drawback, as with the Yamaha, is of course that as it's built-in to a guitar it's limited to just that guitar. It is a nice guitar though, and the HyVibe systems adds very little weight to the guitar.



Some screenshots from the app showing the effect banks and how you can build your own you can find in the app stores, for example on https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...e.app&hl=en_US





The app for the HyVibe guitar is still very early and has some bugs and limitations, but the potential for the future is basically un-limited.

In the end though, just as with the ToneWoodAmp, I do not use a lot of features of the HyVibe guitar. It's primarily some reverb and boost I want. However, when plugged-in to an amplifier I have an effect bank I created mysel with just a compressor and EQ, and for me having a compressor when plugging-in is very much desirable... and it's so convenient not having to have an external pedal.

Another good thing with the HyVibe system is that it has a built-in rechargeable battery, and it's charged with an USB-C charger (or power bank).

I will write more about the HyVibe guitar in the future when I have used it more.

Cheers,
Per

[Mbroady]

Shortly after this thread started I purchased one through a forum member. It does as advertised. I tried it on several guitars and Unfortunately it sounded awful on my Rainsong. It’s a shame, for that is the guitar I hoped to keep it on. I now have it on my voyage air and it is fun to play with. I know this is just a mind game but late at night when the lights are off and I have a candle burning and the ambiance is conducive to tinkering. it sounds better. I haven’t used it in the wild yet.

[sleeperservice]

I have one but as i'm a basic strummer it gets little use unless I'm in a super quiet jam where I can add a little ambience with some simple( very simple) fingerpicking,ie echo,reverb,chorus.i will stick with it for a while longer but if I don't bond with it I'll sell it.

[dumacker]

Originally Posted by Falcon15

Does anyone have any opinion about it?

What sums up adding a tonewoodamp to my old Aria Dreadnought with a Dimarzio Black Angel. I remember “Rocket” grabbing the bfg and purring out “Oh Yeah”.

Genius...

jhv

[westernslope]

Originally Posted by Mbroady

Can anyone tell me does it actually increase the volume of the guitar.
Would it be advantageous is a jam setting ����

Just had my bandmate pick up one of the Yamaha transacoustics. It's a great option for jams and super intimate venues. He's used it twice when we were having issues with a pa and it worked as well as we could have hoped given the inopportune timing

[_zedagive]

Originally Posted by lkingston

No appreciable volume increase.

Disagree. My Breedloves are all quite a bit louder with the amp on. Still love it after having it for 1 year.

[Krash58]

The Tonewood Amp can also be used as a midi controller with an adapter cable in the insert jack, an IOS device and a couple of apps.