Opening up a guitar using the "Loud music" method

[Dwight]

Originally Posted by budglo

Ive also heard this other phenomenon where the guitar goes to "sleep" if we dont play it for a while , but what I have noticed is my ears seem to be going to sleep more than anything. Thats a discussion for a different time .

I had a high end Guitar that needed to be played 5-10 minutes before it sounded good.

[Wild Bill Jones]

Originally Posted by Alan Carruth

The one well designed test I know of involving the Tone Rite found that it didn't work. It's in the on-line Savart Journal.

I have read all the pros and cons on Tonerite. I can only relate my experience. In this case after a few months the lower bout on the guitar in question started vibrating thatI could feel by hand. Previously the bout did not. I do not think That Tonerite is a cure all. I have used it on some guitars and noticed no change. As th OP was speaking about using speakers etc to make the top of a guitar vibrate and supposedly “open up,” that’s what a Tonerite is pro ported to do and it would seem to me,in a much more direct fashion. I do like that “stinger” idea and will look into giving it a try myself.

[sakar12]

This is my D-18.

Originally Posted by Dwight

I had a high end Guitar that needed to be played 5-10 minutes before it sounded good.

[sakar12]

Wait, for 12 months? As in, the TR was vibrating all day, every day for twelve months?

Originally Posted by Wild Bill Jones

Gee nobody has mentioned good ole tonerite, yet. I’ll tell you a story.
I had a custom guitar made so therefore I could not play it before I bought it. It was looking!!! It was also tight as a drum with an Adirondack top. If I had 10 bucks for each player who said “ that guitar will sound great when it opens up” I would have about a thousand dollars. In short I wasn’t crazy about it’s tone. In desperation I hooked up my Tonerite (here it comes) no real change. Oh darn. So what did I have to lose, I left the Tonerite on it.... for 12 months except when I played the guitar. Well I can say that the guitar sounds different and the bass seems to have come in fairly nicely. I am even getting to like the guitar now. That’s my story and I am sticking to it. That “stinger” idea sounds (bad pun) interesting. For me, the morale of this story is I will never buy a guitar again that I can’t play first. BTW. This guitar was not cheap $ at all.

[Henning]

Originally Posted by FoxHound4690

Hey guys, i've just started trying the method of opening up my acoustic guitar quicker by having it in front of a sub while i have a maximum bass album playing for the intense vibrations.

Have any of you ever used this method before with loud music and do you think it actually works on an acoustic guitar?

I remember Seagull had that advice on the sticker attached to the neck on their six string western guitars. Not to hang it in front but next to...
I once visited a violin luthier who had a thin stick going from the cone of his Hi Fi base speaker element to the bridge of the violin (don´t ask me how he attached it). He claimed that after one month of this the violin had started to sound better that much that he claimed it to be fun to play.

[AndrewG]

So, until there is definitive, repeatable evidence that aquarium pumps (ToneRite, £150), work at improving a guitar's tone, all we have is anecdotal evidence. Not good enough for me, and certainly not worth a £150 gamble.

[ManyMartinMan]

Originally Posted by Edgar Poe

How much more can an acoustic guitar vibrate, than just playing it. Ed

Originally Posted by merlin666

All my guitars sounded great out of the box, so there was no need to open them up.

I have to agree. After a few decades of playing 10's of hours a week in practice, performance and studio, I've not found anything that works better for having a good-sounding guitar than having a well-played guitar.

[Dr O’Fluf]

Originally Posted by Dwight

I had a high end Guitar that needed to be played 5-10 minutes before it sounded good.

Mine’s the same but I suspect that it’s my fingers warming up rather that the guitar

[Alan Carruth]

Dwight wrote:
"I had a high end Guitar that needed to be played 5-10 minutes before it sounded good."

That sort of 'warming up' effect is also widely believed to happen. I actually have a little bit of data suggesting it might actually be true, but (as usual) it would take a pretty involved experiment to 'prove' it. I suspect it's real, and the first stage of 'playing in/playing out'.

AndrewG wrote:
"So, until there is definitive, repeatable evidence that aquarium pumps (ToneRite, £150), work at improving a guitar's tone, all we have is anecdotal evidence. Not good enough for me, and certainly not worth a £150 gamble."

I recently saw an unattributed quote that: "The plural of 'opinion' is not 'data'."

[Wild Bill Jones]

Originally Posted by sakar12

Wait, for 12 months? As in, the TR was vibrating all day, every day for twelve months?

Only 11 1/2 months so far. I wasn’t happy so I figured I had nothing to lose. Guitar tone has changed and my friends say the same. Yes I know hearing memory is not very accurate. The lower bout vibrates now whereas before it did not, of that I am certain. I am not suggesting anyone else do this. I will continue to keep the guitar on the tonerite until I notice no change in the tone. So far it has been easy to tell as the 6 th string sounds fuller where once it was rather dull. Didn’t matter what strings I used and I tried a bunch

[Pitar]

Originally Posted by FoxHound4690

Hey guys, i've just started trying the method of opening up my acoustic guitar quicker by having it in front of a sub while i have a maximum bass album playing for the intense vibrations.

Have any of you ever used this method before with loud music and do you think it actually works on an acoustic guitar?

A luthier/dealer I once patronized did this in the basement of his home. He was so sure of the method that he sound-deadened the ceiling of his basement and left his sound system at 11 when he left it. He was a dealer for Norman guitars and had a few of each model they produced in his basement along with a smattering of others of various manufacture. Even when he was working he kept it loud and wore ear protection. We had to shout at each other - ridiculous. Anyway, it was best to agree with him face-to-face but, honestly, all those Normans were over-built and pretty quiet despite his claims of improvement. He was convincing enough to sell me one. I later permanently mounted a Neo-D soundhole mag pick-up in it just to be able to be heard in a mix.