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Breaking in
Last night I had a few friends come over and had one of them play my new Avalon D300 sitka / mahogany while i was playing some of my other guitars.
My friend is an extremely accomplished player and plays loudly and confidently. He played the guitar for about an hour (and loved it) I was astounded this morning how much the sound had changed. I picked it up and started playing and it was significantly louder and more responsive and fuller than when I had last played it yesterday. I was already loving it and now even more so. I have experienced break in before but this was pretty glaringly obvious. The other interesting thing is this guitar is new / old stock the build date was 2015 but the dealer had mentioned it had not been played at all. Last edited by Aspiring; 12-05-2021 at 03:05 PM. |
#2
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Breaking in
I believe newly built guitars indeed break in, and even certain woods break in differently. 6 year old guitars breaking in may be rare, but perhaps your friend awoke the guitar’s mojo? There are a lot of variables that make up guitar construction that are both mechanical and IMHO, magical. Perhaps this is proof that products like Toneright are on to something?
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#3
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Which is to say maybe you changed, rather than the guitar. Which is also to say I'd be skeptical about how much an extra hour of play would make in terms of a guitar opening up. |
#4
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Some guitars really do sound better when they are played more. My Olson SJ is like that.
- Glenn
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#5
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I also compared it back to back with my other guitars in the room trying to play my soft tunes as exactly the way I have been practicing them for the last several weeks on several other guitars back to back for a comparison (which I have also been playing with these tunes to decide how I like each one). The other guitars are consistent and the increase in volume on the new one is noticeable relative to the others. The new guitar is my only Dread and I was expecting it to be noticeably louder compared to most of my other guitars and up until now it only had a slight edge in volume. |
#6
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The Break in thing can be very real for a new guitar. There are of course exceptions, where for what ever reason, a new guitar stays the same. But I have certainly had lots of luck with all of my new guitars(but one) gaining more bottom end, and becoming more dynamic and or responsive. I use tonerite for a week or two, followed by heavy handed playing for a month. Such a pleasure to hear the instrument open up and become A stronger more responsive entity. And I am also beginning to believe(as GlennWillow does) the claim that Instruments need to be played often or they start to loose some of their better characteristic. There have certainly been many such claims by holders of Stradivarius violins. Tube amps are the same way...they need 10 to 20 minutes to warm up and reach their full potential. |
#7
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Usually this happens to me after relative humidity of my guitar room hovers steadily around 40-45% and my guitar is left on its stand the whole day.
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Steven Boucher SG-52 (Adirondack Spruce/East Indian Rosewood) Bourgeois OM Custom (Italian Spruce/Cuban Mahogany) Martin Custom Shop 000-18 (VTS Sitka Spruce/Sinker Mahogany) Taylor GA3 (Sitka Spruce/Sapele) |
#8
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Gotta whip, and beat 'em into submission.
The more they are played. And played in tune. The better they will sound. New guitars, the wood is in shock. Before sitting on a shelf in a drying room, it was a tree. Now it's all bent up, and glued together. It has to be taught to be a guitar. Much like a maggot has to be trained to be a soldier. The better the instructor. The better the outcome. |
#9
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Ive always believed it can take from 6 months to about a year to break in a guitar -depending on how much you play it . Id suggest not getting a new guitar set up until you play it a while - im waiting a bit for my new Guild 12 string to settle in , the action out of the box is fine but would like it down a hair.
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