Snake Oil Dept. What is "Tone Aging for your Guitar"?

For the guitar-owner with everything.....but brains.

 

i mean this in the nicest possible way and i'm not personally attacking you, but...with all due respect, that's not how physics work. two of your examples are hearsay and anecdotal, which isn't proof of anything. what i think may have happened with your personal account regarding your viola is what is called "confirmation bias": you think you heard a difference because you expected to (whether consciously or not), not because there actually was one. Confirmation Bias is a very real and observable thing and it happens all the time, to everyone.

but there's also this: "They were, surprisingly, allowed to take the cello into some different rooms to try it out." absolutely logical explanation for why it sounded different. unless they sat in one specific spot and one person played it the exact same way for the entire event, this is the most rational explanation for what they may thought they heard.

and: "...but that could have been my playing technique after a period of absence." again a very rational and logical conclusion, and one that many (if not most) of us here have experienced first hand.

 

That is just so sad.

 

A guy with good chops and a processed or aged vintage guitar will sound way better than a wanker with a new axe.

That's another inconclusive bottom line.

 

Actually, they could really improve their bottom line if they just realized that they don't need to do anything to it, as just shipping back and forth through UPS etc. provides all the vibratory exercise anything could ever need or in many cases withstand!

 

Here's some other product that's supposed to do the same thing...

http://prime-vibe.com/

 

No offence taken and I agree on both instances. I was merely dredging up a couple of anecdotes to keep the thread rolling along, to spark further discussion and to throw spanners in the works.

With my viola, I have a hunch that I was merely playing it 'better' and 'worse'. It is a difficult instrument to 'dial it in' on, because it relies so much on muscle memory, touch and feel.

 

now that is a great businessplan.

 

Isn't that what happens at raves?

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There's also this from Yamaha

 

I've noticed it on my Martin, it takes a bit of playing for the sound to "open up" after it's sat in its case for awhile... which reminds me, I need to pull it out and play it again!

For solidbodies, methinks you can get more improvement with a good setup, and just playing the thing... there is some truth to the "vibrating the wood" theory (it's related to a theory in screen printing called "work hardening" where a nylon mesh screen gets stronger with use) but the difference is far subtler than an acoustic. You might also get a larger change in tone (note I didn't say better) by stripping the finish and playing it bare...

Franc Robert

 

There's less difference between cheap and expensive pickups than you might expect. Besides they are really just microphones, they do not generate the sound. You might get better sensitivity or frequency range, or output level, but they do not produce the timbre.

You can put the best pickups in the world into a poor sounding guitar and it will still sound bad, done that.
Pickups that sound bright and zingy in one guitar sound 'brown' in the other, like it did with its original pickups, done that too.

Mini pots are less reliable than full size but full Alphas are every bit as good as CTS. A capacitor is a capacitor and if you have paid more than 37p for the best 'audiophile' ones then you have been royally ripped off.

I've no idea what tonal qualities tuners might have but cheap and nasty ones work just fine.

 

Just blast some " Bach on 45" to the guitar and be done.
beware though - if you over do it you get nitro cellulite.

 

Wow. That just sounds utterly stupid. Granted, I'm a purist as far as aging an instrument goes. Gimmie a new Tele or Strat and 3/4 gigs a week and I'll have it looking like a 1963 relic in no time flat

 

Seriously? Microphones?

 

I think you are very selectively quoting him to undermine what is an otherwise fairly well explained post. In context;

"There's less difference between cheap and expensive pickups than you might expect. Besides they are really just microphones, they do not generate the sound. You might get better sensitivity or frequency range, or output level, but they do not produce the timbre."

The first bit is fairly accurate. Short of better magnets, different coil-wire gauge, magnet material, magnet size, number of winds, bobbin material and over-arching construction technique (humbucker, P90, single coil), most pickups adhere to some basic principles. All changes to any of the above attributes make measurable and well known changes to the tone.

 

Cheap pots and expensive pots both contain carbon composite tracks, and really only differ in reliability and (sometimes) feel. Capacitor construction can make a difference, but it's extremely insignificant within an electric guitar. They can make a difference in amps, somewhere between "undetectable" and "subtle". Besides, expensive caps will by no means guarantee a better sound.

 

darnit, I really was hoping for an opportunity to garner a new flavor of NOS snake-oil.

 

I always wanted a pony for Xmas.... sigh...