Calling out BS?

[walterw]

Even if we're buying into the notion that you can break in an instrument with a machine that plays it constantly, why are they doing it that way? It's just aggressive and un-musical picking of four notes. They need to spread the frequency span out a bit and get some notes on the fretboard. A better way to do it would be to just attach a vibrator and go through some frequency ranges.

+1, that's my biggest skepticism, it's actually doing so little. a slow strum of the strings once every three seconds or whatever is a bunch of nuthin'.

i have to think it would be much more effective to vibrate the wood directly, if for no other reason than you can crank so much more energy into the system.

 

[JoeWPgh]

I read somewhere once that someone did this by pumping 1000 watts through a de-coned speaker, which was clamped to the instrument, so that it vibrated without the thunderous noise. They ran a tonal sweep through it for a a week or so, and claimed to have really found something. I'm not saying I bought into it, but I found the concept interesting. This contraption? No way.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

A lot of that change may well be the wood changing as it ages, the seasoning / drying process continues as it were.
But I will say that in my days working a music store, I got to play "vintage" (60's) Fenders that were bought and stored without
the interaction of being played, and despite their age, many lacked the "tone" actively used instruments possessed.
i don't claim to know why that is for sure, but some say actual use does cause a "settling in" of the wood (?)

But maybe they weren't played because they didn't sound good?

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Supposedly Fender puts the Road Worn guitar bodies on a machine and it vibrates for some period of time before assembly. Now I "heard" this but do not know 100% confirmed correct. Just heard this. Either way play the instrument and give it your own mojo!

For the true 'Road Worn' vibe it should be after assembly so screws and solder joints have a chance to work loose. Someone should also pour at least one beer over it, drop it a couple of times, and for older axe emulation, expose it to smoke.

 

[FretNoMore]

Color me sceptical, to say the least. I believe this is a case of people hearing what they want to hear; if you believe in the process you'll hear an improvement, if you don't then you'll hear no change. Either way any actual change will be too small to matter in the bigger picture of strings, pickups, electronics, amps, speakers, live sound, playing technique, room acoustics, humidity, temperature etc.

The only significant improvement from this process is made to the bank balance of the guy offering this service.

 

[Zooberwerx]

IIRC, the TimberTech "shaker table" process did move the dead spot(s) to another freq range in some instances. Wish I could find the original article authored by Rick Turner.

Riis

 

[ArvindJayaram]

You nailed it methinks! No winder I don't like the tone of my 1962 jazz... It was used in an old tyme fiddle band for decades until I bought it.

Fifty years of roots and fifths in only G and C!

Yeah, no.

Sonics, man, sonics. It does all kinds of things... You know what they say about talking to plants and making them grow. I'm feeding a dead piece of wood music and it's like it's still going through changes. Like molecular cooking, but tastier.

 

[T2k5]

I would much rather use these to break instruments in

 

[SBassman]

I'm loving the alternate break-in method from thegearpage thread.

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[gln1955]

Color me sceptical, to say the least. I believe this is a case of people hearing what they want to hear; if you believe in the process you'll hear an improvement, if you don't then you'll hear no change. Either way any actual change will be too small to matter in the bigger picture of strings, pickups, electronics, amps, speakers, live sound, playing technique, room acoustics, humidity, temperature etc.

The only significant improvement from this process is made to the bank balance of the guy offering this service.

There's a reason why none perpetrators of these voodoo pseudoscience gimmicks ever do the gold standard randomized double-blind testing needed to prove their product works. In this case, the process doesn't change the look of the instrument, so it would be easy do the perfect pre v. post treatment comparison.

 

[SBassman]

With hollow body acoustics with thin woods, there could possibly be some non voodoo real physics.
With solid body finished slabs, and silly machines strumming the strings, it's beyond nonsense.

 

[96tbird]

Sonics, man, sonics. It does all kinds of things... You know what they say about talking to plants and making them grow. I'm feeding a dead piece of wood music and it's like it's still going through changes. Like molecular cooking, but tastier.

I'm pretty sure I'll defer to virtuoso violinists on this matter of sonic break in of wood instruments.

 

[FretNoMore]

I'm pretty sure I'll defer to virtuoso violinists on this matter of sonic break in of wood instruments.

I don't think virtuoso violinists are much more objective than the average guy; they too will hear what they want to or expect to hear.

 

[elBandito]

LMAO. This has to be the funniest. Play the damn bass.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I'm loving the alternate break-in method from thegearpage thread.

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Ah... first there was musique concrete, now musique asphalt!

 

[groucho]

But maybe they weren't played because they didn't sound good?

No...Not at all....In every case they were instruments that were orphaned.
The guy got drafted and his parents threw it under the bed, or the guy quit the band and just stuck it under the bed and forgot
about it. A few actually stashed them expecting custom color Fenders to become valuable (imagine that)
NOBODY who brought one in ever said "it sounded like poopie so I stuck it under the bed for 20 years"

 

[FretNoMore]

A lot of that change may well be the wood changing as it ages, the seasoning / drying process continues as it were.
But I will say that in my days working a music store, I got to play "vintage" (60's) Fenders that were bought and stored without
the interaction of being played, and despite their age, many lacked the "tone" actively used instruments possessed.
i don't claim to know why that is for sure, but some say actual use does cause a "settling in" of the wood (?)

But maybe they weren't played because they didn't sound good?

No...Not at all....In every case they were instruments that were orphaned.
The guy got drafted and his parents threw it under the bed, or the guy quit the band and just stuck it under the bed and forgot
about it. A few actually stashed them expecting custom color Fenders to become valuable (imagine that)
NOBODY who brought one in ever said "it sounded like **** so I stuck it under the bed for 20 years"

Most likely you simply experienced the variability you get with any instrument; some sound better than others, some sound worse. There's nothing magical about "vintage" instruments - some are dogs, some are gems.

 

[groucho]

Most likely you simply experienced the variability you get with any instrument; some sound better than others, some sound worse. There's nothing magical about "vintage" instruments - some are dogs, some are gems.

For sure some are dogs and some are gems. But beyond that I disagree with your assertion. Six years in a guitar shop I saw a lot of pieces in for sale and repair and off the truck new.
Perceived "vintage" quality can be due to the fact the company in question had better sources of wood or better process in making pickups/finishing in some years than others. And it's no secret
many "improvements" are indeed improvements over time and that MANY others are cost cutting corner cutting bean counter measures, which effect the results, making that "vintage" instrument superior.
Would not say every solid body instrument gets better with age, but in the acoustic community it is a much more of an accepted tenet. No way to prove ore disprove except to make
some meticulous recordings of an instrument, then do it again say 20 years later with the same brand of strings and signal chain and see. I could have done that!
I have some of my basses since 1977 and the same 1969 SVT available, but have no clean "solo" recordings of them to reference.

 

[danosix]

It isn't the "break in", it is the drying of the wood for acoustic instruments. One thing I heard years ago was to store an acoustic guitar next to the refrigerator. The sympathetic vibrations help dry and age the wood. But, that might be just as big a joke as that machine.

Drying is a HUGE part of it - but the microscopic cracks occur from vibration - that means playing or breaking in. Yes some cracking will occur in drying, but it is a different thing (ever so slightly) - again, this is snakeoil, but like most scams there is an itsy, bitsy, tiny wee, little, lone grain of truth to it.
Again - by the same theory, playing will work BETTER because it will make the instrument vibrate in a musical way with a variety of frequencies, and not all on the open string frequencies which, if there is any validity to the claim they (and I sort-of) are making will ultimately be detrimental to the ultimate sound as the wood will "favour" only those frequencies.

 

[MegaSwing]

I think it amounts to inhumane treatment of a musical instrument.