tonerite?

andmer

Anybody ever tried this? seems interesting.

http://tonerite.com/

ibradbur

I've used it on my Shopis D hole and it definitely had an effect, opened it up significantly. Plan to use on my VRB over the next few weeks, will post my review. I did read that it works better for certain woods..

periclimenes

I checked out the website, as the product sounded interesting. It kind of reminds me of how my audiophile friend has a special CD to break in new headphones that he plays for a week solid before using them. I thought it was total BS, but I did an A/B before and after and it did seem to make a difference. The only thing that seems fishy about this device is that the website seems to suggest that, after the initial "dedamping," you need to maintain your guitar's dedampedness and continue to use the tonerite, which makes no sense to me. It's not like your guitar is going to revert to its prior state, right? Also, the part on the website about entropy was completely backwards and ridiculous.

To be clear, I'm certainly not suggesting this couldn't do my guitar some good. I do think, however, that the mystique and quasi-technical language on the website are possibly disingenuous at worst, or merely misguided at best.

andmer

Yeah, I thought that was odd too, but I think they are just saying that so that you won't feel like you got a paperweight after a week or two.

thickpick

Call me a skeptic.

http://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=285078

andmer

i picked it up, will let ya know how it goes.

B25Gib

.....A pawnshop owner a couple decades back told me he puts a "Transistor" radio inside the sound hole for a couple days on any guitar he has taken in and is now ready to sell. Picks a mellow station - Classical? This allows the box and soundboard to start vibrating as a complete "unit".
.....I looked at one of these tonerite units a week ago, but didn't ask the price.

klaatu

Get Tchavolo Schmitt to play your guitar for five minutes. That's all the breaking in it will need!

lacrossehotclub

Here's an alternative method-

* Lean the guitar against a speaker cabinet (e.g. guitar amp, studio monitor) in a way that aligns the sound hole with the center of the speaker.

* Chose an appropriate song or album and play it through the speaker loud enough so that the body of the guitar can be felt resonating with the music.

* Loop the music and apply continuously for a day or more (preferably in a place where the ongoing sound won't disturb the peace!).

I've tried this method on a few guitars and it seems to have opened them up a bit. Whether the change is in fact real or imagined could be verified by more sophisticated testing...

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~nalee/Publications_files/isma07.pdf

andmer

Ok. This thing works, wow. 3 days in on high setting and my manouche latcho drom got a TON louder. I'm not a tone connoisseur, but it sounds better to my ears too. I'm gonna keep it running and really give it a full playing after the 6th day of nonstop exposure. It almost feels like the top unwound, like a tight spring and is just pushing out sound so much better.

It would have taken me at least another year to open it up naturally to this level is my guess. My playing time took a severe drop after my daughter was born (16mo) So this is a wonderful shortcut for those of us who want to cheat a bit.