Would be interesting to see this test done, leave everything set up and then come back in a day or two and see if it's reverted to its previous volume. Does this "break in" the instrument or just loosen it up temporarily?

When cleaning your guitar apply gentle pressure to the top. Just playing and cleaning your instrument has the same effect.

I can vouch for this device as I've used it quiet a lot for a year or more on my Dan Tyminski model Martin guitar which I thought sounded as good as they get before hooking this device up to it, in just a matter of hours it made my guitar sound sooo much better and louder! I really thought no guitar could sound any better but found out I was wrong, this device is a must have!

It sound kind of like a Brian Eno ambient track while it’s doing it’s thing.

I have a mandolin with a fairly thick Adirondack spruce top on it and have personally experienced how dramatically an instrument can change in sound due to this “opening up” process. When i got it i feared I’d fully wasted my money on a mandolin that was waaaay too harsh / brash / midrangey but as time has gone by with a lot of playing it has changed considerably and for the much better. This process of opening up is absolutely a real phenomenon, but the results you get with that process are very different instrument to instrument. A thin-topped, older Apitius mando i got really didn’t have a clear opening up phase even though the previous owner hadn’t played it much. I plan on using this on my new Collings OM1 which is well known to require even a few years to reach the sweet spot tonally - it also starts out “brash” or harsh. Bill Collings said he built guitars for the course of their lives, not their first day, and this tool can make good that philosophy. But again, how much mileage you get out of it will change a lot given the instrument you’re using it on.

@drherringbone7305

2 жыл бұрын

That's awesome we had the exact same thing happen with a mandolin we had! We thought our mandolin page was lacking because it was barely moving the instrument at all and then we came back and holy cow the thing had come alive! Thank you for sharing your experience :)

The same can be done by simply placing the guitar in front of a speaker playing music. If you want to replicate the same approach as this device, just pick the frequency and let it run for a few hours a day. I’ve also had good results taking a small Bluetooth speaker, painters taping it to the body, and playing normal music for a few hours.

You need a professional to use interferometry on the instrument top using a stationary camera for the duration of the experiment to show the physical changes on the guitar top and body, if any occur. What this looks like to me is just the room resonance being incorporated into the body, specifically the bridge area using a small amount of feedback from a microphone. It can be done with only a mic positioned in front of the sound hole as well, but then the instrument is tuned to the room. Other factors such as temperature and humidity will cause movement over a performance. Measuring output from the instrument itself in terms of the entire waveform for a few chords, each strummed once until silent, would show the change. Then play the instrument for several hours, the test again. Repeat the test and change humidty (humidifier). Repeat the test and change temperature up and then down and youll fully prove if it works or not, how long, and under what conditions. You could additionally measure it for every 5 degrees temperature over several hours to allow for it to accomodate. Also the players body and movement will heat it up. I do think it does something. I personally always use the room resonance to tune everything including microphones, but this type of testing would really nail down what it does. Interferometry and microscopic interferometry of the interior behind the bridge on the body would show physical changes in the wood. Thermal would show thermal changes. Interferometry would also show what a strummed chord looks like or a resonant frequency played into the sound hole before and after all the different changes I mentioned (temp, humidity, use of device, not using it, etc).

@drherringbone7305

Жыл бұрын

Hey Tyler, We would love to conduct tests like that but I don't know if we as a company (we're just two guys working out of my house haha) have the connections or money to run a test like that. You seem to know a lot about interferometry, do you know who to get in touch with or is it possible that you might have the equipment to run such a test? If so shoot us an email we'd love to chat. We're not sure how we'd get feedback from a mic if there is no speaker producing the audio input being captured by the mic. There were no monitors in the room where the recording was made.

This is amazing!!

@drherringbone7305

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much!

Do they work on electric guitars?

Have you made a video yet where you play an instrument before and after you’ve used the Tone Traveler on it?

@DPJeffFeller

2 жыл бұрын

exactly...that's the whole ball game. Also if you to make your test more accurate, I would test the guitar 24 hours later and a week later and see if the changes stick. What is your understanding of what is physically changing in the guitar to account for the results you see? Interesting...I'll stay tuned.

@drherringbone7305

2 жыл бұрын

The guitar became more resonant! We are currently treating a guitar right now that we recorded a before section on so we will finally be posting a before and after video haha. We're afraid people will say we faked it though, which is why we've held off for so long. We haven't run any tests on how long the effects stick but I know from personal experience that guitars "go to sleep". Like a guitar that has been played consistently for 50+ years might take a day of playing to really hear it's true colors. That being said it seems that 95% of the tone seems to stick and then the other 5% comes back with some playing time (or by using the tone traveler). We've had a bunch of musicians using them for the night before studio sessions or on tour.

@MrNocaster

Жыл бұрын

So what happens when those cheap Android tablet break. How much to replace one with the app needed to work?

I'm no studio expert but it seems to me that a 10 db increase would occur naturally considering that the device is causing the the guitar itself to create sound via the vibration thus adding to the total sound increase? I thought that this might be a non-biased review but it's obviously not the case as it's presented by Dr. Herringbone.

WTH? Let's hear the difference on the GUITAR..!!

I was inspired to try a Heath Robinson set-up to try out the concept for myself as I couldn't find a single test online whereby a dead-spot was targetted. I have a not-very-well played-in dreadnaught, hand-made, expensive but with particular dead-spots on the bass strings from the 7th fret up. I'm sure they'd improve with more playing, but I'm looking for a short-cut. I downloaded a frequency generator app, paired that via bluetooth to my mini amp, placed the amp close to the bridge, and dialed in a frequency which caused the 6th string to vibrate with a capo placed at the 8th fret where the note is particularly dead (thin, no bass, no sustain, no resonance). I left it on as loud as I could for 5 hours and it instantly cured the problem. The note I targetted is now deep, rich, sustains forever, with lots of overtones. The manufacturer is really missing a trick by not doing this experiment... Edit: I repeated the above test targetting the E3 at the A string 7th fret. Placed a capo at the 7th, set the frequency to 164.8Hz and got that string vibrating in isolation. Left for 5 hours I could notice an immediate improvement in sustain and volume at that fret. The interesting thing for me is that the E3 at the 6th string 12th fret was also a dead spot, and despite that note having the same frequency (and presumably the same resonance response in the body of the guitar), there was NO improvement in the sustain of that note. I'm now trying to figure out how to fret the 12th fret (a capo won't fit) to target that E3 to see if my hypothesis is correct, and one needs to make the body vibrate at the frequency profile that a particular fretted note produces, and not just a given frequency which theoretically covers every instance of that frequency at different frets all over the fretboard.

Two questions: Does this have any benefit on an older guitar that’s been played occasionally for several years? Does it work on other string instruments like a bouzouki

@drherringbone7305

2 жыл бұрын

Hey drDave, thanks for your interest in our project and yes and yes. It is our belief and experience that any instrument that improves by being played ( all) will be improved by using our device. The Tone Traveler works on the same premise passing the same tones through your instrument except with much more regularity and amplitude. Hope that helps, and good luck! Ps. What kind of bouzouki do you have ?

@DrDaveElliott

2 жыл бұрын

@@drherringbone7305 Ordered one ;) Have a Peterson cittern, but I figured nobody knows what that is :) Also a few acoustic guitars of varying vintage. Looking forward to trying it out! Thanks!

@drherringbone7305

2 жыл бұрын

@@DrDaveElliott well not familiar with Peterson but love to hear one sometime! Hope we can help you with your tone travels in the future !!!

So this proves that a guitar top- designed specifically to resonate with sympathetic frequencies- will resonate with sympathetic frequencies when a speaker is applied directly to the bridge. I don't deny that guitars "open up" over time, but I'm pretty confused about why I shouldn't just set it on top of one of the many speakers that I already own, the way I've been doing for 30 years, and let you keep the snake oil. Doctor.

@norfolknwhey4787

8 ай бұрын

Same. I’ve used the same method for half a dozen guitars. On the last 2, I upgraded a bit by placing a small Bluetooth speaker with the front pressed against the bridge with some painters tape. Ran a sine wave from super low E up to as high as the speaker would produce, around 18k, and let it run for a few hours a day. There was a night/day difference after about a week. This is a fancy gimmick.

@whatsupchicken

2 ай бұрын

@@norfolknwhey4787 Hi, where did you find those sound files you played into the guitar, and how did you make it play in loop for hours and hours? Thank you!

how long do you have to leave this on an acoustic guitar before it reaches it's full potential?

@drherringbone7305

Жыл бұрын

It really depends on the guitar, how much finish was applied to the instrument, how much it has already been played, and how long it has been since it was last played. Old lightly built guitars that haven't been played in a long time (like the one in this video) take to it the fastest. A newer guitar, especially the ones with baked tops, take the longest to improve but have the most room for improvement. We've only been a company for just over a year but based on my experiences playing vintage guitars that have been played for almost a century vs ones that have been left unplayed, there is a lot of room for improvement (though humidity and the instrument itself also have a big effect on the instrument as they age over the decades). The tone traveler just speeds up this process and lets you hear the change happen much much faster.

Can you prove in a video that you are affecting the guitar itself instead of just heating the strings up and causing the strings to anneal?

@drherringbone7305

Жыл бұрын

Hey Roy. It takes extremely high temperatures to cause steel to anneal. While work hardening the brass on the wound strings *could* be part of the effect, it wouldn't explain the change in the unwound strings as it is relatively difficult to work harden steel and normally takes immense pressure to do.

Why are there no videos of someone playing a guitar with this thing on?

@drherringbone7305

Жыл бұрын

Hello , thanks for looking and your interest! The Tone Traveler speaker and clamp cantilever over the bridge hooked between the strings while in a stand or wall hanger. It is not intended to be used while playing. Hope that helps! Also, if you go the DrHerringbone.com or search for the Tone Traveler and take a look at the videos and photos there.

You can see people touching the console in the sped up section

@drherringbone7305

Жыл бұрын

We weren't touching the console we were pointing at the screen while talking to each other. We may have touched the master volume on the playback speakers for our own sanity but that was it, it had no effect on what was being recorded. If we had messed with the gain structure, you would have seen a very quick increase in volume, not a gradual one that took hours.

@user-bl3si3kq6x

Жыл бұрын

@@drherringbone7305 waste of a video then. If you're smart enough to make this work, you should be smart enough to make a scientific demonstration. Yes, you do touch the console. Now you are lying. Slow the video down and watch. Why would I care? You think you have so many haters that randoms lie about something that can be proven within the video itself? If anything, I'm just annoyed that I watched this unscientific video.

@drherringbone7305

Жыл бұрын

I should have worded my previous comment better, we touched the master volume on the console to turn down the playback speakers. This has no effect on the recording. Like I said before, the results you see in the waveform would require someone sitting at the console, turning up the channel gain at an inhumanly slow rate for 4-12 hours straight. The video shows no evidence of this. We were just turning down the monitor level so we didn't have to hear the process in the control room as loudly. The control room is sonically isolated from the tracking room where the recording was taking place. You can however see that we did NOT touch any of the channel strips, let alone in a manner that could produce the recording we got.

@user-bl3si3kq6x

Жыл бұрын

@@drherringbone7305 firstly, you could have muted the speakers before recording. Simple. Secondly, I can automate a gain envelope ahead of time to do this. I went from thinking you were just bad at this to thinking you are dishonest.

@drherringbone7305

Жыл бұрын

I can tell we're at a bit of an impasse at this point. We really value our integrity and it does feel like you're just making ad hominem attacks now. We wanted to listen to what was happening in the room, but after a while we didn't anymore and every once in a while we wanted to check in on the recording, it's that simple. Automating a volume envelope would have been done on the computer not on the console (and I am unsure if there is even a way to automate input gain in PT). Automating a volume envelope would have no effect on the shape of the waveform unless we were somehow bouncing the track as we recorded it but you can see that no routing has been done on the session. It's just a mic input. Our recording desk does not have automated faders (even though it was in record mode so, even if it did have automated faders, they would have no effect on the recorded signal). Similar experiments have been done by other people with similar results. However It seems like you've made up your mind on the subject.

If this truly works then why wouldn’t every manufacturer just do it to every guitar before they ever shipped it from the factory?

@drherringbone7305

Жыл бұрын

Actually a lot of manufacturers and luthiers have contacted us wanting some. They’re currently in shops all over the world actually from Italy to Japan to Norway to Australia and many more (including a little town in PA)! I haven’t asked any of the other luthiers if they want us to disclose their use of the tone traveler but our friends here in NC at prewar guitars put theirs on guitars they are sending out to clients before they ship! That being said guitars can take hundreds of hours of play in time to really age fully and then can go to sleep if they’re left unplayed for long enough. Luckily the tone traveler allows you to put 365 hours on an instrument in just 15 days. This means you can put two years of playing your instrument for half an hour every day in just 15 days. Also the tone traveler applies constant tones to your instrument as apposed to when you play. When you play and pluck a single string the amplitude spikes and then drops off for that one string. The tone traveler allows you to be playing up to 16 notes at once at a consistent volume.

@brianeversole3849

Жыл бұрын

@@drherringbone7305 ok so if the manufacturers are already doing this before the guitar ships the. What is the point of buying a tone traveller?

@norfolknwhey4787

8 ай бұрын

@@brianeversole3849just place a Bluetooth speaker on the strings, with it pointed into the sound hole, and play tones into the body of the guitar. You can even pick the same tones this device uses to copy the effect. This device is cool and all, but mainly a fancy gimmick.

I'm sorry, but this just isn't proof of anything. What you are doing is playing a sound at a constant volume in a room where sound is not completely absorbed, which is what is causing the increase in volume over several hours, as sound is added to the room faster than it is dissipated. You can relate this to filling up a pool with a hole in it, but the flow rate of the water going in is barely above the rate at which it is draining. At some point, though, the pool is filled, and that would be the saturation point where sound is no longer being added to the room. Yes, I did read the Roberts Luthiery experiment, and it also has many flaws that exclude it from being any kind of rigorous proof. The facts are that breaking-in as a genre of science is largely unproven and based almost entirely off of studies not much better than the one you have and anecdotes, and while I am not enthusiastic about accusing people of scamming others, selling what is essentially a $300 Bluetooth speaker that can attach to an instrument under the guise of "scientific proof" while ignoring basic acoustical physics is not the most honest thing to do. I would encourage you to fund a serious inquiry into the subject; I'm actually researching this exact topic right now, testing a few new violins to determine the effects of playing-in over time. If you have any questions, reach out, and I can help with developing a procedure for seriously testing your device. You may also be interested in the results of my experiment, as it may be a useful citation on how continuous stimulation of an instrument does indeed change the sound; however, it can also go the other way, where I find no appreciable changes in the sound (this is what the current body of literature seems to support the most).

I have a mandolin with a fairly thick Adirondack spruce top on it and have personally experienced how dramatically an instrument can change in sound due to this “opening up” process. When i got it i feared I’d fully wasted my money on a mandolin that was waaaay too harsh / brash / midrangey but as time has gone by with a lot of playing it has changed considerably and for the much better. This process of opening up is absolutely a real phenomenon, but the results you get with that process are very different instrument to instrument. A thin-topped, older Apitius mando i got really didn’t have a clear opening up phase even though the previous owner hadn’t played it much. I plan on using this on my new Collings OM1 which is well known to require even a few years to reach the sweet spot tonally - it also starts out “brash” or harsh. Bill Collings said he built guitars for the course of their lives, not their first day, and this tool can make good that philosophy. But again, how much mileage you get out of it will change a lot given the instrument you’re using it on.

@user-bl3si3kq6x

Жыл бұрын

Kinda crazy to build an instrument for how it may sound one day. You can't even scientifically measure that. He makes "improvements"and waits years to see if the modification does what he had hoped? He's full of it. I know he's respected, but his clients are wealthy people who believe he can see the future. This is nuts.