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Location: NC | I have heard guitars get better with age......or is it.....we get better with age and time playing? I wonder if a guitar settles in like a house on it's foundation and a car runs better after the break in period? I guess my ? is this; is this true...are there studies that have been done to see if the guitar really has better sound or is it just accepted it gets better without emperical proof and data to support the assumption? Inquiring minds or at least mine wants to know... :D |
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Location: NJ | there is a school of thought that if you have a guitar sitting under the bed it will not sound as good as one that has been played all the time.
the most important thing is that you have to start with something good to begin with |
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Location: Florida | Yes they get better with age - if they're played.
Yes we get better with age - if we play them.
I worked with this gal once... she played clarinet and violin (could have been viola... memory's fading here). Anyway she was waiting for an opening in the US Army Orchestra, and was working as a receptionist with us for a bit. She told me that her violin was nothing special, I'm assuming several thousand dollars of instrument, but her concert bow was VERY expensive, worth way more than her violin... and that it must be played every day to be kept "alive". Left unplayed, it would "die" and its tone would never be the same. Her husband was also waiting for chair in the same orchestra, and he was given a spot before she got hers, although, from what I understand, she was the better musician. She was with us only about three or four months before moving on to Washington DC for him to play with the Army. I often wonder if she got her place as well. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Al nailed it. |
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Location: N W Ohio | Being new here, I hope it's not taboo to mention another brand, but I know for sure that both my Martins continue to get better with age. I'm sure Ovations are the same. But as was stated earlier, you have to start with something good to begin with. |
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Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | Something about the top vibrating from playing - supposedly changes the wood somehow?
Years ago I watched a TV show that investigated why noone seemed able to make a contemporary violin that sounded as good as a Stradivarius. Every aspect of the Strad was examined - the woods, the construction, the composition of the lacquer finish. I thought, hey guys, maybe it's the fact that the dadgum things have been around and been sawed on for 300 years??! Du-uh! |
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Location: south east Michigan | Paul T. explained it like this. Think of a new top as a piece of stiff cardboard. As it flexes, it will soften up. |
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Location: SoCal | even hanging on the wall can do it..."attempted" to play my Typhoon bass last night - guitars on the wall started to resonate, especially the textured tops. |
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Posts: 100
Location: Asheville, North Carolina | Well also part of it is that the cellular structure of the wood changes over time as well. There are small cells or pockets especially in spruce that will dry out. Also as the wood dries over time and is played it becomes more resonant and usually a bit louder. Playing does flex the top and I think helps promote the tone to become a bit more complex, as the braces settle in. But I think that it will take some time for the wood to completely dry, even kiln dried spruce is not totally crystalized... also the top will darken as this occurs, even without the sun...as the change takes place. |
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Location: Scotland | Originally posted by Slipkid:
Paul T. explained it like this. Think of a new top as a piece of stiff cardboard. As it flexes, it will soften up.
Erm... No, that definately wasn't me. Whoever said it, it's not a totally bad analogy, but it's waaaaay too simplistic. They're are an incredible number of factors at work as a guitar ages. The consenus is that the pasage of time alone counts for very little. The amount of playing over an instruments life is much more influential |
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Location: NC | Elite 04..........what part of NC are you from? |
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Location: Asheville, North Carolina | Elite LX..I'm in Asheville area. |
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Location: Asheville, North Carolina | While the cardboard analogy is partly true, the tops actually don't become increasingly flexible, they do more stiffining with age as the resins and finish hardens..If I remember correctly the tensile strength increases (borrowing the term from metalurgy), as well as becoming a bit less prone to humidity changes as the cells dry and stabalize, this is what usually increases the volume over time. Over all the playing will flex some areas constantly helping the response of the wood to your playing. Softer wood tends to produce more bass with less volume and clarity of the higher frequencies. Of course there are always exceptions in the mechanics of acoustics. The type of playing you do,(believe it or not) The size of the guitar and wood chioces, bracing etc. There has been allot of studies on the aging of acoustic guitars. I did a paper in college on the subject....Here's an interesting article some of you might have already read..
http://www.acousticguitar.com/Gear/advice/vibration.shtml |
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Location: Anchorage, Alaska | I heard that some folks swear by sitting their guitars in front of stereo speakers for hours and hours, day after day, week after week, sometimes for years to get the same vibration effect as playing to accelerate the tone/aging process. I don't have a clue if it works but there is another angle for the thread... |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | There's even companies that have hi-tech vibration machines that you strap your guitar into and the machines SUPPOSEDLY exposes the guitar top to what would amount to YEARS of necessary vibrations for the top to "open up" in a shorter span of time . . . . |
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Location: NC | Elite 04 that makes three of us in the area..........we nedd to get together sometime. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | Put the guitar in the case and put a small radio inside of the guitar turned on and fairly loud. Replace the batteries as needed. |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | At David Cage's I had the opportunity to play a bass from 1600 (ie before tempered tuning) and the sound was broad, smooth, rich, and also bright. It told its story thru its music, but I wish I could read its book. I believe there is something to this playing over time, but I also believe the converse is true, if you don't use your instruments they will get worse and atrophy. Just like if you don't use your car, horse, body, mind, computer etc. |
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Location: Asheville, North Carolina | Elite LX where do you live in NC? |
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Posts: 365
Location: NC | Outside Asheville...............Mazrs Hill actually. |
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Location: NC | Typos....typos.....Mars Hill< |
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Location: Las Cruces, NM | It doesn't matter how old the guitar, the player still has to be able to play. Ability will win out over ancient guitrars every time. My son has spent years playing plywood guitars to great applause while my vintage Yamaki set in it's case, I played a plywood mandolin and never had any response other than loud applause. It's the pickin' that wins, not the instrument, how many audience members know he difference??? |
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Location: NJ | bailey finally says something that makes sense and I can agree with |
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Posts: 100
Location: Asheville, North Carolina | IMO
80% player...20% guitar....plug the guitar in...90% player...10% guitar
However, just as with the guitar...if you play you *will* too get better with age...well, to a certain degree anyway....I guess there are some 80 year old rockers somewhere? |
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Better with Age?
