first it was salt now it is....

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keith

Posts: 1108
Joined: Sep. 29 2009
From: Back in Boston

first it was salt now it is....

acupuncture? check out this video. there is a thread going on at delcamp about this guy and his needles. if a tiny needle works maybe a meat tenderizer might work even better...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 10:27:28

XXX

Posts: 4400
Joined: Apr. 14 2005

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

I actually placed cups of salt everywhere in my room when i had my first guitar. Just because i have red on the internet that drier wood sounds better

I mean it is true i assume, just as it is true that removing mass at critical point can increase sound quality, but...

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Фламенко

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 11:01:03

Doitsujin

Posts: 5078
Joined: Apr. 10 2005

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

mhm

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 12:25:26

C. Vega

Posts: 379
Joined: Jan. 16 2004

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

A few years ago there were a couple of new-age shysters who arrived on the scene offering a service (for a substantial fee) called "spiritual sound enhancement" or something similar for violins, guitars, etc. They chanted mantras, burned incense and waved crystals over one's afflicted instrument. Needless to say it was all a scam but, of course, there was the usual gaggle of goofballs and weirdos who payed the fee and swore up and down that it worked.
They disappeared as quickly as they arrived.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 15:30:16

Gimar

Posts: 39
Joined: May 13 2012

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

soooo what happends if you dent your guitar?!? no wonder old guitars sound better, I have seen the light lmao

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 16:37:16

TANúñez

Posts: 2559
Joined: Jul. 10 2003
From: TEXAS

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

Wow, after comparing the sound, it sounded exactly the same!

I actually take my guitars to get massage therapy once a month the loosen the pulsation when it feels too tight. Works great.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 17:02:38

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to C. Vega)

quote:

and waved crystals over one's afflicted instrument.

Well, if waving the crystals didn't work then there is really nowhere else to go.

All hope is gone.

cheers,

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 17:17:15

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to Ron.M)

Pyramids...? Aromatherapy?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 17:27:49

Shawn Brock

Posts: 271
Joined: Sep. 19 2011
From: Louisville KY

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

Can I hear a difference? Seems more nasally to me...

This is what we do to piano hammers to soften them and make the tone more mellow. But felt will re-compact, wood won't! Who knows...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 18:53:33

Erik van Goch

Posts: 1787
Joined: Jul. 17 2012
From: Netherlands

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

I like to keep an open mind. I use the difference in acoustic response to "knock on wood" techniques to x-ray instruments myself, obviously not in these details but merely to check there overall acoustic depth. On top i believe the guitar is a living organism with more needs than just the right strings, moisture and temperature. It needs to be feet with the right kind of energy as well. When i trust my guitar to a lesser player (over a longer period of time) it might lose sound after a while. When returned it might suffer some kind of "i lost my lust for live" crisis (stored in it's inner molecules) making it very hard to play for a couple of hours/days. The exact opposite can happen when i trust my guitar to a far better player over a longer period of time. When returned it will be alive and full of energy but re-united with the old situation it will soon adapt a "why bother" attitude again.

So, a guitar seems to have some kind of molecular memory reflecting the personality of it's regular player. When the quality of the input changes it might not be able to adapt to the new situation right away but might need some time to reset it's settings in what seems to be some kind of molecular memory. Depending on the quality of input it can flourish or it can lose it's lust for live (waiting for someone to kiss her back to live).

Healing the sick by restoring negative energy balances is the secret of both homeopathy and acupuncture. Question remains were to put your needles.... in the guitar (direct healing), in its player (indirect healing) or both?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 19:09:40

Sean

Posts: 672
Joined: Jan. 20 2011
From: Canada

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

Ya well if you want to play and sound like Paco you need one of these.
The hat not the Chimp.

The Chimp is for picking up the ladies

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 19:47:52

Doitsujin

Posts: 5078
Joined: Apr. 10 2005

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to Sean)

quote:

Ya well if you want to play and sound like Paco you need one of these.
The hat not the Chimp.

I´ll try !!! xD

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 21:28:51

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

Curious, I'm willing to think about it for more than ten seconds.

Some historical background:

In Cremona and 16th century Italy there was a depth gauging tool which employed a stop and a needle. The tool looks like two long arms with a hinge connecting them on one side. The stop was set to a certain depth and the arm opened and closed pressing down the pointed tip into the wood.

The pinpricks were placed all over the inside of the belly and back at a stage in carving the concave side of the arching. The luthier 'connected the dots' with a gouge by carving out to the depth until the pin hole was removed. This ensured a uniform a controlled removal of material.

You may not know this, but a good sawyer and good saw sharpener knows that a saw blade can be carefully peened with a hammer in certain places to remove stress in the steel blade. The Japanese saw makers are especially adept and in tune with this. When they tune up a hand made or even a machine made saw it cuts better, pulls truer after they peen the blade. I personally do not have that knowledge or know how they tell where to hit the blade with the hammer. But I have seen this demonstrated and have used the saw before an after the peening process. It makes a difference.

Hand saw blade tuning is fairly esoteric today, in fact sharpening ones own blades is almost never talked about among woodworkers today. So when I look at this process of inserting points of metal in to the wood I can't totally dismiss this due to having seen the peening process done on saw blades.

Now given that wood and metal are very different materials and they hold stress in different ways I am skeptical that this works, but knowing that the Italian violin makers used a pin insertion process and the Japanese saw makers peen the blades to relieve internal stress in the steel I have to keep the door open a crack to thinking about this.

I actually tried to soften up an area under a guitar top in a guitar I was building by doing this. I poked series of pinpricks between the bridge and tail block to make that area more pliable and lessen the contiguous cellular connections in the wood fiber. Did it work? I don't know, but if you put pinpricks into the wood it changes its flexibility and density in small way. I think a great guitar can be made by ignoring al this stuff, but wood makes you wonder about its properties and part of building is acting on your intuition about your materials for good or bad outcome. That way you learn.

What interesting me actually more than the process and why and IF it works, is how we are drawn to thinking up these processes. What motivates people to look for these things and what clues in the daily regular work are there to stimulate you to find these esoteric ways of thinking?

So who knows. Just don't poke my expensive cello.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 21 2012 21:42:35

Erik van Goch

Posts: 1787
Joined: Jul. 17 2012
From: Netherlands

RE: first it was salt now it is.... (in reply to keith)

Experts in old glass and ceramics also use the sound it produces at tapping to detect invisible fractures and flaws. I guess the secret of luthiers like stradivarius is that they are extremely skilled in modeling a flawless sound board. A violin luthier i watched used to tap his "almost ready for use" soundboards to detect flaws in balance and adjusted unbalance by scratching of minute parts of wood at the right places. And i'm not talking big curls of wood here but corrections on the same scale as the acupuncture. This acupuncturist may very well be the stardivarius of correctors, improving final correction were luthiers failed to do so or time altered original balance.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jul. 22 2012 15:22:44