Patrick -> Tonerite review (May 4 2010 14:35:14)
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A few weeks ago, a post was made about the Tonerite unit. At the time, I was testing it on two of my guitars and now have a pretty good feel for its viability (or not). First off, what is a Tonrite unit? It’s best to refer to the Tonerite site for their take: http://tonerite.com/guitar Basically these folks are working from known studies in the use of vibrations to “de-damp”, or “open-up” an instrument. Therein lies the conundrum. It has been discussed on this and many other forums about the ability of an instrument to improve over time by the so called “opening up” process. Now, as I stated in the prior Tonerite thread, I have no intention of debating the “opening up” process or for that matter the Tonerite unit in general. My intent is to share with you my experiences, good or bad. But, (and again I have no intention of debating), I have in years of being around high-end guitars, never (again, never), meet anyone including builders or owners, that “do not” subscribe to the belief that guitars “open up”. This process can take months or years. I think the reason many feel it isn’t valid, is it can be so long, they become accustom to the subtle changes along the way, and never realizing major changes have taken place. For those of you interested, take a look at the various forum threads on the Tonerite unit. The Colling’s site has the most comprehensive info available. They have info on something like a hundred guitars that have had the Tonerite treatment. http://collingsforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/94760485/m/941101681 Ton’s of other info is available on various forums including the Unofficial Martin Guitar and Mandolin Café sites. Here’s an interesting article from well known acoustic builder Tim McNight: http://www.mcknightguitars.com/tonerite%202.html Apparently he doesn’t let a guitar out of his shop without the use of the Tonerite. One of the comments repeated on the forums is: “One of the joys of owning a good guitar is hearing it open up and improve over time”. To me this statement is totally irrational. Let’s say you want to buy a new Conde A26’s for instance. So we walk into our friendly Conde dealer and luckily find six brand new A26’s in stock. OK, my question is: which one do you buy? Well you buy the “best sounding” one of course! You don’t say “Yeah that one over there sounds better, but I’m going to take this one because I think it’s going to sound better in five years”. I myself want a guitar to reach its greatest potential in the least amount of time, but that’s just me. For that matter, I don’t have the patients (or maybe time) for bananas to ripen! Another comment is about the cost. I paid $150 for mine. Some say that’s a ridicules amount to charge for something that just vibrates your guitar. But then again, that’s the same guy that just spent fifteen bucks on a set of strings that last a month. Yeah, a hundred and fifty bucks if your guitar is worth a hundred might not make sense, but if it’s worth three grand or more…maybe. Another comment is “I want to see scientific data”. Well again, I could care less, if my guitar sounds better, that’s good enough for me. So, what have been my experiences? The Tonerite folks say to run the unit for at least two or three 72 hour sessions. I don’t know what is magic about 72 hours, but I did what I was told. My first use was on my Aaron Green Brazilian. This guitar is a bit over a year old. I have also owned a Green Blanca that had some of the same issues as my newer negra. Aaron builds for mids and trebles with the expectation the basses will catch up. Both guitars have had what I call “thuddy” basses. Not a lot of complexity, in fact, well thuddy. The mids of the newer negra had an overabundance of nasal tone that overpowered the guitar. The trebles were very nice, but didn’t have the crisp punch I like and were a hair muddy. After the first 72 hours on the highest setting on the Tonerite, I didn’t notice any difference at all. For that matter after the next 72 hours I felt it may have improved somewhat, but it may have been wishful thinking. The next 72 hours was on the mid setting on the unit. Well now boys and girls this is were it gets interesting. I could tell right off the bat some significant changes had taken place. The first thing I noticed were the basses ringing and the mids sounding a bunch cleaner. I had read in several posts the unit can kill a set of strings in a few days and they are right on the money. Now keep in mind, the strings were pretty much new when I put the unit on. After the last 72 hour session, I replaced the strings with the same ones I had on it. Now I know it’s going to sound hokey, but this guitar is a faint memory of its prior self. The basses are now bright and bold and the nasal mid tone has been toned down. I think the most significant change was in the trebles. Now keep in mind they were good to begin with, but are exceptional now. I think they may have a hair more volume, but more important is the crisp attack they now have. In a nut shell, pretty impressive. I have used the unit on the Green for a week or so more, but haven’t noticed any significant change. The second guitar I used it on was my five year old DeVoe negra. I wasn’t really expecting much from the Toerite as this guitar has pretty much everything you could ever ask for. This guitar didn’t start out that way though; it took a lot of hard playing to get it to that point. I used the Tonerite in the same schedule as the Green and as I expected, I can’t tell any difference what so ever in the before and after. I am running it on the low setting on this guitar now to see if it does anything, but I doubt it. So there you have it, mixed reviews, but when it worked, it really worked well. The Tonerite isn’t going to change a bad guitar into a great one. It really only has the potential to improve on what it has to work with. I would have my doubts it will help a low-end factory guitar. And in the case of a well used guitar like my DeVoe, it’s questionable, but who knows. For me, it was a great investment
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