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So a customer of mine swears by the ToneRite and sent me his for me to try out. I'm feeling a little bit like this guy right now, I hope you all have seen the movie
Let's not debate whether it works or not and just focus on how funny it is to attach a vibrator to your guitar. Talk about pul.... never mind.
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You have to play it left handed, it’s over too quickly if you use your right!
BTW: I’ve watched this movie so many times I’m embarrassed to say, about the last time I watched it just a few years ago and I caught that adult swim double entendre ;)
My guitars hang from in a cabinet with speakers on each sudevig them and a subwoofer down below, they get vibrated daily.
One day I’m playing there on the couch and I’m just surprised at the tone of whatever guitar I was playing, then one day it hit me, I had five or six guitars right behind me playing right behind me sympathetically. Playing the same guitar ten feet away and it wasn’t so… dynamic :/
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I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
BTW: I’ve watched this movie so many times I’m embarrassed to say, about the last time I watched it just a few years ago and I caught that adult swim double entendre ;)
Haha...I watched it a time or two...total coincidence that my son is named Wesley. Yep, had nothing to do with the movie at all.
There is a belief that vibration, as in string vibration, will open up a guitar’s tone. Even Ramirez said something about the crystallization of the finish over time, as it slowly dries, if played with consonant vibrations, results in a more musical structure. What I found is that if you bang some rumba on a guitar it opens up quicker, probably the physical attack on the soundboard is helping expel the moisture content and that makes the guitar seem to “sound” better. But I notice a similar thing happen before and after rainy days…before the guitar sounds dull and after it sounds great. Humidity is the thing.
Difficult to say: the basic idea behind is that a well played guitar sounds better. Here you have the first distinction: There’s the time a new born guitar takes to open up and to get certain characteristics and there's the time a used guitar takes to warm up each time you play it. In the first case you have both the glue finish to drying up and the regular playing which makes the wood accustomed to better resonate. There's non consensus about how this happens. There's a booklet printed by the Cremona luthier boards that says that the wood inner sap and resins tends to slightly move and settle down to reduce the friction. Enrico Bottelli once told me something similar (cannot remember the exact words) about the long time required by a Hauser kind of guitar to open up and in general to wake up. Also Moisture makes sense but then you similar problems also with dry places so I guess there is more than that.
As Ricardo said it’s supposed to vibrate the guitar to get it to open up/improve the tone. I did about 66 hours on one guitar and it had a very subtle effect. Probably rumba would be better, but it didn’t hurt.
Enrico Bottelli once told me something similar (cannot remember the exact words) about the long time required by a Hauser kind of guitar to open up and in general to wake up.
Considering the price bracket of Hauser it makes sense that a seller needs to assure the buyer that it might take a “long time” to open up.
I have been fortunate to compare some good and bad Hausers…the age doesn’t really matter.
Of course. At the time Bottelli (a great luthier) used to make also a Torres homage guitar. At the fairs the Torres guitar was more successful than the Hauser as it's a guitar ready to play straight away. Torres has very thin plates (around 2 mm at the top) while Hauser quite thick. Almost all the pro-players of Battelli go for the Hauser model. Whatever the reason it's a matter of fact you have guitars requiring more time to open up than others.
Difficult to say: the basic idea behind is that a well played guitar sounds better. Here you have the first distinction: There’s the time a new born guitar takes to open up
My theory is that finishes take a long time to completely shrink to their final state and guitars sound better with the thinner final-state finish.
I bought a new Takamine steel string about 25 years ago from a music shop in London and the guy said I could break it in quicker by leaning the body against a hifi speaker for a few days while I listen to the music. I didn't, my speakers were wall mounted, but it seemed like a nice idea.
I have more recently tried leaning my own body against a loudspeaker while I listen to Sabicas, to see if it helps me play like him more quickly. I'll let you know if it works.
I have more recently tried leaning my own body against a loudspeaker while I listen to Sabicas, to see if it helps me play like him more quickly. I'll let you know if it works.
A surefire method for quickly playing like Sabicas is to place a Sabicas CD under your pillow at night and let osmosis work its magic. Shouldn't take more than three nights before you are wowing your friends at parties and such with your amazing, newly acquired ability.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
I have been fortunate to compare some good and bad Hausers…the age doesn’t really matter.
Now this is something worth exploring, as Ricardo knows shiet from shinola-
Guitars that take time to open are very interesting and important. But the ones that are open after two weeks of string tension are as well. I see them as guitars that deliver instant gratification and guitars that don’t. Hauser, or any guitar that that needs playing to open up is gratifying, but it’s a delayed and anticipated gratification.
Guitars that are open more or less from the start however will also change in some ways over time and playing.
Curious stuff and I offer no reasons for this phenomenon because I don’t think it’s logically explainable, it’s just a thing I care not to guess about. I’ll put the guess on my website blurb though because it’s a method of search word optimization.
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That all said, Ricardo please discourse in depth on your experience with what you felt was the difference between a good Hauser and a not so good one. This is very pithy stuff.
The finish taking time to fully shrink at least makes sense, it seems possible. Evidently, turkish ouds have no finish on the soundboard. Supposed to help with sound projection? Mine only has finish on the bowl (too much). Its super easy to stain the top without any finish though.
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No chance I'm not watching the whole thing. Thanks! 
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