Mandolin Vibrator to "Open It Up"?

[BlueMountain]

Okay, one of you people who knows how to invent or adapt electrical gadgets needs to adapt something that attaches to a mandolin's bridge and vibrates in a continually varying spectrum from the low to high of the mandolin. That should be MUCH more effective than putting it in front of a speaker, and a lot quieter. With a gadget like that, going 24 hours a day, you could get get a year's worth of "opening up" in a week or two. An electric "sore shoulder vibrator" or a vibrating sander comes to mind, but that's not quite right. How about somehow taking an old speaker with a torn cone, removing the cone, attaching the magnet in some way to the mandolin, then attaching the magnet to a CD player that plays "The World's Hottest Classical Violin Solos" over and over at what would be a high volume if there were a speaker cone. Would that open it up? Could it be done?

[evanreilly]

I think the mandolin likes it also!

[Onesound]

I may have posted this story before, but anyway...

Awhile back, I picked up a friend's Talyor guitar to strum a few chords. It almost jumped out of my hands. #The thing vibrated like it was alive - and boy did it sound great - really loud and rich. #Naturally, I asked him if he thought that all Taylors sounded like that. #Then he told me his secret.

After buying it new, he said it was really tight sounding. #So, he fixed up an old clock motor, connected up a leather strap to it's works and set it up in a back room with the old motor strumming away 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for about a month. #It nearly drove his wife mad, but when he finally shut it down (as he feared for his life), the guitar had turned from a ##### cat into a lion.

Seriously, this is a true story.

[Crowder]

Reminds me of when I played Pee Wee football. The coach caught another player and I with our helmets off, banging them against each other so as to leave paint marks like you'd get in a game. He said "Boys, it don't count for nothin' if you don't earn it."

I've never forgotten that for some reason http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[johnM]

You guys are just too funny:laugh:

[om21ed]

I think there was a (serious) article about a process/machine in Acoustic Guitar a couple years ago.Personally, I'd be better off spending the money on lessons to make my guitar or mandolin sound better

[jim simpson]

Will it help my "Vibrato"?

[J. Mark Lane]

This is discussed constantly in guitar circles. I know lots of people who have done it, and they all claim it works. Yeah, right. Maybe it does....

To me, it's silly. I want my musical instruments to develop naturally, as musical instruments. That is, I want them to develop because they were played, as musical instruments. Not because they were strapped to a freakin' vibrator. (I have similar views about my wife, but we'll leave that alone...<G>).

This is even dumber than the distressed model mandolins. Why can't people just accept that an instrument is to be lived with, and it will beconme what it becomes by virtue of being what it is? I dont' get it, I really don't.

[J. Mark Lane]

I have used a Conair vibrator-$10 bucks or so. It works.
Rich, I think you're on the wrong discussion board. That's really more information than we need. Ick.

[Rich Michaud]

Mark, Methinks that you are vibrophobic. The item in question may just speed up the process...Rich

[acousticphd]

Mark,

I think a mandolin-shaped vibrator (I think that's what this thread is about ??) would be just the thing to open you right up.

:cool:

[PCypert]

Man J Mark, you really let it all hang out there huh? Some people want to live with and play their instruments now. Some want to do that and rush things. Doesn't make em wrong or unethical or anything like that. Why wouldn't you coax your instrument along if given the chance? Do you change strings? Change pics? Add a tone guard? Use a strap? If a person wants to distress their mando that's cool too. Some people don't have 80 years to live with a mando and might want it to look old now cause that's what they like. The sunburst as we know it today was just an attemp to copy something that had happened naturally on older instruments and was in fact an early form of the "distressed" instrument. So do you buy only single color mandolins and wait for them to naturaly burst? Imagine how good an instrument could sound if helped to open up plus playing on it. I've put mine in front of my sub while lisetening to music. Never strapped a battery on but to each his own. Please try and be a little less attacking when you address people who have different ideas than you.
Paul

[lick the skillet]

ive heard of people buying barand new guitars and leaving them in an open case while they blast an AM radio at it. they can take a vacation and when they come back to their home, theyve got a brand new broken in guitar

[Amandalyn]

Ok, This is bad- but I can't resist-
Have you heard about the new liquid ######? You pour a little into the F-Hole of your mandolin for a real "Woody" #sound. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[PCypert]

Did you hear they're giving Old Folks ###### in the nursing homes? Keeps em from rolling out of bed.
Paul

[Okie8stringn]

Hmmm... Maybe I could have my wife yell into the F holes every time she gets angry at me. That would loosen up my mando really fast. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Tim]

For me I don't see the point of making an instrument look like its had years of playing but some people like that. #On the otherhand, I do think anything that makes the instrument sound better is acceptable. #If a luthier knew a trade secret in tweaking the top and tone bars to make an instrument sound better would you tell him not to do it so it could "develop naturally"? #

Mixing distressing for cosmetics and distressing for tone are two very different concepts.