New Way to "Open Up" Mandolin

[Randy]

So I bought this moderately priced mandolin a few months ago knowing that the true tone would emerge sometime down the road. Being the patient person, I resigned my self to the wait. But something unexpected happened. My son, the college freshman, hooked up with three other guys to form a new emo-indie-punk-grunge-distortion-driven-drop-D-tuning-rock-and-roll band that practices two or three times a week at my house. Loud? Yes. Everything in the house vibrates. (We may need to change our address since the house has shaken into the next lot. My son's the drummer - Oh where have I failed?)
Anyway, after hanging my new mando in the room where they practice, low and behold, a new more mellow, woody tone has emerged.
So now I alternately curse the noise but thank them for the "awakening."
If you need your mandolin awakened just let me know. I'll be happy to hang it up in the practice room. (For a small fee, of course. When life hands you a lemon...)

[Rich]

I joined a bluegrass entertainment band that didn't use mics and had a year of banging as hard as possible on my instrument- cursing the whole time- when low and behold, my mandolin sounds amazingly good after that year. It's a completely different animal with beautiful tone! Now I enjoy playing with the band cuz my mando is loud and wonderful sounding. I have a sore elbow for 3 days after we play though, which kinda sucks...ice and advil.

[Dru Lee Parsec]

I studied guitar making with Jim Long and Bob Mattingly may years ago. Bob use to hang his guitars in front of a stereo speaker to vibrate for a few weeks to help them break in. So it seems logical that teh band would help teh instrument vibrate into it's break in period.

Or maybe it just sounds more open and woody because you've lost your hearing in the high frequencies. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif How loud did you say that band was? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[A9cp]

Yep the old speaker trick or my I add woofer, works every time. About 3 weeks or longer depending on how much the wife can stand it is the break in period.