TONERITE DE-DAMPER - Results, anyone?

[Mike Snyder]

Nevertheless, I'll continue to post in a friendly and positive way, or not post at all. I learned this the hard way, posted some really stupid and negative things. Not many, but the memory makes me cringe. I'll assume that everyone is straight with me until proven otherwise.

[Mike Bunting]

That post hardly qualifies as hype, it wasn't posted by Teri LoMarco. There have been whole threads posting positive comments on Longhollow straps and I've heard/seen no complaints. All this whole thread has been is a debate on the merits of the Tone-rite.

[Amandalyn]

The "Traveling Tonerite" experiment now has 6 participants, so I'm closing this round. Thanks to those who responded. A new thread will be started for the users to posts their comments.
Stay tuned....
Teri

[jim_n_virginia]

DON'T DO IT!!!

I have heard a Tonerite will artificially age your mandolin and loosen up the glue joints and braces and cause minute wood cell fiber separation and your mandolin will be more prone to future cracks and stress fractures!!!!

If you use it long enough one day you will pick up your mandolin and it will crumble to dust in your very hands!!!!

This happened to a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of mine!!!

OK OK I'm obviously just kidding ... seriously I don't think it is a fair test if the owner of the instrument is the one to judge if the tone is better. Because they WANT it to sound better.

A real test would be for someone else to listen that doesn't know a Tonerite was used. Now that test I would be interested to see.

[Mike Snyder]

If it's possible, try not to think of this travelling tone thingy as a "TEST". If the participants post information before, during, or after using the vibe, it will be anecdotal, highly subjective, and completely unverifiable. I'm in on this thing and I anticipate giving my opinion of what takes place. I'm pretty far down the line. If it turns into more mud slinging, my most profound statement will be silence.

[Paul Statman]

The first time I went to band rehearsal after having my Tonerite on the mandolin for several days, my fiddle player asked me what I'd done to my mando. He said it sounded better and louder. I hadn't told him about the device, as I'd wanted an honest reaction. What surprised me was that he volunteered the comments before I'd had a chance to ask him if he noticed any difference. That was on a four year old Collings MF5. It has sped up the break in on my Brentrup PML, and continues to keep them both warmed up nicely.

[wsugai]

Jim, how did you know? I sprung $150 for one from Elderly a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to setting it up on my 1967 F-12 a week ago yesterday. Sure enough, when I opened the door to the closet last night, there was only a pile of dust on the floor below where the mando was hanging with the TR sitting in the middle of it buzzing away! It might have been because it was a mid-60s Gibson (and everybody knows about those "lost decades" Gibsons), but I still think it was that buzzer what done it. Beware!

DON'T DO IT!!!

I have heard a Tonerite will artificially age your mandolin and loosen up the glue joints and braces and cause minute wood cell fiber separation and your mandolin will be more prone to future cracks and stress fractures!!!!

If you use it long enough one day you will pick up your mandolin and it will crumble to dust in your very hands!!!!

This happened to a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of mine!!!

OK OK I'm obviously just kidding ... seriously I don't think it is a fair test if the owner of the instrument is the one to judge if the tone is better. Because they WANT it to sound better.

A real test would be for someone else to listen that doesn't know a Tonerite was used. Now that test I would be interested to see.

[wsugai]

OK, so I actually did buy a Tone-Rite from Elderly and set it up on my F-12 and had it buzzing away uninterrupted for pretty close to exactly 7 days. I took off the gizmo and played the mando last night and I think it sounded better, but I can't really tell for sure because I can't remember exactly what it sounded like after not playing it for 7 days. Hell, I can't even tell you what I had for dinner 7 days ago, much less what my mando sounded like 7 days ago! And to make things worse, I've been playing my Breedlove all during that time while my Gibson was getting buzzed on and I can't tell whether I'm hearing my Breedlove, or the Gibson, or what.

But here's the point: I've been hearing about this vibration-improves-tone debate since I first started messing with mandos back in 1976 and I've lived long enough to finally get to try out a device designed specifically for this purpose delivered to my door for $150. Man, that is cheap! In the intervening years, I almost got crazy enough to try the stereo-speaker blasting-all-day-and-night-technique, but thankfully, never went that far. What I can reasonably expect now is that the mando probably sounds better (it sure can't sound worse), and even if my old ears can't quite detect it, better ears out there in the audience probably can, and I feel a whole lot better about that. Consequently, I feel just a tad bit more confident about my playing. And all that for a modest $150 and no liver damage. I'd say that was worth it -- kinda like the guy who (1) feels his car goes faster now that it's been waxed, or (2) feels his mando sounds a lot spicier because it's got that optional red spruce top, or (3) can unquestionably hear those mid-range tones ring out there because his mando's varnished rather than lacquered, or (4) gets better tonal response because his fat arm's pressing down on a floating arm rest rather than the far edge of the top (I've got one of those on all my mandos), or (5) would bet the farm on the "fact" that his mando's so much louder now that he's clipped on one of those Tone-Gards (got those too!). And on and on ...

Wouldn't be half the fun if we couldn't buy all these geegaws. I mean, really, demanding the data truly misses the whole point of this exercise. My $0.02, cheerfully!

[Paul Statman]

Right on, wsugai!