NEW! Dr. Herringbone’s ’Tone Traveler’ the fastest and best way to play in your guitar!
NEW! The fastest and best way to ‘play in’ your new or existing guitar!
Dr. Herringbone’s TONE TRAVELER
There is nothing more exciting than getting your new guitar, and as great as guitars sound new, we all are eager for them to ‘play in’ so they fully develop and sound their absolute best. But this takes hours, months, even years. Life gets in the way, and time stretches on, and the process can become very slow.
What if you had a way to have someone play in your guitar while you were sleeping, or at work, hours and hours of playing so that your guitar played in quickly in a matter of days or weeks instead of years? Well, now you do. Dr. Herringbone’s “Tone Traveler” accomplishes exactly that.
I know, you are skeptical, so was I. I tried other devices that ‘vibrated’ and ‘broke in your guitar’ with disappointing results. So I challenged the folks at Dr. Herringbone to send me a device to test, no strings attached, and they gladly accepted the challenge.
My experience? In one word? “WOW”.
What’s different, and what did I find out?
To begin with what’s different? Unlike other devices that simply ‘vibrate’ at a set cycle of Hz, the Tone Traveler plays-in your guitar by creating actual sound, notes, as if you were playing. 16 notes to be exact ( More are possible using the included ipad to ‘capo’ and thus ‘play’ in different sets of notes), including the open strings, blended and creating an audible tone as well as a vibration created by the small speaker device that gently rests on the bridge area of your guitar, easy to place on and off with a simple twist, and which approximates ‘playing’ the guitar using the actual tones and frequencies that exist during playing. This is especially helpful with a new guitar which is ‘primed’ to develop and settle in, but even helps with guitars that have already been played, however the difference is more noticeable on new(er) instruments.
What did I find out? I tested two new guitars, one classical one steel string, two ‘used’ guitars, one classical and one steel string, and a near new Mandolin. I tested a total of close to 500 hours using these instruments, using the device overnight, testing in the AM, making notes, repeating and so on. In every case the change was very noticeable, particularly in the new instruments, but even the played in instruments had audible improvements to my ear. What may have taken two years, took mere hours, perhaps the range was 50-100 hours depending on the instrument. On one guitar in particular, a bit heavily built, the tone was nice but tight and closed and I could not ‘feel’ the instrument vibrate when I played it. After about 100 hours of treatment in this case the guitar opened up noticeably, I mean ’NOTICEABLY’. Not just ‘I think it opened up a bit’ but ‘DANG’. And, as I played the entire guitar now resonated and I could feel the vibration against my body as I played, sustain was dramatically improved as well.
As always, the usual disclaimers apply and you should follow the instructions and guidance provided by the Dr. Herringbone folks. Lighter built guitars will respond more quickly than heavy built guitars etc. And I would follow their advice and use the device for several hours, then pause a day or two and see how you like the results, and continue in that fashion until you reach a result you are happy with.
The set up comes with its own tablet device, charging cables, and the speaker device, for more information visit https://www.drherringbone.com
Price is a very reasonable $289 with free shipping anywhere in Continental US. They are often sold out, but I try to keep a limited supply available for my clients.