Break in period??

[BloodRose]

Re: Break in period??

i dunno if it has a break in period, but rather you forming to your guitar lol, thats what it has felt like for me, ill play like crap for a few days on a new guitar then i get used to it. even though the wood has been cut and formed into a guitar, it is still alive and always changing

Thats why I asked.. I havent spent ALOT of time with it, and matter of fact, hadnt played it for a week or so. So I was suprised it felt so right. I wanted to see if maybe i was just bonding or if it could actually be different in some way.. I think its both.

[SamusChief]

Re: Break in period??

The same thing that happens to acoustics over the years happens to Les Pauls. I'm almost sure this has been posted before, but I'm not sure about who or when it was.

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Break in period??

You giggin nearby Randy Man??

Not really,but "kinda"...

Never enough,y'know?

Hopefully after teh 1st of teh yr...

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: Break in period??

I think electrics need a break in period. I know mine change when the weather changes... humidity, temperature..... I prefer playing in colder and dryer weather.... guitar feels more solid, crystal and hard.... humid summer months they feel spongey on action and bending and have less sustain. Less humidity = more sustain and clarity???

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Break in period??

I think there's a bit of everything that's been mentioned here at play. I kinda like that it's a slightly mysterious and (hopefully) magical element to our instruments.

I also think the player can contribute to the 'shaping' of the way a new instrument unfolds itself .... the player's style, favoured keys, touch etc. are going to cause the wood to resonate in certain ways : and i believe that at least some instruments are sensitive to this and with enough player input, they react/ respond and can become that player's instrument, much like a pet owner's habits can shape the way their pet grows up, or the way a parent can influence and shape the early stages of their young child's life.

(Following on from that line of thought, I've always felt that when getting a second-hand instrument, it needs to be played a lot by the new owner to sort of 're-configure' the guitar to the new owner's style before the new owner truly owns it).

On a more practical level, I often think a large part of it can be about how well (or otherwise) the wood was dried before the guitar was built.

[Scott_F]

Re: Break in period??

I've been through so many guitars, new and used, over the years. Yes, we all note that they change somewhat as they age. My LP is 10 years old now and it plays better than it did when new.

Also take into account the travel a certain guitar gets on it. Made in Nashville or Korea for instance, then travels to a retailer somewhere often nowhere near where you live. Or you buy used from another part of the country. It takes a while for them to settle down a bit IMO.

While some might like playing in colder drier weather, I think wood in general loves a bit of humidity. I think its when they dry out they change the most.

I had a black PRS mccarty arrive from somewhere in the upper east coast of the US that was so dried out, I almost thought I'd gotten scammed. I ended up with a severe humidity intervention and managed to save the fretboard. It became a really good player that I wished I still had.

[BloodRose]

Re: Break in period??

True.. could just be that after a couple of months out of the hands of monkeys at GC and in my climate controled closet with fretboard conditioner, and lots of love ( nothing says love like a set of Seymour Duncans right?), it has just come alive.. I hope thats it and it stays this way or continues to get better! I did add a ding the other day.. I mourned...

[astrozombie]

Re: Break in period??

i think vintage guitars that suck kind of disprove this theory

[BloodRose]

Re: Break in period??

Well, yeah, some turds, ya cant never polish.. haha.

Again, what suprised me most is that this has occured in just a couple of months and not 10 years of steady playing..

[LtKojak]

Re: Break in period??

I think the one that needs the "break-in" period is the player, not the instrument... although I firmly believe that played-through-the-years instruments tend to perform better than brand-new ones.

HTH,

[ItsaBass]

Re: Break in period??

Define "vintage".

From Wiki-thingy (italics are mine):

"Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product. A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and declare vintage Port in their best years. From this tradition, a common, though incorrect, usage applies the term to any wine that is perceived to be particularly old or of a particularly high quality."

So, correctly used (or, shall we say, "used in the same spirit as originally intended, but applied to guitars instead of wine"), it's most applicable definition means "made in the year." It must be stated with a year to make any sense. E.g. a 1954-vintage Esquire. Thus any guitar can be "vintage," as long as you state the year of manufacture along with the word. I own a 2005-vintage MIM Stratocaster, for example.

Incorrectly (but extremely commonly) used, it is used alone, and means "old" or "antique." And as Wiki-thingy sez, there is often, though not necessarily, an implied superior quality about the item over a "non-vintage" (i.e. non-old) item. My '68 SG is "vintage" in this use of the word, because it has some decades behind it, and it is widely considered a great instrument. My '73 P-Bass is not, IMO, because it is a '70's Fender. Even though it is almost as old as the SG, it is not widely considered to be a great instrument. And you might even be able to call '80's MIJ Fenders vintage, since they are nearly 30 years old, and very well though of for their good quality.

Personally, the latter (adjective) use of it drives me crazy, but it is in such common use that it has become a "proper" dictionary definition for the word. That's the way language works, like it or not.