Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

[Artie]

This is new one for me. And I've been doing this for awhile.

So, I return a guitar back to a customer/friend today who's a working musician. He's got at least one CD out and appears on local radio, and gigs. This is a custom built twin humbucker style guitar. He says the first thing he's going to do is "break-in" the electronics. I give him a blank stare. He says he plugs it into his amp, with every control dimed. He puts a dummy plug in the speaker output so he doesn't have to listen to the hum and feedback. He leaves it in each position of the selector switch, (4-way Tele style, in this case), for 24 to 36 hours. Huh? :dunno:

I've never, ever heard of anything like this before. He's says it makes a notable improvement in the guitars sound. Anyone ever heard of this before?

Artie

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

If he's not playing it during that time, how would he know it's making an improvement?

This is new one for me. And I've been doing this for awhile.

So, I return a guitar back to a customer/friend today who's a working musician. He's got at least one CD out and appears on local radio, and gigs. This is a custom built twin humbucker style guitar. He says the first thing he's going to do is "break-in" the electronics. I give him a blank stare. He says he plugs it into his amp, with every control dimed. He puts a dummy plug in the speaker output so he doesn't have to listen to the hum and feedback. He leaves it in each position of the selector switch, (4-way Tele style, in this case), for 24 to 36 hours. Huh? :dunno:

I've never, ever heard of anything like this before. He's says it makes a notable improvement in the guitars sound. Anyone ever heard of this before?

Artie

 

[trevorus]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

Snake oil bull shiz

 

[CTN]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Does he understand which way the signal flow is?

I can understand wanting to do some mechanical breaking in, ie turning the pots to loosen them up, flicking the switch back and forth to reduce tendency to stick, and plugging into/out of the jack to get the contact for the tip to flex a bit.

But what he is doing is absolutely electrically useless.

 

[Artie]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

But what he is doing is absolutely electrically useless.

That's exactly what I told him. But he insists. It's Christmas eve. I really couldn't bust his chops too bad.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

don't correct him
he probably believes in voodoo chickens too (no offence Lestrat)
unfortunately all musicians dont understand how their equipment works

these things are real to him and he will hang on to it for dear life

if he is older it may be more solidly ingrained

I find in every line of work their are some who are filled with half truths and innuendo

 

[synzzzer]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

The only thing I could think of, and this is really pushing it, is that, the strings are getting a chance to stretch. Maybe, instead of what he thinks are the electronics breaking in, it's the new strings he just put on. Again, I'm only guessing that since he put new pickups in, he also had the strings changed. Other than that, I don't have a clue what he's talking about.

 

[Artie]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

he probably believes in voodoo chickens too

Ah . . . so you know him too.

He actually is a good guy. I just don't "get" this thang (sic).

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

Is his amp also new ? New signal caps can take 80-100 hours to really give their best in a new amp.

High-voltage caps used in guitar tone controls could also benefit from having voltage applied to get them formed, but that would need to be done on a power supply, before installing it (the cap) into the guitar.

I'm assuming a dummy load is being used instead of speakers, so break-in of new-ish speakers can't explain it.

Ask this guy what the reasoning is behind this seemingly-weird process. Enquiring minds want to know.

 

[Artie]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

Is his amp also new?

Nope. It's a 70's era Mesa Boogie.

Ask this guy what the reasoning is behind this seemingly-weird process. Enquiring minds want to know.

Thats the first thing I asked. He said he first read about this in some guitar mag with some interview with someone. He thinks it was Eric Clapton. (He admits it was years ago.) The "person" was talking about how a used guitar often sounds better than a new one. Presumably, because it was broken in. He, (my friend), said he's done it to several guitars, and fellow musicians have commented on how amazing the guitar sounded. As in . . . "I've never heard an LP sound that good before." Etc., etc.

I would instantly call this BS if it wasn't from a guy I know who's a competent musician. That doesn't imply that he isn't nuts, but he does seem to know good tone.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

Ah, the power of 'someone well known' doing something senseless and others following like sheep.

A great example in a similar vein is Robert DeCastella, an Australian marathon runner. Late in one race he was seen sponging off his legs. After this for a couple of months you saw literally hundreds of people sponging their legs too.
Asked later why he did this, it turned out he had a bad stomach issue, and was trying to wipe the diarrhea off.

And listening to famous musos is not the best way to get the most sane or, er....chemically-free response.

 

[Artie]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

Asked later why he did this, it turned out he had a bad stomach issue, and was trying to wipe the diarrhea off.

That's classic.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

Whatever keeps him off the streets. Seriously, if it makes him happy, I wouldn't give a monkey's ass if he turned up his TV and let Gordon Ramsey yell at it for a week.

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

what a knob of the shine.

 

[Jermo3178]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

That doesn't imply that he isn't nuts

All of us guitar guys are a tad, what us in the holler call, tetched..

 

[Archer250]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

Nope. It's a 70's era Mesa Boogie.
I would instantly call this BS if it wasn't from a guy I know who's a competent musician. That doesn't imply that he isn't nuts, but he does seem to know good tone.

I'd like to remind us all that the guy who wrote the most famous fictional detective believed in fairies. Specifically, this picture.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

This is new one for me. And I've been doing this for awhile.

So, I return a guitar back to a customer/friend today who's a working musician. He's got at least one CD out and appears on local radio, and gigs. This is a custom built twin humbucker style guitar. He says the first thing he's going to do is "break-in" the electronics. I give him a blank stare. He says he plugs it into his amp, with every control dimed. He puts a dummy plug in the speaker output so he doesn't have to listen to the hum and feedback. He leaves it in each position of the selector switch, (4-way Tele style, in this case), for 24 to 36 hours. Huh? :dunno:

I've never, ever heard of anything like this before. He's says it makes a notable improvement in the guitars sound. Anyone ever heard of this before?

Artie

Dummy plug in the speaker out is bad for the amp, unless it's an active load. Burning in guitar components is hogwash.

However, if the idea is to make a new guitar 'good' like an old guitar, then the way to break it in like that is dip the entire guitar in a wading pool of sea water, leave outside for 7 days in the sun/moon until dry, light several cigarettes and set in an ashtray and hold the pickup area over the smoke coming up from the ashtray until the cigarettes are consumed, set the guitar down on concrete and kick it, then set the guitar down on grass and kick it, fill the wading pool with a solution of chlorinated pool water and vinegar and dip the entire guitar in the pool again to clean off the grass and concrete dust, then dry with a blow dryer. Thus completes the Antiquity process for an entire guitar. Happy jamming!

 

[Jeffblue]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

NONSENSE.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

Ah, the power of 'someone well known' doing something senseless and others following like sheep.

A great example in a similar vein is Robert DeCastella, an Australian marathon runner. Late in one race he was seen sponging off his legs. After this for a couple of months you saw literally hundreds of people sponging their legs too.
Asked later why he did this, it turned out he had a bad stomach issue, and was trying to wipe the diarrhea off.

And listening to famous musos is not the best way to get the most sane or, er....chemically-free response.

A similar thing happend in Super bike racing... about 10 year ago Ducati was wiping the floor with everyone and before every race the other teams noticed that a crew man would walk up to the back of the bike and pump the rear suspension up and down a few times before they would start. Soon you saw everybody doing it and when asked the teams were saying it was to warm up and loosen the shocks before the race. This went on for about 4 years until Ducati let the cat out of the bag that it had nothing to do with the shocks that their fuel pump needed to be primed so the bike would start and they hooked the priming arm to the suspension as a convenient way to do this.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Breaking in "guitar" electronics?

and was trying to wipe the diarrhea off.

There's a lot of diarrhea to be wiped off in the music world