"Playing in" solid bodies & opening up?

[Twinfan]

I know acoustics take a little while to play in as you get the soundboard to vibrate a bit and find it's voice, but does the same apply to solid body electrics?

I've just been playing my Riff Raff'd Epiphone SG, which I've had for about 12 months.  I've noticed recently that the body seems very resonant - I can feel it against when I'm playing.  Also, notes up the Angus end (22nd fret ;) ) are now much more distinct, ringing and clear.  When I first got the guitar it played well and sounded great but was a little dead right at the very top frets.  All of sudden it seems to have sprung to life and now sounds absolutely superb, as if it's suddenly "opened up" like an acoustic does  :D

Is this possible/normal?  Anyone else experienced it?   :?

[_tom_]

Dunno, my Epiphones upper frets still sound kinda dead, even after 3-4 years of it being the only guitar I played. Maybe it needs a proper setup  :lol:

[sgmypod]

yeah sg after a while got more responsive....better sound....even more when changed to BKP's *L*

same with my accoustics....although sold one to fund another....but same happend with my parker sounds far nicer now...again BKP's helped

[Philly Q]

I think to some extent all the parts of a solidbody must sort of "settle" over time so they resonate well together.

I'm not sure how noticeable it is though.  If I've been playing a fairly heavy, inert, acoustically quiet guitar and I go back to a lighter, more resonant one that I haven't used for a while, the difference is suddenly very obvious.  But did the second guitar always sound like that anyway?

Then again, I have days when guitars I'm normally comfortable with suddenly seem stiff and unresponsive - I think that must all be in my hands and my mind.

The few real vintage guitars I've played have been much louder and more resonant than new ones, but I assume that's down to the timber (possibly better quality to begin with) drying out and the finish hardening.  But it could be partly due to them being "played in", too.

So.... dunno really.....  :?

[FELINEGUITARS]

I can possibly give a better answer here as i see it happen to guitars I make

They do get better over time
It's like all the timbers get used to the idea that they are no longer part of trees and are part of a guitar
With time and playing the wood fibres kind of loosen up and allow a better resonance (in theory)
I know people that put ther guitars on stands in front of their HI-FI speakers so that they even benefit from the vibrations from the Hi-fi and helps speed along the process

I am fascinated getting to see guitars I made 10 years ago just get better and better.

An interesting case in point is the Les Paul that some of the guys played at last year's LGS - that must be 4 or 5 years old now and it just keeps getting better.
I notice it and I am around it every day so to someone that has seen it every now and then they will really notice the improvements

To be fair - this year it also has an Earvana nut to make it sound even better.

Johnny Mac was playing it the other week and he is amazed that nobody has bought it yet - I suspect that he would have if we weren't already making him a custom LP type guitar.

Check it out at the show if you come along

[Muzzzz]

My guitar went the other way, It's starting to sound particularly dead.

Yeah, it probably needs a proper setup, but I think I should upgrade soon anyway :)

[Twinfan]

Thanks Feline - I suspected it might be possible as the woods settle although I wouldn't have thought that Epiphones would have had decent enough wood for it to occur.  I think I got a very good one, which is nice  :D

[the_bleeding]

2 weeks ago i played my neighbor's 60's (61?) les paul.  It was from the first line of goldtops with minibuckers.  I pitted it against my eastwood GP and mine slaughtered it in the resonance deparment.
Mine was louder, and sustained longer.  

It could have something to do with the fact that i had 11's and it had 9's, but mine fully vibrated in my hands and the lp felt kinda dead.


I always notice that the guitar doesnt resonate as well at the higher strings, but i think thats because the mass of the vibrating string is reduced so the vibrations probably wont carry through the guitar as well.

[PhilKing]

if it has mini humbuckers it is a 71, not a 60 (there were no single cutaway Les Pauls made from 61-68, in 69 the LP Standard was reintroduced with P-90's).  The guitar is a deluxe, and a lot of them had a 'sandwich' body with a very thin layer of maple between 2 layers of mahogany and then a maple cap.  I have a 69 and it is very resonant, and also a couple of 71 limited editions that ring too.  Unfortunately wood is not consistent so there will be some guitars that never sound great.  I know this from selling them in the 70's.  Your neighbour might have one of those.  You have to listen to them acoustically to get a real feel, the pickups will totally change the sound.

[ToneMonkey]

I think with this sort of thing, there's still a lot of guitar voodoo involved.

I would say in my (professional-ish) opinion that obviously the biggest influence in the guitars sound is the pups, then the build quality, then the wood etc etc (given same strings and scale length).

However if you had 2 guitars that were exactly identical.  One had been in the case for the last 20 years and the other had been given the dimebag treatment every day, the one that had been used everyday would be more resonant.  As the guiatr vibrates the fibres of the wood will begin to come in to line and it will transmit vibrations more easily.

There was a guitar company that used to strap their guitars to a "sonic generator" (or a bloody big speaker to most people) and they shown graphs of the frequency response on their website and there was a noticable difference.

[the_bleeding]

if it has mini humbuckers it is a 71, not a 60 (there were no single cutaway Les Pauls made from 61-68, in 69 the LP Standard was reintroduced with P-90's).  The guitar is a deluxe, and a lot of them had a 'sandwich' body with a very thin layer of maple between 2 layers of mahogany and then a maple cap.  I have a 69 and it is very resonant, and also a couple of 71 limited editions that ring too.  Unfortunately wood is not consistent so there will be some guitars that never sound great.  I know this from selling them in the 70's.  Your neighbour might have one of those.  You have to listen to them acoustically to get a real feel, the pickups will totally change the sound.

yeah it is a deluxe. Thanks for the info :)  Though, when i looked at the side (which was clear coated) it looked like one piece of wood.  Could the little bit of maple in the middle be hidden from the edges?

[PhilKing]

If it is a 70 it could have a one piece body, the sandwich ones were introduced in 71/72 when Norlin bought Gibson.  The wiki article gives some good info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Les_Paul.