The reverse of opening up...."closing up"

[d03nut]

With any new guitar purchase, I have invariably noticed that the guitar begins to not sound as good after a couple of months have passed by. The deterioration in tone is always the same regardless of the brand/wood: a "dulling" of tone, sort of like a damp piece of cloth is covering the soundhole. What's puzzling is that the guitars in question seem to be opening up beautifully before this occurs.

 

Having more or less eliminated most of the usual suspects that I could think of as the likely culprits -strings, humidity, G.A.S, etc.- what I'm left with is either geography or psychology as disciplines that could provide some answers.

 

Or there another explanation?

[slider]

hmmm. what you described is exactly what dead strings sound like. there is no other explanation from my experiences. dirty strings sound punky. if the tonal shift starts there how can it not effect everything else.

[kwakatak]

I have to concur. You may also want to experiment with different strings and not just a new set of the same old ones that have worked on other guitars.

Maybe the setup of the guitar has changed as well so that the honeymoon period is over and you r ear is being fooled by your tired hands. This could be remedied by a light $30 setup from a tech or luthier. Cleaning and oiling the fertboard and adjusting the action to suit your needs will have a positive effect on how the guitar feels.

It may also be the room dynamics too. I've found that moderate to high humidity (55% and above) makes sounds in general seem less "crisp" to my ear. Try playing your guita in different spots in and out of the house and experiment. Probably the most dramatic effect you'll find is in a room that is not carpeted or filled with upholstered furniture, like a bathroom or kitchen.

Of course, it could just be boredom with your routine. This time of year I like to strap on my guitar and take it outside for brief periods of a half hour to an hour.

[guitarcapo]

It might also happen in a guitar with a top too lightly built. Guitars with that problem will sometimes sound great in the stores...but after a few years sound boomy and muddy. A lack of power and projection is perceived, with an unbalanced bass that seems to muddy and cover other notes in the chord. The problem seems alleviated by lighter guage strings a bit....but not completely. I had a Taylor 710CE that that happened with....along with a Martin D-28. The Taylor improved when I went to light guage string from mediums. But the Martin never sounded good and was sold online. If a guitar sounds amazingly good in the store....beware. It might not hold up for decades that way.

[d03nut]

Yeah, it could be that I need to move around more with the guitar, to try different areas in the house. But wouldn't you want to get that perfect sound in the same spot everytime? Why does it have to be this way with acoustics.................

[d03nut]

Yeah, it could be that I need to move around more with the guitar, to try different areas in the house. But wouldn't you want to get that perfect sound in the same spot everytime? Why does it have to be this way with acoustics.................

[kwakatak]

Originally posted by d03nut Yeah, it could be that I need to move around more with the guitar, to try different areas in the house. But wouldn't you want to get that perfect sound in the same spot everytime? Why does it have to be this way with acoustics.................

 

 

Mainly because the room is also part of the equation and you aren't hearing the direct sound of the guitar in most cases. What you're actually hearing is a reflection of the sound waves that come from the front of the guitar. This is why it's recommended that you have the salesman play the guitar for you, so that you can get the full effect of the guitar's tone from the audience's perspective.

 

It may sound silly, but my favorite place to play when listening for fine details in my technique is actually in the bathroom. Being a man that's the one place on this earth where I can get away from interruptions so I don't have to filter other sounds out - unless I forget to lock the door! The small size of the room and reflective nature of formica, porceline and tile also make for a clearer, more immediate reflection of sound waves to my ears.

[solitaire]

Originally posted by d03nut With any new guitar purchase, I have invariably noticed that the guitar begins to not sound as good after a couple of months have passed by. The deterioration in tone is always the same regardless of the brand/wood: a "dulling" of tone, sort of like a damp piece of cloth is covering the soundhole. What's puzzling is that the guitars in question seem to be opening up beautifully before this occurs.

 

Doesn't this happen to every acoustic in the sense they all have a Use Before date written in the stars; just a matter of time? One day it has opened up too much or it suffers the String-Tension Induced Freaking Fatigue disease, or STIFF. Comes sooner to softer and thinner tops, of course.

[solitaire]

Originally posted by Tioga_Man Do3nut, do you live in an area of high humidity?

 

Oh, Do3nut meant it has gone sour. I thought he meant signs of aging. I agree with TM Do3nut could have got his instrument over humidified.

[nylon rock]

I have a new guitar (Dec. '04) and recently have thought the same things you're thinking.

But, I think the guitar is opening up while it is me closing up.

You only know so much in your repetoire. You try out everything you know with your new guitar, everything sounds so fresh and exciting early on, and then after a couple of months, things have gone stale.

So what do you do? Do other things for a while. Get away from your guitar. Open the doors and windows...Spring is here...days are longer. Shake off Winter and all its doom and gloom.

When you get back to your guitar, put new strings on, clean it up all over, maybe a little polish from Stewart-MacDonald. Tune it up perfectly.

Learn some new song, or revamp an old one that you've been working on for ten whole years.

[JasmineTea]

I think you guys are all nuts.

[d03nut]

You're all right -and alright.

That said, what I meant by "having eliminated humidity...." was that I try to take good care of my guitars including keeping them "in the zone", which means keeping them in the right temp/humidity/string condition/etc. (and yes, I do live in an area with a lot fluctuations in temp). I also do take into account room acoustics as well as having a different vantage point by having someone else play the guitar.

Yet sometimes despite my best efforts, a particular guitar while being in an ideal setting still doesn't sound up to par. On the other hand, other times even though humidity is up to yay and my ears are all plugged up or whatever, the instrument sounds out of this world. Affairs of the tonal kind are not so predictable is what I'm saying.

And having re-read my own post just now, I've come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe I'm partial to that not-so-broken-in raw harsher sound of a new guitar. Maybe I need to slow down the inevitable mellowing of sound that comes with aging........

[nylon rock]

One thing that may have been overlooked here is the rare tuning anomaly. I'm just making this up, but there may be some merit to it.

You tune up a guitar by tuner, play it a while, and then you tune it up by comparison of other strings to each other in the tuning process to get tuned the strings you're working on at the moment. Then when you're done you check the low E to the high E, just looking to hear a good octave relationship. Then you adjust everything inbetween until you're happy with things.

You get a different "tune up" each time. Some things are the way they always are, but sometimes, tuning in this way yields a guitar with an extra sweet sound to it for one reason or another.

It is not that something is way off from the norm, it is just that the strings get tuned to really mesh with each other due to the uniqueness of all sorts of variables, and for that particular playing experience, briefly, you can do no wrong.

[JasmineTea]

Originally posted by Tioga_Man Yeah you're right. I always thought it was me...that I must be partially tone deaf. It takes me forever to tune. And without a tuner, I don't know sometimes if I need to go high or low...even in comparison with other strings. That's why I though I was tonedeaf. But once in tune, it's like - as you say - I "can do no wrong"!

My ex-father-in-law was a piano tuner, he gave me a tuning hammer and the other basic esentials for piano tuning including this old book from some place in Chicago where they taught blind people to be piano-tuners - no, it was'nt in brail...

[JasmineTea]

One thing I'd like to add to my previouse post: Once in a while, not often, I find a guitar that sounds best when the D note (third frett B string) sounds best tuned beatless with open G.

[Andrewrg]

d03nut,this is not meant to sound flippant but could it be your ears?
I had a build up of wax which would intermittantly attenuate the treble region of my hearing.A syringing cured it;instant sparkly sounding guitars!

[Tweedman]

I've found that when it comes to acoustic instruments, I'm much happier finding a good old one rather than a good new one. I've never heard of an old guitar sounding worse with age. Of course, vintage prices are ridiculous, but so are the prices of the "new" guitars that can compete with them.

Other than that, I agree with the replies about strings and room acoustics.