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"Torrefied" soundboards


Danocoustic

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Lots of people who I highly respect are using it - both individual builders and companies. I haven't had a chance to work with it yet' date=' probably won't. But it certainly is something to include in the overall design of a guitar.[/quote']

 

Is it the price that keeps you from working with it?

 

I've been reading about woods a good bit lately, seen a lot of positive reviews about this stuff, but have never seen it up close and personal.

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Is it the price that keeps you from working with it?

 

I've been reading about woods a good bit lately, seen a lot of positive reviews about this stuff, but have never seen it up close and personal.

 

 

Absolutely not, you would be shocked at what I have paid for some pretty pieces of wood. A few years ago I bought a bunch of Lutz spruce sound boards and have been building out of them - the wood is stiff and pretty and seems to be working really well. My last acoustic was some red cedar that I had down in the wood room and I'm more impressed with that guitar each day. I keep thinking my next acoustic will be a classical and I probably will use cedar on that, then I've been thinking about carving a real archtop.

 

But if someone came into my shop with an armload of roasted wood and said "build me a guitar" I'd sure do it.

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Remember a few years ago when the big thing was vibrating your top day and night? Put it in front of a loud speaker, build some gizmo out of a fish tank pump, or buy a fancy thingie that clamped on the strings? Someone gave me one of those fancy thingies and I never used it. Its in a box under my work bench - pay the shipping and its yours.....

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I had a 2012 Les Paul with a baked maple board. It looked good (dark) and felt great' date=' and sounded great. I only sold the guitar because it ended up being too heavy when I started having back problems. [/quote']

 

As I understand it (and I could well be mistaken), roasting/baking and torrefying are different processes.

 

I've got a thread up on the Electric Guitars board about roasted necks. Not fretboards, the actual necks.

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Remember a few years ago when the big thing was vibrating your top day and night? Put it in front of a loud speaker' date=' build some gizmo out of a fish tank pump, or buy a fancy thingie that clamped on the strings? Someone gave me one of those fancy thingies and I never used it. Its in a box under my work bench - pay the shipping and its yours.....[/quote']

 

In response to your post #4---my favorite steel-string acoustic is a walnut-bodied jumbo with a cedar top (Washburn USA J20S). I'm very impressed with what some of these "alternate" tonewoods can do!

 

In response to this one---I'll take you up on that! Shall I PM you my address? Not that I believe it's going to make any wondrous change, but it would be fun to experiment with, and your offer makes it inexpensive to do so :)

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Personally, I think it's all hype. Most luthiers worth their salt don't just buy materials and work with them straight away. They stockpile stuff for decades. You're actually supposed to let wood acclimate for several months before working with it. A lot of what's on the market is kiln dried as well. Torrification just seems to be a fancy word for baking it to speed up the process. I imagine it's not much different than baking a souffle; keep the heat low and keep a constant eye on it and the proceed cautiously or it will implode.

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Freeman's gift arrived yesterday. He won't take any payment (even for shipping), so the generosity will be paid forward.

 

This morning, I installed it on a short-scale all mahogany guitar I bought from a pawn shop for $50 or so many years ago. Seems very well made, but no label, no identification---I have no idea who made it. I like the way it sounds as-is, so let's see if I can discern any difference after 72 hours' treatment with the Tone Rite device.

 

I admit to a certain skepticism but trying to keep an open mind.

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I tend to agree with this, however some people who I highly respect are singing its praises. Both Martin and Taylor are building torrified wood guitars and Dana Bourgouis is now using it. I remember taking a voicing class from Bourgouis where he showed how he tapped and shaved and worked with each individual piece of wood - no way I could duplicate it but his guitars were pretty special.

 

I've got a few more sets of some pretty stiff and nice looking Lutz that will carry me to the end of my building days but, as I said, if someone walked into the shop tomorrow and said "build me a.........." I wouldn't hesitate.

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The validity of this little experiment requires no other changes to the guitar before or after exposure to the device. Some say the condition of the existing strings is adversely affected by the device so they install new strings and then give flowery reports of how the device markedly enhanced their guitars. What a bunch of maroons. Don't be one of them. Leave the existing strings on throughout the experiment and then report on it. That would be the honest approach.

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It might be one of those things you need to actually try in order to have a strong opinion.

 

You're sort of correct. If you put new strings on before 72 hours on the tonerite they'll sound dead after. Like strings that have been played for many hours. When I was first experimenting with mine I used to restring before and after - mostly to convince myself due to all of the "experts" here that are critical of it. Now I do it, then change strings.

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A couple of years ago I bought a Made In China Yamaha LL16 A.R.E for under $1000.

 

A.R.E. stands for Acoustic Resonance Enhancement and is Yamaha's name for the process.

 

From the moment I picked the guitar up and played the first couple of chords on it I was amazed at the sound, especially for a mass produced guitar in that price range. The clarity, brilliance and fullness of the tone spoke to me. I kept going back to the store and, after three days of playing it for an hour or more each time, I ended up taking it home.

 

Tuning the guitar by ear is a treat because the "enhanced resonance" really brings out the interaction between the notes.

 

I often find them in the guitar room of music stores along side guitars that cost four and five times as much and, to my ear, the LL16 sounds as good and, in some cases, better than the more expensive big name brands.

 

 

I would like to hear the high end Japanese built models of the Yamaha LL series.

 

 

https://ca.yamaha.com/en/products/mu...l#product-tabs

 

 

 

 

 

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