Wake up !

[E-minor7]

Sometimes when I reach for a guitar that has been untouched for a while, a couple of days or more (could be less), I have the feeling that it's not how it's supposed to be. The trebs can be too barb-wire, the overall voice can be too tame, even cheap, or have other weaknesses to it here or there.

My experience tells me I just have to sit down and play the guitar a while - 20 minutes or so to get it up'n'goin' and the issues will melt away.

Do any of you recognize this situation, and if yes, what is your analysis.

 

Does the ear get used to the given sound and gradually accept what it hears -

or

does the instrument warm up between your hands and slowly overcome or burn away the relative 'minus'.

 

Is it both-ways-situation and to which degree do you think half sleeping woods actually need time to wake up.

 

Curious to know your thoughts -

[jdd707]

I think it is a both-ways situation or perhaps just individual to the person. Indeed the situation you noted happens when my AJ sits for a while. A similar situation happens when I play one guitar and pick up, in the same session, another. Often, I think the second sounds better until I go back to the first and it sounds better than it did 15 minutes ago. Then I realize that both Gibsons sound good, just different. Funny about the ear but isn't it nice to be able to hear these differences and appreciate them?

[j45nick]

I think it is almost always a matter of expectations and/or faulty aural memory. While I like to think of my guitars as friends, I refuse to endow them with the ability to change their voices in response to my caress in anything other than a purely mechanical way.

 

Having said that, I've had an almost perverted relationship with my J-45 for that last 45+ years.......

[DanvillRob]

I often go weekend to weekend without picking up a guitar.....

 

I'm just so beat when I get home, I don't wanna touch a computer, guitar, phone and several other things.

 

I know I'd be a lot better if I played SOME every day....but I'm just too old and tired when I get home.

[zombywoof]

Never noticed anything after a few days or even a few weeks. I do think though that if you expect your guitar to sound different after sitting idle for a few days then it will. The only time my guitars sound different is when they have new strings or are played by somebody else. In the former instance they sound terrible. In the latter they always sound better.

[EuroAussie]

I think its the ear mainly, although I do belive guitars do warm up, especially rosewood.

 

I get that reaction sometimes when I pickup up my Bird, which after playing say the SWD or the J-150 sounds somewhat thin compared to the others. But then after some 10 mins of playing the beaity of this guitars starts to shine, and I appreciate if for what it is.

[retrorod]

There is no doubt in my mind(and that could be dubious) That it is a two-way street. The sound usually gets better as... 1) the guitar warms up to me and.... 2) I warm up to the guitar

It is as plain as night and day!

Sometimes I can pick up one of my guitars and think...Its not really all there, Others times it will speak tone from the start.

I chalk it up to changes in attitude as well as latitude and the humidity level.

[Frosty]

- 20 minutes or so to get it up'n'goin' and the issues will melt away

 

Yes, this is real. Guitars do "fall asleep" if left unplayed. My ears have experienced the "waking up " on many guitars over the years.

[Murph]

I think they are CONSTANTLY different, different temps, humidity, air pressure, and then having said THAT.....

 

So are we. Or at least ME....

 

It seems I can sit down and play and sometimes my fingers will feel the pressure for a few minutes, but the longer I play, the less I notice it.

 

Even my calluses need to warm up.

[E-minor7]

Reassuring to read these responses -

 

The organic woods

When we know the whole thing is about vibrations, why shouldn't the materials need a little time to get goin'. I think the logic is pretty obvious – and that the instruments are far more organic than we tend to believe.

The mechanical flesh

The inner ear is riddle (so is the outer in many ways). It's so relative and adjusts to different inputs very easily. Wish some scientists would chime in.

Listen to a modern record on the CD-player and enjoy the HQ sound. Then go to your gramophone and put on a oldies record. At first you notice the difference, but soon you'll accept the old recording as absolutely satisfying – if not more.

Sometimes when I'm about to sleep my clock tics like a hi-hat in the dark – other times I can't hear it at all.

One incident in the studio carved it in granite.

10-15 years ago me and a partner were mixing an extremely wild and long rock-balled-outro on an old desk. During the ride we got pretty exited and gradually turned the volume up 'till it reached what we then called 'Wembley'. We left the session as high as the decibels from the speakers and found a street cafe to calm down - hovering like balloons. Next day we arrived to continue the work and pressed play without thinking. The volume thundered across the control room with such power we simply blew against the back wall. It was intolerable, painfully loud and had to be strangled immediately. I don't recall ever goin' that far again.

Short of long – I'm on the both ways team. The ears like the woods are 'living' things. …....................

 

 

[chasAK]

I don’t think it is all in the head or ear. But having said thatI have pick up my guitar and it did not matter what or how I played, it justwouldn’t sound good. Then there was a time last summer I went on a weeklonghike with the kids; I came home hit the Gibson and Oh, how I missed it and Ohhow it sounded so good!

 

chasAK

[passthej45]

yes yesyes. When I first pick up my guitar to play it always feels a bit cold(both literally and figuratively), then gradually it warms up (both literally and figuratively)

[E-minor7]

I hear the ghost of an engineer whisper over my shoulder : Why the heck don't you record the most unstable guitar in your herd now and again – when it's hot, cold, slow, fast etc. . . ?

 

A bit embarrassed I have to answer - "I'm still working on my 80's 4-track Fostex at home, , , , and I'm seriously out of chrome-tape, god dam it. . ."

 

 

[ChrisA83]

I often find this too and never know if it's my ears, the guitar, or my playing that needs 'warming up'. I usually assume it's the latter though.

[Lilac Lion]

I definitely believe in the "waking up period."