Some people think a guitar that’s been “broken in” sounds quite different from a new one. Somehow the accumulated vibrations affect the wood itself, making it sound “more open”, warmer, brighter, louder, or just plain better.
I don’t know if this is true, but I was curious to find out. I didn’t like the idea of waiting months or years for this to happen, so I built a tool to break-in my guitar while I’m sleeping, to do it easily, and to do it for free. You can try it here too.
The Guitar Vibrator Tool
The way this works is pretty simple: put your guitar close to a speaker that’s playing one of these sound files, wait several days, and see if it makes your guitar sound better. Easy!
Use Guitar Vibrator via Spotify…
Use Guitar Vibrator on Apple Music…
The theory is that your guitar’s strings will resonate with the sounds within the Guitar Vibrator files. These string vibrations will then spread throughout the instrument, mimicking the physical effect of actually playing the instrument. Let the Guitar Vibrator run long enough and you’ll get a “played in” guitar in way less time than normal. That’s the theory!
To very quickly see this in action, put your mouth close to your guitar and sing straight into one of the sound holes. Pick an E or any open string pitch. Make a big sound, hear your guitar ring, and watch your strings start to vibrate. Magic!
I don’t know how long it takes to fully break-in a guitar, so I made this tool easy to use for days or weeks on end. Maybe I’ll discover a clearer vibration protocol over time, but presumably it’ll be hard to find a reliable guideline as there will be unique variables for every instrument (guitar body shape, type of wood, volume of sound source, age of guitar, etc.).
I also don’t know if this works on solid-body electric guitars or if it’s only worth doing with hollow & semi-hollow guitars. If you’re debating trying this for the first time and you’ve got more than one guitar to choose from, definitely start with an acoustic or hollow/semi-hollow electric.
Ideally the guitar should be free to vibrate, hung from a headstock hook or otherwise propped up for free resonance. The ideal volume for vibrating your guitar is probably more limited by your domestic situation than anything based on acoustic theory. Probably, the louder the sound source, the faster the effect will be.
You’ll notice there’s no cost to trying this. If it doesn’t do anything, no sweat. If it does work, great! Tell other guitarists and soon we’ll make every guitar on Earth sound 2% better.
The Guitar Vibrator Sound Source
Assuming one can automate breaking in a guitar with sound, the properties of the sound source likely matters quite a bit. This might be an interesting rabbit hole for later on, one I’ll explore if the initial trials work.
To get started, just use the embedded playlists in the Spotify & Apple Music players above. These both just repeat “Capo 0, Many Overtones” over and over again for about 24 hours. It’s my #1 option and the best place to start.
Later, if you want more options, see this page: Advanced Vibrations. I made a bunch of extra sound sources with varied waveforms for the most adventurous guitar fans. I’m not sure which of these are the best ideas, but perhaps we’ll find out after vibrating 100s or 1000s of guitars.
Try It!
Hopefully you find this easy enough to use. If it magically transforms your guitar into a better version of itself, hooray! And, you’re welcome!