Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Playing-In the "Saint"
A day after I picked up the "Saint" from Ben Parrott I had some time to check with John Rihani about his offer to loan me a device that helped with the playing-in process. It is commonly held that violins and other string instruments that are new or have not been played for a long time experience improvement in their sound if they are played regularly for a significant period of time.
John is the String Manager at Encore Orchestral Strings a unit of Paige's Music. A few weeks ago I shared with him my interest in the ToneRite play-in device. John graciously offered to let me borrow their ToneRite device for a short period of time to see what I thought of its impact on my newly completed Benjamin Parrott violin.
According to FAQ's at the ToneRite website: "The play-in process is a scientific phenomenon that the quality and volume of sound from an acoustic system increases with consistent stimulation. The ToneRite® works by efficiently and safely transferring energy into an instrument that allows the instrument to resonate freely thereby increasing its volume, tone, balance and playability. The secret behind the ToneRite® is that a small high-g vibration can silently and for long periods of time excite the body of an instrument to de-dampen and allow the instrument to resonate as a whole."
The above statements and others I read really appealed to the technophile in me. As romantic as I am about violins I am still a child of the age of technology.
I connected the device and left it on my instrument for about three hours that afternoon before I took my instrument to the Play Ethic String Sinfonietta rehearsal. About an hour or so into the rehearsal it seemed to me that the violin was starting to resonate more. At break I played it a bit for several members who commented that it sounded very good and wondered how much better it would sound later given that it had only been fitted a day before.
That night when I got home I hooked up the device again and left it running on high setting until the next morning (about 12 hours). When I disconnected it and started to practice I was a bit disappointed that it did not seem to be as resonate as the evening before. However, I was playing it in a carpeted low ceiling apartment rather than the much more acoustically alive rehearsal room at Play Ethic.
Below is the "Saint" with the ToneRite device connected.
After practicing I hooked it back up until time to go to my violin lesson with David Rugger. David was very pleased with how evenly matched my Ben Parrott violin was to his Ben Parrott violin. Playing Vivaldi and Corelli duets together they seemed to play with lovely balanced voices.
Later I went to the Athenaeum Pops Orchestra rehearsal. Again, I was in a much more acoustically alive room and with very loud brass and woodwind instruments competing I was very happy that the volume under my ear was more than equal to them.
Back home I hooked the device up again and the next morning12 hours later took the "Saint" out to practice. This time even in my apartment there was a significant increase in resonance. As a simple test I had decided to play open strings and one octave higher harmonics listening for the quality of the reverberation and how long it lasted. At this point the D and A strings were very open. The G and E were resonate but not quite as much as the other two. Still I was very pleased with the improvement in only about 36 hours.
When I spoke with Benjamin I filled him in on the improvements in sound. I told him that I really loved the "Saint" and found this all to be an exciting adventure. It is as if you are gazing at a rosebud opening in slow motion. Out of curiosity, after Ben mentioned he had not made note of the air resonance pitch, I tested the violin by humming into the bass F hole until I found the pitch at which the entire instrument reverberated most energetically. Using my tuning meter I found that it was almost a perfect D.
Sunday morning after leaving the device hooked up still at maximum and now at 60 hours I practiced again and took note. At this point the 4 strings were very nearly evenly matched in resonance, the power seemed increased and the volume and tone quality across strings and in all positions was very pleasing.
As of today, Tuesday, I have applied the ToneRite treatment for over 100 hours. The sound seems to be stabilized but each time I play it seems to be somewhat more even. ToneRite FAQs recommend an initial 72 hour treatment at maximum level. With an additional 1-2 72 hours treatments other users seem to have found their instruments reach optimal treatment. I intend to try this out myself.
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