Part of the mystique of vintage guitars and amplifiers is that they supposedly sound better than when they were new due to their many decades of making music. Less is said, however, about how new gear can improve with use. Whether you call this “breaking in,” “burning in,” or “playing in,” it’s a very real phenomenon and one that’s worth exploring.
Depending on the item in question, you might hear a noticeable improvement in tone after a few hours of use. But in some cases the new piece might approach its full voice only after 40, 60, 80, 100 or more hours of playing, and it may continue to improve slightly with use thereafter.
While we may experience the improvements in the guitar or amplifier in terms of playability or tone, the improvements often are the result of individual components breaking in. Without subjecting them to testing in strict laboratory conditions, we’re unlikely to know which factors are responsible for which improvements, but there are several instances where the “break-in factor” is widely accepted and explainable.
Several notable amp makers have told me first-hand that the improvement in amps over time is a very real phenomenon. Many find it difficult to express exactly why this happens, but with so many different electrical components inside any tube amp — signal capacitors, electrolytic (filter) capacitors, resistors, transformers, tubes and the speakers it all pumps through — it stands to reason that the more electrons you get flowing through these things, the more likely they are to reach their peak performance.
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Speakers and Tubes
“There is no question that amplifiers do break in and sound ever warmer and sweeter as they get played,” says Brian Gerhard of Top Hat Amplifiers. “I don’t know how many hours it takes, but I’ve historically noticed an obvious difference after about two years, even referenced through new tubes and speakers.”
Of course, this kind of thinking might make you feel that a new amp is likely to be disappointing, and that you’ll only really start to appreciate it after two years of playing. But Gerhard emphasizes that that’s not the case. A brand new amp can and should sound superb, if it’s a good design that has been built right. The thing to be aware of is that it is only likely to get better.
“When an amp is brand new, it’s as stiff and harsh as it’ll ever be, which is not to say it’s stiff and harsh. It only gets better and better from there. It’s something to look forward to and another good reason to play your amp as much as possible, in the early days especially!”
As far as individual components that change with time, reputable tube dealers and speaker makers have told me that those parts certainly have their own break-in period. Players who are into speakers will be aware that many speakers that sound perfectly decent right out of the box will become better and better with several hours of use, and may take as many as 80 or 100 hours of playing-in before they reach their peak. Improvements often are heard in sweeter highs with less harshness, punchier lows, and a fuller, richer sound overall, all of which can occur as the cone and spider loosen up and achieve more fluid movement.
Tubes, I’ve been told, also may sound their harshest when first used, and can mellow and deepen somewhat after several hours of burning in. This seems to apply to output or power tubes in particular. The trouble here is that after a lot of use, meaning several hundred hours, tubes eventually will start to get duller and somewhat worse sounding, meaning they’re on the road to replacement. The point is, I suppose, that you can’t sit in that sweet spot forever. But you should certainly get a good long run with a quality set of tubes.
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Guitars
If the factors behind an amp’s improvement over time are difficult to accurately pinpoint, those involved in any electric guitar’s “playing in” are even trickier to nail down. That said, guitarist after guitarist has noted the improvement in a new guitar after weeks, months or years of playing, so it seem fair to think there might be something to it.
One notion that might be worth some credence is that the more the wood resonates sympathetically with the strings’ vibrations, the more it becomes attuned — on the molecular level — to harmoniously transferring those vibrations. Several years ago when he was still a Master Builder in the Fender Custom Shop, Chris Fleming, who became vice president of product design, development and sourcing at Premier Builders Guild earlier this year, conveyed some thoughts on how important simply playing a guitar is to its overall development as a harmonious musical instrument.
“That makes a big difference, probably more than anything,” Fleming says. “A good guitar that’s played a lot over a long period of time, it morphs. The cells break down in the wood. And I don’t mean that they deconstruct, but they alter, they change, they get dryer and open up. The resonance that’s going through the guitar over a long period of time changes the molecular structure of that guitar.”
Such thoughts are sometimes considered mere “snake oil,” yet plenty of qualified luthiers note the phenomenon, as do many experienced players, myself included, so it’s hard to discount that there’s something to it.
Pickups
Another aspect of an electric guitar “burning in,” and one that is less discussed, involves the improvement of the pickups with use. Several notable pickup makers have told me directly that this is an observable condition, and that they expect their creations to sound their best only after several, or a few dozen, hours of playing.
“Over time the pickups should open up,” said Ron Ellis, a San Diego-based maker of vintage-repro single coils and PAFs. “They should become a little richer, fuller, more dynamic.”
Dave Stephens, another California maker known for his vintage-style PAFs in particular, concurs. “After you play them for a few hours they will start to settle in, and they will sound better with more playing. I’ve noticed this in the neck position in particular, but in the bridge too,” Stephens says.
Crazy? Perhaps not. Pickups contain a coil of thin wire, or two coils in the case of humbuckers, that generate the low-voltage AC signal that carries an analogous electrical representation of the sound of the guitar to an amplifier. It stands to reason that the more you get that coil working, the more it might “settle in” and be inclined to work smoothly and efficiently, as the copper in that thin wire becomes accustomed to doing its job. I have no hard laboratory evidence of this phenomenon, but I’ve observed it as a favorable shift in the tone of several high-end replacement pickups that I have used in recent years, so I’m convinced there’s something to it.
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What Can You Do About It?
If you accept that some guitars and amps and their related components improve with use, and for genuine physical reasons, what can you do about it? Play your gear, of course! But naturally you’ll also want it to sound its best now, and for some things there might be a few shortcuts.
Some speaker makers, Scumback for one, offer a “factory break in,” usually for a nominal fee. The process involves running a small electrical current through the speakers for a set number of hours to loosen up the components, getting the driver closer to its ideal played-in condition. To get my own new or slightly used speakers closer to full break in at home I have sometimes used this process:
- Mount the speakers in a compact cab that fits in my studio closet
- Pad out the cab with blankets and pillows to further mute the sound
- Run a long speaker cable in under the closet door from my amp of choice
- Fire up the amp and
- Use a looper pedal to record a continuous 16-second loop of various riffs and chord sequences played on different parts of the fingerboard to get the speaker working throughout the guitar’s frequency range.
It’s important that you don’t put the amp itself in any confined space, especially with added sound insulation packed around it, because those tubes need airflow to stay cool and you’re likely to burn them out fast if they don’t have it.
Alternatively, if I’ve had speakers in two cabs that I wanted to break in, I’ve been known to rig cables to connect them to my hi-fi and use them for listening to background music while working. They don’t sound as good as stereo speakers, but the knowledge that they’re approaching their own sonic peak makes the sacrifice worthwhile.
To burn in a new amp you can do much the same as outlined in the first speaker burn-in procedure, above, with input from a looper. If you don’t have one, even an MP3 player to provide a continual signal feed. Don’t run it at a continual 100-hour stretch or anything, but periods of four or six hours — with an hour down time in between — should do the trick. And you don’t need to crank the amp to 10 for the burn-in to do its thing, either.
Guitars just have to be played to be broken in, unless you’re the clever guitarist who’s going to devise a robotic playing-in device that we can all benefit from. Keep in mind, though, that you don’t need to be plugged into an amp for the pickups to generate their signal. Pickups are passive electromagnetic devices that require no power input to do their thing, so even unplugged practice time is helping to get those electrons flowing, and the strings’ vibrations will be sending sympathetic resonance into the wood all the while, too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dave Hunter
Dave Hunter is a writer and musician who has worked extensively in the USA and the UK. He is the author of The Guitar Amp Handbook, Guitar Effects Pedals, Guitar Amps & Effects For Dummies, The Gibson Les Paul and several other books. Dave is also a regular contributor to Guitar Player and Vintage Guitar magazines.
The Updated And Expanded Edition of Dave Hunter’s The Guitar Amp Handbok: Understanding Tube Amplifiers And Getting Great Sounds is now available from Backbeat Books.