Originally Posted by Alan Carruth (Post 5109476)

dneal wrote:
"I don't know that anyone has measured frequency response, volume, etc... over an extended period of time while tracking amount of playing time."

I have, at least to some extent, and seen measreable changes.

As always, there are lots of problems with making long term measurements. It can be difficult to ensure that they're made in exactly the same way, for example, particularly if you're thinking about a term that might be months or even years. This can be circumvented to some degree by using a mechanical method to 'play' the guitar that can put in more power, and work day and night at it, but that's not like 'real' playing, so people often reject the idea.

A really good way to do it would be to make two identical guitars which can be kept together while you play one and not the other. It would be fairly easy to test them out 'before' and 'after' in front of audiences to see if there has been a change. This assumes these two 'identical' instruments actually sound the same to begin with, and that has proved to be a tough one.

Failing that, we will probably have to rely on before and after measurements, and possibly well-controlled recordings, of a fairly large number of guitars to resolve the issue. You can never 'prove' such things' of course; there's always some room for doubt, but there are well understood statistical methods that can set limits on the likelihood that something is real.

At any rate, no matter how you do it such testing will require a lot of time and effort. The most effective way to get this done is to find some hapless grad student who can be induced to take the project on as a thesis. That's a long shot, but somewhat more likely that convincing Homeland Security that understanding this will help in the fight against domestic terrorism.

Originally Posted by Alan Carruth (Post 5109476)

dneal wrote:
"I don't know that anyone has measured frequency response, volume, etc... over an extended period of time while tracking amount of playing time."

I have, at least to some extent, and seen measreable changes.

As always, there are lots of problems with making long term measurements. It can be difficult to ensure that they're made in exactly the same way, for example, particularly if you're thinking about a term that might be months or even years. This can be circumvented to some degree by using a mechanical method to 'play' the guitar that can put in more power, and work day and night at it, but that's not like 'real' playing, so people often reject the idea.

A really good way to do it would be to make two identical guitars which can be kept together while you play one and not the other. It would be fairly easy to test them out 'before' and 'after' in front of audiences to see if there has been a change. This assumes these two 'identical' instruments actually sound the same to begin with, and that has proved to be a tough one.

Failing that, we will probably have to rely on before and after measurements, and possibly well-controlled recordings, of a fairly large number of guitars to resolve the issue. You can never 'prove' such things' of course; there's always some room for doubt, but there are well understood statistical methods that can set limits on the likelihood that something is real.

At any rate, no matter how you do it such testing will require a lot of time and effort. The most effective way to get this done is to find some hapless grad student who can be induced to take the project on as a thesis. That's a long shot, but somewhat more likely that convincing Homeland Security that understanding this will help in the fight against domestic terrorism.