I will add some comments about the one I received. First let me say that Hans at Tonerite is very nice to deal with. I got mine a week ago and put it on a new A style I built. I turned it up to max and let it stay for 24hrs. I then took it off and played it and it really did make a difference. I put it back on for about another 50 hrs on a setting that was not the lowest but a notch above that. I then took it to a jam session and wow. It sounded like a seasoned warrior. I play at Irish jam sessions and when it gets many players I find I switch to my Irish tenor banjo, but this time I didn't need to bring it at all.
I feel I could leave this thing on 24/7 and trust it to not hurt anything on the instrument. To use it I found it best to take a bath towel and fold it a couple times and put the tailpiece end on the center of it, then prop up the neck at about a 30 deg angle and take a smaller folded towel and let the area of the nut cradle in the towel. The mandolin is now kind of suspended and free to vibrate. The unit wedges lightly between the strings and slide it down to the bridge. Make sure no chord or anything touches the instrument.
I noticed something about the vibrations, when you first set it up and turn it to max touch the top/back with your thumb/index finger and feel the vibrations. While still feeling them slide the amplitude adjuster down to low and back up and feel the difference in the top back vibrations. I noticed that after 24hrs I could turn it down to almost low and still get as much vibration out of the top/back plates.
I don't think it will make a "better" instrument out of your mandolin but it will take it a lot closer to it's potential very quickly. As a builder you get to hear the changes that happen when you first string it up to the various stages of play time and this seems to do it quickly without the fret wear, string wear or any visible play wear. I have no financial interest but think if someone has a good idea and it works, then good for them. I could make one of these but the time spent on getting the parts putting it together and most importantly designing the application or the case it comes in I would rather have them do it and work the bugs out of it.
Keith Newell
http://www.newellmandolin.com
Bookmarks