The TruTone is a “second back” for your acoustic, designed to increase its resonance
New invention consists of three pads that stick to the back of the body, putting space between player and instrument
A few years ago, Wales-based builder Mark Adams unveiled the Jam Jar, which fashioned a working guitar amp out of a two-and-a-half-inch speaker crammed into a glass jar.
Now Adams is back with another creation, the TruTone, a retro-fit “second back” for acoustic guitars.
The idea behind the TruTone, which consists of three pads that stick to the back of the guitar, is simple – putting space between the instrument and the player’s body will serve to increase the guitar’s resonance.
“The idea came to me about five years ago whilst watching a YouTube video called 'Making guitars with a physics mind,'” Adams told us.
“Dominic Howman, who was giving the lecture, talked about how the whole of the guitar resonated when you play it, neck, sides front and back. This got me thinking about if you stood up playing a guitar, does your body mute the resonation?
“After going to many music shops and getting some very strange looks, I discovered that if you strum the strings of a guitar and then push the body away from you the tone of the guitar will change, no matter at what price range. This was the birth of The TruTone.”
What’s more, in addition to opening up your guitar’s tone, Adams remarks that it “also stops buckle rash on the back of your pride and joy!”
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The accessory is available in ash and sapele versions for £75 (approx. $100).
For more information, head to The TruTone.
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Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.