Anyone can actually hear the difference between a poly and nitro finished guitar? Assuming equal thickness finishes I wonder if the difference is not purely academic. Any thoughts?

personally I think its aesthetic. the only way I think the chemical composition could affect the tone is the thickness it takes to get a nice finish. from my experience the nitro is able to be applied thinner. but an audible difference would be minuscule at best.

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Hi TC5A,

Many times, questions can be answered with a search of the site. This topic is likely to go nowhere fast. Here is a list of the results of a site search (link below). Quite a few threads on the subject already. A guitars finish, among many other variables, can have a subtle affect on tone, though undetectable by many. There is so much more to consider, as many times the poly coats will be much thicker than the nitro to begin with.

http://www.fender.com/search.php?searchType=site&cx=010175269014802016829:ot8pgfghlic&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=Nitro%20vs%20Poly#921

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Fair enough. I'm sure this question has been brought up before of course.

Can Fender produce "thin skin" poly finishes that are as thin as nitro?

To be honest, tone woods/finishes in electrics make me laugh at the people who discuss them. The only place where tone woods actually matter is in acoustics.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Believe it or not different wood species and densitys transmit sound waves differently. I actually cut equal size 1 foot squares of several species of wood and took readings with a peiazo and an ocilicope and each piece had a different frequency when thumped

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I`m not so sure about that. Some months ago during a particularily heated discussion about the validity or non-validity of tone woods in electric guitars somebody posted a You-Tube link to a guitar made of a common cinder block. I guess the fact that the guitar actually worked seemed to them to be proof enough that wood is irrelevant. In reality the so called guitar sounded like crap. It was thin and sterile and even though they stuck a rag in the strings to try to mellow it out a little you could still tell that it would have sustained for days due to the hardness of the block. To me it only served to prove that even with a great pickup wood still sounds infinitly better than concrete and I remain convinced that even though many people can`t hear a difference that doesn`t mean that no difference exists.

That`s my two cents.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Absolutely!

The audio acuity in my ears is so well developed that I can even tell the difference between a bone nut and one of corian.



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

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You dig?

No!! Wait!!
It ain`t dead yet!!!
I still hear something!!
Keep flogging!!

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

LMFAO!



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I swear I saw a leg twitch I had to give it anothe whack lol

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Eric Johnson can...........

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

I'm told he can tell how many trem springs are installed in a Strat merely by sniffing the instrument's case with the guitar locked inside.



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Can you tell the configuration though? I used 4... Most people who saw it called me weird.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic