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Post subject: A guitar that breathes!? lol
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:43 pm
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"A thinner finish undercoat that lets the body breathe and improves resonance. " -Fender Website

How many of you actually believe this?

For example, prior to assembly aren't the wood blocks covered with a treatment of lacquer?

Reaction, lets settle the truth on this matter. . . .


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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:53 pm
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I don't think the wood blocks covered in laquer, but I can't be certain (can't see why they'd do that in the first place). ....A thinner finish does let the wood resonate better.....if the wood is coated in a really thick finish, it is basically encapsulated in a coat of plasticy finish that absorbs most of the vibrations going through the wood which makes the guitar sound muffled or a bit "thin". :wink:


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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:53 pm
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"Breath" is a bit over the top, it certainly can't breath because the body is still laquered. But in all other points I agree with Sandwich, tinner colour = better resonance = thicker tone.

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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:01 pm
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Oh yeah, a thin nitro finish allows the guitar to have better acoustic properties then a thick poly finish. You can feel and hear the difference when you a/b them without pluggin in.

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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:43 pm
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"For example, prior to assembly aren't the wood blocks covered with a treatment of lacquer?"

You are thinking about the undercoating that's used to seal the grain.
Search on "Fullerplast" to find out more about it. I don't think it was a lacquer, more like a poly! Later, Fender started using something else, the name escapes me.


http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fenderc.html has some info

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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:43 pm
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i suppose it works -- John Lennon had his Casino sanded to let it "breathe" also. 8) and the White Album was awesome.

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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:48 pm
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Sanding tops of guitars bare was popular in the late '60's.

Mick Ronson & Paul Kossoff did it to Les Pauls.

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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:53 pm
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Just a figure of speech man, all a thinner coat will do is let the guitar's grain do it's job better and vibrate more which provides a better sound, theoretically anyway. All I know it that more vibrations=more sound and less finish=more vibrations within the wood.

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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:09 pm
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I've always wondered what the effect of the finish was on a semi-hollowbody electric, since essentially the interior of the guitar is raw wood.

Yes, I know acoustics are different, and I won't go there. I'm talking about a rigid semi-hollowbody guitar amplified electrically, where the top of the guitar ISN'T supposed to vibrate, at least not like an acoustic.


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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:31 am
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awesome.
I didn't know that. My friend's guitar is like that. His acoustic is loud. When I played it I could feel the difference in the sound. :) I guess Fender knows what they're talking about. That's why they rule.

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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:57 am
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Fender is responding to a widespread myth.

Finish thickness does not affect the tone of a solidbody electric guitar, because the vibrations are largely internal. The exterior of the guitar does not need to vibrate on any way - in fact, it can't, because there is no "exterior" in the same sense an acoustic guitar has a vibrating top. That is, the outer surfaces of the guitar are not free to vibrate independently of the rest of the body.

I've played Strats with thick-as-a-nickel poly finishes that vibrated like crazy (because they were made of a nice piece of wood) and stripped-bare Strats that remained tone dogs (because they weren't).

But guitar players are an unscientific lot. They pick up a guitar, it sounds awesome and they say, "Gee, why does this guitar sound so good?" And the guy standing next to them repeats a bit of conventional wisdom - it sounds good because "it's made of swamp ash" or "because the pickups have aged" or "it has a real real thin finish" or some other explanation that doesn't hold water - and another believer is born.

The idea that every single thing that was done at Fender is the 50s is holy writ is a contributor to the myth as well. Leo used nitro finishes, so nitro must ":sound" better. Leo used alder and ash because he could get it cheap, and now players widely believe that alder and ash "sound" better. (They don't. Great guitars get made from pine, from basswood, from poplar, every day.)

Anyway, when hundreds of thousands of guitar players are starving for guitars with "thin nitro" finishes, then a smart company - and Fender is one - will offer what they hunger for.


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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:15 am
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Hmm, never thought of it that way. Never really cared about finishes, but I do like highway finishes because they'll check and get scratched easy, and over time it looks just plain awesome.

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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:56 am
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lonelyhearts wrote:
i suppose it works -- John Lennon had his Casino sanded to let it "breathe" also. 8) and the White Album was awesome.


I don't see why he even bothered. He uses soo much distortion that it would hide any trace of the guitars tone characteristics.

I think the reason he sanded it down was because of all that "let's have a revolution and get naked and protest" type of of stuff he was in to.


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Post subject: tecH
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:15 pm
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The employees now adays are among the stupidest.

THey know knothing about the guitars there company sells.


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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 12:22 pm
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Guitar_Hurricane wrote:
lonelyhearts wrote:
i suppose it works -- John Lennon had his Casino sanded to let it "breathe" also. 8) and the White Album was awesome.


I don't see why he even bothered. He uses soo much distortion that it would hide any trace of the guitars tone characteristics.

I think the reason he sanded it down was because of all that "let's have a revolution and get naked and protest" type of of stuff he was in to.

I always felt there were two things that held the Peace movement back, "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out, and John-n-Yoko Naked all the time.

Couldn't the phrase have been "Tune In, Trun On, and Try to Get Representatives Of Our Movement Elected To Office While We Keep Our Pants On!" ?

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