Here is a Jazz bass that I refinished from a clear poly to a walnut stain. I didn't compare the before and after sound, but the guy that I did it for absolutely raved about the sound and thanked me for weeks after about how great it sounded and played. He never talked about that bass before the refinish, but it became his favorite bass after, and the only thing that I did was refinish and give it new strings and a good setup. A few subtle differences add up.

Sure, he could be imagining that his bass sounds better, and part of his approval may have been because of the killer setup that I did, and maybe just that he loved the finish so much. But I have no doubt whatsoever that the super thin finish allows the wood to resonate better than if it were encapsulated in thick plastic.

I think that the sound of any instrument is due to the sum of the parts and not any single factor, and the finish is a factor, no matter how small or imperceptible to some it might be.

This picture was taken before it was completed.

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I agree some "feel it" and there might be some mojo working by "thinking" the tone is different due to a few microns of paint.

shimmi mentions playing the strat acoustically. this is a detail that might be at the center of the comments about hearing the difference.

I read Jeff Beck put the ear to the horn, and I did this and did notice large differences between guitars "acoustically". (was it strings? IDK? setup ?)

in general, put me in the "I cant tell a difference" group when the electric is plugged in an amp or tracking.

playing the electric acoustically, with the ear on the horn, maybe some deadening due to paint and lacquer....

wonder why Fender doesnt sell a natural "naked" guitar?

However a guitar body vibrates or sounds (done the ear to horn trick tuning in busy rehearsal rooms since I was fifteen) makes not one scrap of difference to how a pickup reads the string or how the amp interprets the pickup.

Yes I've repainted guitars. I even had one with no paint, sealer or oil on it for awhile.
I wonder if all these pedal makers ever decided to not bother and just put some more paint on their guitars. Instead of making compression pedals.

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No no and no

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Wow! Who was it that claimed that the affect on the sound caused by the finish was as great as a pedal would be? In fact I said it was a subtle difference.

And, yes a few feel that the nut, bridge block, finish, type of wood, wood moisture content, saddles and just about every part of the guitar besides the pickups and strings, have absolutely no affect on the sound it produces. That's why everyone plays a First Act Guitar with new pickups and strings and sounds great. That's wonderful. I guess that guys like Beck and Johnson could learn a few things here.

Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking book store.....

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

So paint does give a compressed sound? It does make all the quiet notes loud and the louder notes quieter?

Surely that's a good thing.

Oh and most budget guitars do sound great. They play horribly though.


I'm sorry the whole supposition of tone wood on electric instruments is a utter nonsense. A farce proved by the wild suppositions and stupid statements of most of it's proponents. The maple/rosewood one being the ultimate joke. Maple sounds brighter because it is harder. What a joke anyone who knows anything about wood will tell you that rosewood is far harder than maple. Maple looks brighter so in the mind of the supposer it sounds brighter being nearer the reality of it. It's exactly the same with body wood. A Les Paul should sound like a ice pick by that reasoning. A massive 3/4" maple cap on the body. A very very hard wood on the neck and underneath the cap. (Mahogany being far harder than ash or alder).

Now lets have a look at what we're being asked to believe about paint.
That this dormant, lifeless, long dead bit of lumber needs to breathe? That's questionable at best.
That this lifeless, inanimate bit of lumber that lies dormant until a string attached to it via a 3rd and 4th component, that manages to just about shake a bit of wood. Is somehow hampered by a mill and a half of paint. Despite still being able to feel the lumber under the paint vibrate?

You're having a laugh.

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No no and no

That's cool, to each his own.

_________________
---> "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.

Back in the olden days, Fender would put as little paint on as possible. You know why? Because it costs more money to put more paint on it. When they got custom paint orders, you know what they did? They took a reject paint guitar and put another coat on it.

I have refinished guitars and listened. They sounded no different. I did one last year that I did a trans finish with a burst but I didn't like the way the wood grain looked when I was done, but it had a very thick finish. Sounded great. I played it out a number of times. Decided I couldn't live with the looks. I stripped it and redid it in a much thinner finish. Still sounds great. Exactly the same.

I actually just bought a promo guitar Thursday. It had a vinyl overlay on the front. Played it for a good hour before I bought it. Pulled off the vinyl (actually razor'd it off...it was attached pretty well), sanded off the under finish and primer all the way to the wood. 3 coats of tru-oil blocked with 600 in between and final'd with 1000. Much thinner than previously. Played it several hours since. I like the looks of it much better, but it sound exactly the same.

So maybe you figure that I can't tell the difference. Something wrong with my ears. I don't know. I qualified to be a sonar operator in the Navy....putting my hearing above the majority of people attempting it who don't qualify.

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2002 mim Telecaster
Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
Mexican HSS Stratocaster
6 non-fender guitars
2 kids (not for sale)
1 wife (uh....no comment)

Sound travels farther in water than it does in the air. The speed of sound is different at sea level than at 10,000 feet above sea level. And yet a guitar played at 10,000 feet above sea level, sounds so much better than it does when played under water.

Maybe it is possible that sound vibrations are affected by the medium that they travel through?

I've never seen a ghost, so they obviously don't exist.

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

*imagine it

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Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

Yup, the rosewood/maple debate has always been a great laugh for me!
Do a little investigation and you'd easily find that rosewood is harder than maple. Not the phony facts "phacts" that have been widely communicated.

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

If all this is true, then how do two guitars that are the same sound different? Or do they? I have never played two of the exact same guitars to test this, but I read this all the time. If it is true then wood, even the same kind, can have different sound characteristics. I can't think of anything that could be as inconsistent as wood or finish. The steel should be insignificantly different and the pickups are wound with the same wire by a machine. That would lead me to believe that even finish could make a very small difference.

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My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

Many know (including me) that the acoustical qualities of any particular guitar influence the sound that it produces when plugged in to an amp. And no two pieces of wood are exactly the same, so similar or supposed identical guitars may sound quite different due to the variances. Sometimes, trying out ten identical guitars, one will just stand apart from the others, in sound, feel, or both. In that one, all of the subtle differences in materials just came together in the perfect combination.

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

really shimmilou?? many people know that??
I've had guitars (Strats) that were so different in construction,different finishes,with maple necks and rosewood necks and the same pickups in both and I couldn't tell the difference in a blind test....so I changed pickups and got a different sound from the guitars....wha' happened? lol

Yes, many people know this, electric guitars have acoustic qualities, and those qualities influence the sound produced. At least seven of us know this, lol. If electric guitars didn't have acoustic qualities you would hear no sound when strumming them unplugged, right?

I need to get to the guitar shops more often so I can witness some of these blindfolded tests that some people do. I am going to bring a feather and mess with them while they are blindfolded. I guess that the ones who claim that they can detect differences should be put to the test, as that is the only way to know for sure whether each particular claimant can or not. You can't possibly know what anyone else hears based simply on the fact that you can't hear it.

I think that we have covered the "I can't tell a difference" thing almost to death. I can, you can't, others aren't sure, so what? I guess that maybe someday we can all get together at a nice quiet recording studio and put our ears to the test. It would be near impossible to hear any subtle differences at a guitar shop with all of the noise and interference (electrical noise from lights, other people playing, etc)

_________________
---> "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.