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Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:50 am
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Nitrocellulose finishes are very nice but that is not the only way to get a good finish that protects the bass but still allows it to resonate.

I am not going to convince you or anyone else that a poly finish is ever going to sound better than Nitro on a bass, but the facts are that if the wieght of a finish is kept to a minimum, the bass body will resonate.

I am not saying that the average poly finish is more desirable than a nitrocellulose finish, but there are ways to finish a bass with a very thin coat of poly that does a great job and sounds great.
I refinished my 1960 Precision in poly 30 years ago and it sounds great. It had been refinished before I got it, so it was a good candidate.

It is also a fact that nitrocellulose is very bad for our environment and extremely bad for the person who is spraying it. New instruments are usually finished in polyurethane, whether we like it or not.

Whether moisture escapes through a finish or not is irrelevant to what you are arguing. How can you know if moisture excapes from a body through a finish or through the many screw holes and the exposed wood of the neck pocket? And how exactly does moisture loss improve tone?

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Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 1:49 pm
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BCbassman wrote:

Whether moisture escapes through a finish or not is irrelevant to what you are arguing. How can you know if moisture excapes from a body through a finish or through the many screw holes and the exposed wood of the neck pocket? And how exactly does moisture loss improve tone?


Lower moisture content equals more resonance.


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Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:31 pm
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brotherdave wrote:
Lower moisture content equals more resonance.


If that's true, then why do people humidify guitars?

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Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:37 am
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BCbassman wrote:
brotherdave wrote:
Lower moisture content equals more resonance.


If that's true, then why do people humidify guitars?


Guitar humidifiers are used for very fine acoustic guitars. The kind made out of real tone woods.

Cheap mass produced laminated construction guitars seem to get along fine without humidification.

Solid body electric guitars, which is what we are talking about here on this thread, never need humidification. However I will explain why people humidify fine acoustic instruments.

There is an old expression that states, "The older the violin, the sweeter the music." The sweetening of the tone is due to the wood aging over the years as it continues to dry.

However, there is such a thing as too much drying or drying too rapidly when it comes to fine acoustic guitars crafted of solid tone woods.

The interior of the guitar is usually unfinished. The body woods are very thin. The bare interior is almost half of the surface area of the body woods. It is a little less than half because of the interior bracing.

When exposed to long term arid conditions (such as exist in an un-humidified home during the heating season) the woods can dry out from the unfinished interior to the point that the actual dimensions of each component will minutely change while the woods simultaneously become slightly less flexible. In short, the wood shrinks just a little bit and is more brittle.

The top, sides and back are seldom made out of only one type of wood. Different woods have varying moisture contents and/or varying moisture loss rates. So one type of wood may contract more or less, or faster or slower than the other type of wood to which it is joined. The varied reactions of the different woods to long-term arid conditions can cause instability within the instrument resulting in all sorts of playability issues and in severe cases can result in structural damage.

Finish checking or cracking is usually an early sign of over-drying.

In severe cases the top may separate from the side in one location, there may be separation at other seams or joints, or actual cracks or splits in a solid top or back. Bindings can also be cracked or displaced.

To prevent this from happening, a general rule for people in temperate climates is to always use humidification whenever heating is being used. In very arid locales year round humidification is advised. Some people humidify year round just to be safe.

So that is why people humidify fine acoustic guitars.


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Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:52 pm
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I can say first hand as a violin player, what Brother Dave is absolutely true about acoustic instruments. I know people who have cracked their violin because of dryness, and a lot of modern cases come with humidifiers for this reason. It has nothing to do with improving tone, and everything to do with protecting the instrument.


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Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 7:08 am
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Your post is the truth. Fine acoustic guitars are very sensitive to humidity changes and can get too dry and suffer damage from being dried out.

Humidty will affect Fender basses adversely in either extreme, too.

I think the finishes used on solid body guitars play some role in humidity interaction, but solid guitars and basses finished in poly are still affected by humidy changes particularly in neck relief issues, as nitro finished guitars and basses.
If a finish allows moisture to escape, it will also allow it to reenter the wood. I am only saying this to make a point that what we all love about nitrocellulose finishes has more to do with the finish weight than the permeability of the finish to moisture.

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