Amazing looking guitars by TYE

While wondering what I was going to do with all the Green lipped Abalone I bought, I was looking for inspiration, actually photos of Tony Zemaitis 'Pearly' guitars.

I ran across this maker in Texas, USA called TYE guitars - see link for lots more.
http://www.teye.com/master-guitars/

Here are a few photos of three of them...... Click on photo for larger view
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They all seemed to be built on a LP shape, but one that has a flat face, not carved like a traditional LP

lots of work in those, quite like the middle one...

a pearly 4 stringer
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Gotta wonder if they will ever get played or just sit in a case to keep them looking pretty?

I know the Zemantis ones get played. They seem to be the rage with Japanese metal bands atm

Pretty full on.

So riddle me this:

On guitar forums, including here, earnest discussion are had regarding oil vs. tru-oil vs. stain vs. varnish vs. poly-urethane vs (etc) being used on tone woods and the disastrous effects each one (apparently) causes on the tone of the guitar.

So how do they get away with gluing lumps of pearloid and paua to the entire 'soundboard' surface?

because by the time the signal passes through 10 effects pedals, mixed with other instruments, fed to various speakers and a room of unknown acoustics it becomes irrelevant?

Given that most, if not all, of an electric guitars tone comes from the pickups, I'm not at all convinced that the wood, or the finish on that wood makes a blind bit of difference to the tone of the instrument.

YMMV

On an acoustic guitar, well... that's a whole new bowl of petunias...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by corsair

Given that most, if not all, of an electric guitars tone comes from the pickups, I'm not at all convinced that the wood, or the finish on that wood makes a blind bit of difference to the tone of the instrument.

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Tend to disagree about the effect of finish on the sound. Why? I had 2 identical Ibanez PJ Bass Guitars and the 2nd one was bought at a Pawn Shop and was looking a bit worse for wear. These days it would be called reliced but being a young early 20 something too obsessed with how it looked decided to get it spray painted by a panel beater. Sadly whilst it looked nice, smooth & shiny the refinish made it sound too bright and took away the warmth it had before. From this experience it taught me that aged instruments do sound better and some finishes detract from the natural tones.

However as Dedman said, once the signal goes through lots of processing into a room full of punters who do not give a toss what it should sound like things such as tonewood tend to pale into insignificance. However for those amongst us who sparingly use gadgets to shape our sound the difference can be quite obvious, but only if there are 2 identically configured instruments to compare with. Playing an electric unplugged is also a good way to discover the true effect the timber & finish might contribute to the sound.