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?