Hi Corsair, my comments relate back to when I had 2 exactly the same quite rare Ibanez Bass Guitars which had a P Bass body with P & J Pickups and fitted with a J style neck. Both were off white coloured and being only 22 at the time thought the reliced one needed a new paint job and ended up letting a panel beater spray it black.
Always played the same amp settings and when switching between the 2 the black one sounded too bright and thin compared to the other one that was left untouched where before the respray they sounded identical. The only difference was in the refinish.
Here is a picture from the original catalogue, it is the white one on the left and only ever seen the two I owned and none ever since.
Same deal on my original Explorer (2nd picture above) which was painted black by Chris Kinman who was an up & coming luthier come guitar builder in Brisbane during early 1980's. When it was Korina and with a few chunks missing it had lots of mids but after the black respray (probably nitro) they also disappeared. Again the only difference was the refinish and on both occasions it had a massive impact to the overall sound.
Acknowledge your comments about electronic signal being projected through FOH but if miced or DI'd both Bass guitars sounded different. Your theory makes sense but in both of my refinish experiences the natural earthy tones disappeared. Mind you, I didn't use a lot of signal processors as was the go back in the 80's which tend to disguise and distort the true sound anyways so had to rely on what the pickups sent to whichever amp that was supplying the grunt for the final sound. If anything, going through FOH just magnified the differences even more, so much so that swapping axes caused frowns on the face of the sound guy trying to figure why the mix had changed.
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