does a clear coat change tone???? really.

[scott2476]

Ok, so this might sound really stupid but.... Does having a clear coat in either poly or that N word really make a difference to the tone of a guitar? As I have only played guitars with these types of finishes I'm not in a position to judge, but I really like the way they look. (I hate to say it.. sorry ). Cheers.

[barrylicious]

Guess it's a matter of opinion really. On an acoustic it will make a huge and noticeable difference. As the body is used as a soundchamber. And whatever you coat it in will change the sound characteristics dramatically. Not so much on an electric as the sound comes from the pickups taking the signal from the string vibrations between the fretted note and the bridge.

I guess the only way to tell for sure is make 4 kits up, 1 nitro coated, 1 acrylic , 1 poly and naked and test the tonal variances between them. Document your findings. I'm eagerly awaiting your results. In the meantime it's time for a scotch
Goodluck

[Nickosaurus]

Really this argument could be pared back to the question 'does building materials influence tone'? One that has perpetuated the guitar world for decades is whether tone woods make a difference in tone - but really it's impossible to tell. Humans never replicate the same sound twice, copper wire has something like 10% of variance, caps, pickups, nut, then the amp's variables come in too.

Personally I think the majority comes from your pups and whether the body is wood or a polymer/metal etc. but I'm sure someone will come in and rebut that with gusto.

[Gavin1393]

Rather than revisit the discussion of the Thread on Tone, i'll simply link it here!

http://www.pitbullguitars.com/commun...topic&t=1135.0

[Brendan]

I guess that to throw another point into the discussion, would be a story that the Gavmeister (AKA Gavin 1393) regaled to me (and I'll get it wrong for sure) about a guy with an acoustic guitar that was complaining that he'd been playing it for a while, but now he could never get it in tune. He'd never had the problem in the past, so had brought it in to a luthier to fix it. The luthier looked the guitar over and said that the issue was not with the guitar, but with his hearing. What had transpired was that the bridge was in slightly the wrong place and the guitar was impossible to tune properly, but until that point, the guitarist's ear hadn't developed enough to hear the slight difference in tuning due to the incorrectly placed bridge.
I guess what this tells me (in a gross generalisation) is that you could grab a hunk of ply, cover it with auto bog, spray it with the most feral concoction known to man and to an untrained player with an untrained ear, it will sound only marginally worse than a hand picked wood guitar where care and attention has been lavished over it and super thin coats of a protectant covering (poly / oil / ...), etc, etc, etc. To a trained ear, however the first would sound like an abomination, however they would drool over the tonal qualities of the second. While this is a gross generalisation, it leads me to think - how competent a player are you and how trained is your ear?
A strict answer (to me) is that yes, it does - Taylor recently halved the thickness of the finish on the body of it's 800 series guitars - from about the thickness of a magazine cover to a magazine page in thickness as they felt that even this slight reduction in amount of clear coat will see an improvement in tone of the guitar (see http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars...ries/800/story). Now this may just be a gimick to sell more guitars, but given it's in one of their premium guitars (800 series aren't cheap), I don't quite think so...
My 2c worth anyway. (and appologies to GavMeister for a horrible recount of his story ).

[dingobass]

Timber does make a massive difference in electrics...
It is all about the resin content and the grain.
A good quality tone wood will have more resonance, and yes, this does affect the vibrations picked up through the electronics..

So, to get a real tone monster, use only the best tone woods
(no, you cant buy this stuff from any of the big sheds, do not use builders grade pine, it is full of sticky resin that has has a low melt point and will eventually seep through to the surface. Also Radiata or Monterrey pine is prone to warping, twisting and cracking)
Also decent quality pups, pots, caps and wire is a must!

[barrylicious]

Do harder woods make better tone woods then soft wood?

[wokkaboy]

I agree with DB, I learnt a fair bit last visit to his man cave.
Not necessarily Barry, DB built his first couple of scratch bass guitars out of jarrah, a very hard, heavy wood but the knock test the sound is pretty dead, no ring to the knock.
Covering an axe in layers of poly/nitro/tru oil will no doubt dampen the natural resonance of the timber in my opinion - but they do look great hi gloss axes

[jarrod]

My God this has been done to death . In short yes it does , but if your like me and you like to bang on the overdrive chorus and delay then probably not. How ever should you Nitro / poly / acrylic your pride and joy then keep it as thin as possible like any finish should be.

[kells80aus]

If you want a thin acrylic coat, unless your good with a spray gun, get someone else to do it. :P
As for me I'm on my second effort on at sprayon acrylic, and pretty damn sure it'll end up some where near a 1/4mm of acrylic. I've done spray pacs and they are definitely not to be used unless you have no other option. They start out fine but as the can gets closer to empty the pressure in the can goes down and so does the quality.
The majority of my builds have been coated with tung oil, shellac or wudtone. the Shellac has the cappacity to give a high gloss. where as the woodtone and tungoil seem to give a more satin affect.

Tone woods used in builds is a bit of a matter of preference. I prefer to use Mahogany, as it gives that thick tone found in Gibson LP's. Basswoods and Alders and suchlike give a brighter tone, as found on Fenders.

PK

PK