Jusatele said:
let me ask, how large of frets do you use and do your fingers actually touch the fretboard?
I love to hear these guys who claim they love the feel of unfinished wood and they use JUMBO frets and never touch wood.
Few fretboards are finished; typically only maple, so fret size preference is a different issue. The desire for the feel of raw wood is on the neck meat itself. For some, it's simply a preference. For others, perspiration and/or skin tone issues along with playing style make different texture surfaces work better than others. Personally, I have no preference or physical problems. I can go from a high-gloss neck to raw wood without issue. But, that's just me.
Jusatele said:
I do not even consider finish, it is tone I want and that comes from the type of wood, not the finish on it. Currently it is stylish to discuss finish and coats of finish, but for the last 60 years it was Maple or Rosewood? It was a tone thing. Now we are flooded with wood options and suddely we are discussing the difference between poly and nitro. Now if you remember the guitars we all go gaga over, those vintage numbers from the 50s and 60s, they all had thick nitro finishes on them, so why suddenly are finishless options the way to capture those tones or the feel of those instruments.
Finish is important, but in different ways. Along with the species of wood and instrument design, the finish will affect how an acoustic guitar sounds. On an electric, the wood species will have
some effect on tone and response, but the finish really only affects feel, appearance, and durability. Tone is off the table. But, the respected opinions come from the respected luthiers, and are repeated ad nauseum by the pretenders even where they don't apply. Real luthiers don't generally work on electric guitars any more than real computer programmers work on web pages. Entirely different skill sets and considerations.
A large number of players (and the marketing weenies who want to separate them from their money) will believe anything you tell them if you can even half-assed justify it, and almost the only justification they really need is that something is what a highly-respected player uses or prefers. If they want or need technical support for your claim, find an expert and ask some leading questions to get the answers you want, and Poof! You've got a "superior" product, endorsed by unimpeachable thousand-mile experts.
Since they've invented catalyzed polyurethane, there's little reason to use nitrocellulose on electric guitars, any more than there's any reason to use ice boxes since they invented refrigerators. The only real reason I'm aware of is that almost anybody can shoot nitro and with the application of enough labor, make it look as good as poly. Setting up to shoot poly is more problematic due to ventilation and cleanliness issues. Plus, you don't get second chances with poly like you do with nitro without a great deal of effort. Screw up poly, and you may be in for an ugly stripping job before you can move forward. Nitro is much more easily repaired. But, if you can do it reliably, poly is substantially less work (and so less cost) to achieve stunning results. Look at Warmoth's bodies. They turn out some gorgeous finished product right from raw lumber and still make money doing it. The major manufacturers all use poly. Only the garage shops use nitro any more, and for the reasons given, not for tone. Tone is just the justification that sells all the added labor it takes to make a fragile finish look right.
never tried an unfinished neck before..
