Finish on Koa

[justie]

There's something ive always been wondering. Is there a reason why people dont do burst finishes besides the occasional tobacco or brown burst on a koa top? Is it because non-natural finishes like blue, green etc finishes dont go well on koa? or is it just because koa tops on their own look amazing already?

 

[greywolf]

I would never hide the beauty of koa

 

[justie]

Hmm, im not saying covering it with a solid colour though. I mean like a light honey burst/sun burst/bengal burst
THe music man JP6 BFR koa has a nice burst called island burst on the koa top which looks quite nice but I cant find anybody else who puts a bright coloured burst on a koa top.

 

[crash]

There's something ive always been wondering. Is there a reason why people dont do burst finishes besides the occasional tobacco or brown burst on a koa top? Is it because non-natural finishes like blue, green etc finishes dont go well on koa? or is it just because koa tops on their own look amazing already?

You answered your own question.

 

[Cagey]

If you're not going to show off your Koa, why would you pay the premium to have it in the first place? If you're more interested in a trick finish, there are a variety of woods you could apply one to that would look as good without costing as much. There's a limited supply of Koa, so it's always going to be expensive and will only get more so as time goes on and the supply is diminished.

 

[drewfx]

Lighter colored woods work with colors much better.

 

[Scuffcakes]

Saw this in the showcase

Not really the bright colors the OP was talking about but I think it's pretty spiffy.

 

[justie]

these do have a finish but still look very nice. WHich is why i was wondering why people dont do finishes like this or the one showed above so much

 

[Scuffcakes]

I think it's just that it looks so darn nice with dark or natural finishes people just don't deviate much from what works well.  I find it a little hard to imagine koa in a bright finish.

 

[jackthehack]

All you need is a little Fender Neck Amber to make the grain pop, then clearcoats...

 

[bagman67]

That's a sweet looking bass body, Jack.


But if you're at the darker end of the koa spectrum, skip the amber and go straight to the clearcoats:

 

[crash]

Or a brown to clear burst like DBU did on his koa soloist.

 

[jackthehack]

That's a sweet looking bass body, Jack.


But if you're at the darker end of the koa spectrum, skip the amber and go straight to the clearcoats:

The amber makes the flame/grain pop a lot better...

 

[swarfrat]

Why don't we paint sunbursts on the Mona Lisa?

 

[Jumble Jumble]

This whole "every single possible square millimeter of woodgrain must be on display at all times" thing is totally lost on me. I mean, maybe we should only put one pickup and no controls on these guitars too, right? After all, why buy that expensive wood if you're going to cut holes in it and put plastic or chrome pickups in there?

And really, cutting the wood to our preconceived idea of a "guitar body shape" is sacrilege too, right? You've got to show that wood, even if it means your guitar is just shaped like a plank with weird protrusions! Cutting any of it away for "comfort" is stupid. Why buy the expensive wood if you're going to cut some of it off?

Someone needs to develop a glass bridge. After all, putting it over an expensive piece of wood is insane. That's like two square inches of wood we can't see! What a waste of money!

And so on...

All I'm saying is, sometimes a bit of subtlety is nice. Nice woodgrain, fading to black at the sides, still looks nice. Just because you can't see every bit of wood that isn't a bad thing. The idea of maximizing how much wood you can see is only one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it that you might try is "the parts of it that are visible wood look very nice". I mean, if I want a black/red/yellow burst, which will be transparent in the middle, why should I have a less nice-looking wood in that middle part?

I'm about to build an exotics Tele and I'm probably going to put the Tele Hybrid pickguard on it. AAARRGH! NOOOO! YOU CAN'T SEE SOME OF THE WOOD! You guys are all gonna call me an idiot but I'm OK with that, I've accepted it

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

That Petrucci is similar to the Fender Select series in how they're applying burst over Koa.

They have a Carved Top Koa Tele in the new Fender magazine with a honeyburst that is absolutely beautiful.

 

[Great Ape]

ME TOO!