Finish/Tone Question...

[Strat Avenger]

I have heard people say that a thick finish (like many coats of polyurethane paint) on a guitar can reduce sustain, etc, but I am wondering if it can reduce the high-end frequencies.

'Anyone here know?

 

[mayfly]

I can detect no differences between my nitro finished guitars and my Poly finish guitars.  All are telecasters with the same pickups, but some have alder and some have ash, some have maple necks and some have canary necks.  I can't tell the difference in tone.

 

[pabloman]

Back in '96 or '97 I took a brand new dark blue Ibanez RG something or other, it was a cheapo few hundred dollars thing with a pickguard and 2 humbucker, non locking trem thing I bought from Holze music in Tejas. Anyway I threw a whole bunch of blue jumbo metalflake into a cup of hot clear and shot this thing with what must have been a hundred coats of clear. After sanding and polishing I put it all together and this thing came to life. It had so much presence and articulation. I unplugged my Les Paul Studio and plugged this guy in and it was unbelievable. It was louder and so much more aggressive. Both guitars were completely stock. I painted right over the factory finish. I never even plugged the guitar in before I painted it but I really don't think it sounded so good until I painted it. ccasion14:

 

[Cagey]

I have heard people say that a thick finish (like many coats of polyurethane paint) on a guitar can reduce sustain, etc, but I am wondering if it can reduce the high-end frequencies.

'Anyone here know?

That little bit of "esoteric knowledge" has been circulating ever since somebody decided an old junk guitar needed to be worth more. Back at the dawn of electric guitar time, most finishes were hand-rubbed lacquer or shellac, but when technology provided us with more durable and attractive finishes for less time and money, everybody with any sense switched to those. Some guys still use the old finishes, partly because they're more easily repairable but mainly because they have customers who demand it and the customer signs the checks.

Anyway, somehow a logical fallacy was allowed to spawn a new "truth". It went something like 'if older guitars sound better and older guitars use lacquer finishes, then lacquer finishes sound better'. Of course, with that kind of logic it follows right along then that 'If an old man has rotten teeth and an old man is wiser, then it's wise to have rotten teeth" <grin>

However, there is some truth to It when it comes to acoustics. The tonewoods are thin and have little mass so they're easily damped. But, even there, it has more to do with the thickness of the finish, not the material used. Too much lacquer is just as deadening as too much poly or oil.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I appreciate all the input. Just to clarify; I'm not trying to bring up the old "Poly Vs. Nitro" debate. I am wondering more specifically if a thicker finish (many coats) would reduce high frequencies.

Every electric guitar I own has a Poly finish, and they all have the same bridge pickup, but my Warmoth seems to have less high frequencies when plugged in. I'm wondering if it's due to the thickness of the paint, or perhaps something with the electronics. it's wired pretty simple. i 500K volume knob and no tone pots. A 3-way switch, 2 pickups, and an output jack. The pickup is direct-mounted, while all my other electrics have pickup rings (or pickguard in the case of my Strat). They're all alder bodies with maple necks and rosewood fretboards. So why the perceived lack of high-end when compared to the others? It even has an OFR bridge, which is "supposed" to be bright sounding.

 

[Kadmium]

Does the finish affect the guitar's tone?

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Okay, so it's probably the pickup, or perhaps the capacitance in the wiring (or maybe that 500K volume pot isn't really 500K). I really can't think of anything else.

 

[bagman67]

How snug are the studs in their mounts? Seems to me you can lose sound conductance in lots of ways that have nuttin' to do with the paint job.

 

[Strat Avenger]

How snug are the studs in their mounts? Seems to me you can lose sound conductance in lots of ways that have nuttin' to do with the paint job.

The Floyd studs?  They're tight. Warmoth installed threaded inserts for me.