Do finishes change the tone of the electric guitar

i-watermelon john · Post by **i-watermelon john** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:14 am

On my Fender Tele, I think I have the water base type of finish, but to me it seems to have that Fender trademark tone

jamesd74 · Post by **jamesd74** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:25 pm

Don't really know I have a quilted maple top, with a high gloss automotive finish.

alun · Post by **alun** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 8:00 pm

watermelon john wrote:On my Fender Tele, I think I have the water base type of finish, but to me it seems to have that Fender trademark tone

This is an argument without end,

some say the finish does affect tone, some say not,
Mine is 2-colour sunburst with a urethane finish, and it say's in the owners manual, "with thinner undercoat for body resonance",

Personally I think think it's more down to the timber the body's made from........

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:40 pm

record it as it is......then strip the finish down to bare wood and coat it
with something different....record it again.. then use a spectrum analyser and comparator
to monitor the difference ( must be the same strings/situ/temperature etc ) ....because your ear wont be sensitive enough

or in a nut shell .... how will one ever know????

alun · Post by **alun** » Tue Nov 23, 2010 7:56 pm

polyal wrote:record it as it is......then strip the finish down to bare wood and coat it
with something different....record it again.. then use a spectrum analyser and comparator
to monitor the difference ( must be the same strings/situ/temperature etc ) ....because your ear wont be sensitive enough

or in a nut shell .... how will one ever know????

Stripped it down to bare wood, and re-coated it with white emulsion, and recorded it again, but then at the crucial point in the recording my spectrum analyser shorted out on the comparator flange grommet, am still trying to get the rest of it in a nutshell..........

polyal · Post by **polyal** » Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:10 pm

you shouldn't re-record it until the emulsion has dried ...thats what shorted the nutshell
wiring.....i hope health and safety are unaware..else there 'll be grommets and all sorts of
sh!te flying all over the forum

where did you get the git player from?

alun · Post by **alun** » Wed Nov 24, 2010 8:13 am

polyal wrote:you shouldn't re-record it until the emulsion has dried ...thats what shorted the nutshell
wiring.....i hope health and safety are unaware..else there 'll be grommets and all sorts of
sh!te flying all over the forum

where did you get the git player from?

Thanks for that, didn't realise that the emulsion needed to be dry,

the player was from Asda,
ps, look out for flying grommets...............