Re: Enjoying the tone befefits of an unfinished guitar
Some good replies here:
http://www.strat-talk.com/threads/can-thick-paint-affect-tone.231868/
“Same is true of the quest for sustain, at some point, isolating any “resonance” from the construct of the guitar which allows the “energy” of the string NOT to be dissipated into the wood to make it resonate, the ONLY way it CAN be made to resonate, results in generally, poorer sonic quality. Ya gotta be balanced...
All that said, why in hell is it that no matter what anyone does to their guitar it always results in an “improvement”? Hum? It doesn't ya know, it cannot, ya know, it can only result in a change... the fact that every time, anyone does anything is touted as THE way to sonic nirvana, seems to suggest that more of a psychological event has occurred as opposed to a physical one... a sonic one.
Wood doesn’t breathe... allowing it to theoretically breathe does not in fact allow it to breathe, it only alters the physical characteristics of the “machine” resulting in a change.
Remember... REMEMBER.... if anything as simple as stripping paint, will universally “IMPROVE sound... ALL.... everyone of the touring pros would be playing necked guitars... and ALL the session musicians, stuck in studios would do so too, simply because no one will see it except for the “crew” and they couldn’t give a shi* what your guitar looks like as long as you can play it...
Prove that’s wrong, and I’ll give the topic up once and for all..”
Pretty much what I said.
Another
“As for the psychoacoustics - if you change something which scientifically can't be proven to make any difference, and yet expect to hear one, guess what? You will. Our brains aren't smart where our biases and expectations are concerned. They do what they're told.
I listened to the posters before and after soundbites, and you have to listen really hard to discern a difference. If that's what it takes to dig it out, it's not worth the effort. If as the poster says the difference is clearer off recording, well, it's still not worth the effort. As Ron suggests, changing the strings for newies is probably the only difference that's occurred.
Also, I played my guitar today and it didn't sound as good as yesterday, even though I felt I was playing better. Damn ears are stoopid.”
And there’s the rub; your guitar won’t sound the same every day. And you won’t remember how it sounded yesterday. You only think you do.
When I’m working on new pickup designs I record them direct with a clean tone. Then when I make a change I record that. Because otherwise I can convince myself that something sounds “better”... but without a recording I’m just trusting my memory.
And a few people in that thread pointed out that just taking the guitar apart and putting it back together can change things. Along with new strings, etc.
It’s all snake oil folks. No one has been able to prove a solid electric guitar sounds better without finish, or with one finish vs another. It’s all a placebo effect.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
