Thursday, January 3, 2019

Yes, Although It's the Density of the Finish's Molecular Structure, Rather Than the Color


 John Lennon with his stripped-of-finish guitar on the roof of London's Apple Records shredding the licks for "Get Back"

Can Guitar Paint Affect Your Tone?

Reminder:  In addition to being an annoying curmudgeon and prickly priest, I also run a craft guitar business.  At the shop, we either strip the finish off of a market guitar entirely or make sure that any finish or color that we apply to our own original instruments is not that shiny, lacquer-like varnish that is prized at musical instrument stores.  They do that because people will buy things that are shiny.

The instrument needs to breathe, after all.

Related: The Beatles’ Casinos  The Casino being a model of semi-hollow electric guitar made by the Epiphone company.  It is prized by blues musicians for its warm tone.