Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've seen photos of a beautiful white acoustic Rickenbacker and would love to order one, but just wondering about the tone killing properties when an acoustic is painted?

The tone of these is unique, precise, full-bodied, and wonderful. A number of members of the RRF own them.

We could talk about the theory of "paint killing tone", but it's mostly apocryphal. I'm sure you could measure the difference in tone with a very sensitive instrument, but the chances of a human hearing the difference between a merely sealed Rickenbacker acoustic, and one with a full finish, will range from "unlikely" to "impossible". And not finishing a spruce-topped acoustic guitar is simply not an advisable option and would probably yield a flabby tone and compromise projection.

Play more, worry less.

Is there that much difference between "painted" and "finished"? (as far as layers of sealant etc). I wouldn't think so. I definitely wouldn't think somone could hear a sonic difference.

Don't get confused by semantics.

The biggest difference in sound comes when the raw wood (especially the spruce or cedar top) is sealed, with sealer, shellac, or whatever is used for a first coat. This stiffens up the wood and closes the pores somewhat. Beyond that, there's a small change until the finish gets too thick to be practical.

The issue of a guitars finish affecting tone goes way back. In my experience, the worst offenders were from overseas with the early import guitars which were sprayed with a very heavy coat of polyester (gelcoat) which could then be sanded completely flat, sunbursted, solid colored, or left natural. The topcoats applied afterward were typically some form of catylized finish. This type of finishing was good for factories where the finish filled in the pores and any imperfections in construction like gaps or pin holes. They could then aggressively buff the bodies without fear of cutting through the finish. This resulted in very thick layers of a very heavy and dense material on top of the wood which could be measured with a shop rule. I am not exaggerating. Fender adopted this method for their infamous "thickskin" finish. It would take days and a lot of marine grade paint stripper to remove the finish from one of those bodies. I hated doing it...

From what I've seen, Paul does his finish prep/final sanding extremely well and uses no more finish than is necessary. There is a balance and Paul's work is an example of excellent balance.





Jim