A simple but nice oil finish

[Dave Bagwill]

I like that flat look also. How many coats do you spray - about the same as with the high gloss stuff?

[ken cierp]

I have not done a guitar yet -- just some cabinets.

Three or four wet coats seems like plenty I am using Krylon Colormaster rattle can acrylic. EIR with no pore fill looks really nice. I have a HVLP and do plan on using Enduro WB flat varnish.

No offense to anybody -- but I simply do not understand the fascination with super high gloss guitars. All that work to produce something that is so delicate it cannot be handled in a workman like manner without finger prints and smears and the inevitable finish damage -- and then what? $.02

[John Link]

No offense taken Ken - you raise an interesting issue, which is always good. From a purely physical point of view, a gloss finish should not change measurable sound, per se. However, psychologists have done experiments that suggest an operator's attitude about what they are using can affect how they operate, as in learning experiments in which some rats were presented to the experimenters as "smarter" than others, but were in fact all the same. When experimenters were teaching "smart" rats, these rats learned faster. The most credible explanation was that the experimenters performed their teaching task better when they believed their rats to be "smarter".

So, in a round about way, it is possible that players, when they have a guitar they think is "better", or they like better, or otherwise perceive in a very positive fashion, may actually play it better even though it is not "better". High gloss presents the wood in a way that many find more visually appealing than dull and associate it with more expensive, assumed better-constructed instruments. But then, many players feel that original, 100-year-old finishes that have seriously deteriorated are "better" too. However, with new guitars, there is a tendency to associate gloss finish with "better", though there are exceptions (Lowden instruments, for example).

So, if one is prepared to expend the effort to get high gloss, it may affect the way the instrument is played as long as high gloss remains in vogue with its players. It is fun to think about, in any case. The human being is the most complex species on the planet and when we make music we are operating at one of our most complex levels. If the perception of a rat can affect teaching it simple routines, it would not surprise me that the same thing happens when we make music.

[Dave Bagwill]

I think there is room - and a market - for both, though the dujour finish these days is high-gloss.
Of course it does depend on who wants the guitar - there are some killer Martins with matte finish, some Washburns, Kinkade's and others high-enders in matte/satin. Those all -hog Martins look sweet in matte, you just want to pick it up and play it.
I sold a SCGC model F to a friend - he never played it. He was afraid of getting a scratch on it, and I bought it back and sold it elsewhere. He went back to a more simply-appointed guitar and he played the hell out of it - no worries about scratches.
My favorite guitar was a RoadKing by Tacoma - not fancy, no binding, low gloss if any - I could not keep my hands off it.
There are PLAYERS - and they like, nay love, a 'players' guitar. Then there are boutique players, who like to see the other side of the room when they look into a guitar finish. And lots of guys in between.
'Plain' is in the eye of the beholder. It is true that high-gloss is the finish du jour, but not everyone.

[John Link]

Then there is Martin's millionth. The technical accomplishment is beyond sky high. Without a doubt there are many who find the decorations enhancing. I have to wonder what all that shell on the BRZ does to the sound, objectively speaking.

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[ken cierp]

In one of his AG Mag articles Dana Bourgeois mentions that high end customers are "far" more concerned with appearance than the sonic qualities the custom design may yield.