my tiny bodied span. cedar NT FBB sounds beautiful,
the koa top has darkened from use,oils in my hands,sweat..and there are some dings,
u know how amazing light colored koa looks sometimes? almost golden..well, it's darkening,except for the parts i rarely touch..

If I had it sanded out,to restore the original koa's bright finish,and put a hard poly or laquer finish on it..could the hard finish darken it up a bit?
flats helped alot, but it's nature is just a light sounding,poppy,out of phase-strat type tones.very light,
if u kick in the bart pre, u get some booty, but in general, it sounds "light"

hoping to kill 2 or 3 birds with 1 stone..

lighten the finish to the original lustre
buff out dings
give it a flashier stage appearance
darken and improve(hopefully) the tone..
protect it from future dings and discoloration

it's a risk,right? the tone may change?..

no idea sorry but nice bass!

I can't really help, sorry, but that bass is lovely!

here's a pic of the headstock inlay..
woods..
marblewood fb
spanish cedar body
windfallen koa top
maple/canary/jatoba neck with bubinga binding
morado trussrod cover
goncalo headstock lam
knobs are zebra/koa
inlay is pau,pearl,gold pearl,turq,gold outline and script,
weight 6.3 lbs

nice man. i weighed nearly 4lbs more than that when i was born hahaha

I doubt it will affect the tone much, if at all. I would be looking at pickups as the thing to change if you want to have the most effect on the tone.

I doubt it will affect the tone much, if at all. I would be looking at pickups as the thing to change if you want to have the most effect on the tone.

I agree. But, restoring the finish will increase the beauty of an already beautiful bass. I wouldn't put poly over that. I'd use more of the original oil finish.

i have heard claims from some companies coughfendercough that their nitrocellulose finish improves tone, but i dont think it will make much of a difference

I dont think finish changes the tone, it is one for the audiofile voodoo book along with the marker lines on CD's and wooden volume knobs, or dont forget 300.00 gold electrical outlet.

Of course finish will effect the life of the wood and in some cases its hardness which may contribute to the tone somehow but not in a way we can measure and hear , I dont think.

I was doing side by side comparisons with a couple of cabs loaded with the same speakers made from different materials, the biggest difference was the design not so much the material.

only on semi and acoustics....where the wood really plays a part ..especially if the bridge or pickups float on the body..but solids...but if anything i would have thought that treatment would have had the opposite effect....like if it was totally unfished it would sound warmer?? just a guess.

I know for sure that wood DOES affect tone. I mean: if you make a body (or even better - a neck) with a good resonant piece of Maple and you make a neck with same measurements and body/pickups with a worse resonating wood it's gonna sound worse. No way to deny it if you use your ears :)
The finish would affect tone and response... but in a minimal percentage. I think that body wood (type of wood) affects tone about 15%. A different finish (very hard poly VS a thin coat of oil) would probably make a 5% difference. Just my two cents, of course. Anyway, nice bass!

Certainly the difference won't be enough to matter. A bright sounding bass won't become dark sounding by the finish alone.

Exactly. :)