Stripp/Remove finish from neck and/or body?

Ingemar · #1 02-10-2007, 03:13 PM

Does stripping/remove the finish/coute from the neck (and maybe even sand down/thin out the neck a bit) and/or the body affect the sound?

saxnbass · #2 02-10-2007, 03:32 PM

I've heard that it does, but I don't know out of experience.

Liten · #3 02-13-2007, 08:28 AM

Sure it does..
How much depends on the thickness of the coat on neck and body.. However.. if your afraid of loosing any tone by removing the finish.. your worrying 4 no reason.. tone just gets "better" without it.. (imo).. Ive added paind and finish to a fretless bass.. both neck, fretboard and body.. It whent from warm, deap and loud sounding (unplugged) to bright, sterile but still loud.. ofcourse that depends on woods, finishes and so on.. plugged in the differens was noticable.. but not as great...

Do I regret doing it..

no..

Jimbob Jones · #4 02-14-2007, 10:28 AM

stripping off the finish may "open up" the sound, but if the paint/laquer/whatever is quite thin anyway, you probably wont notice any difference.

On thinning the neck profile, unless your bass has a very chunky neck, i wouldnt recomend it, because a lot of manufacturers make the neck as thin as possible to make the instrument easier to play, and if you go any thinner, the neck may snap or warp.