How does colour affect tone?

[bobyoung53]

Adding sparkle to the finish dramatically affects tone by embedding small metallic flakes into the finish in close proximity to the pickups. This causes EMI interference to be reflected and magnified and fed directly into the pickups. For these reasons a ground wire should be run from under these kinds of finishes to the bridge plate. Otherwise, a noise gate is necessary to stop the hum and buzzing from these kinds of finishes. However, if you have a skilled person doing your finish, they can often use reverse wound/reverse polarity metallic flakes, which turns the entire finish into a humbucker. If the refinisher wires the metallic flakes in series, it will also thicken your tone.

As a side note, metallic finishes often also affect resale value because they add a couple of ounces to the answer to the "weight?" question most often asked in the Talkbass Classifieds.

That is a VERY revealing post, thank you.

 

[wysiwyg248]

I just saw a Facebook post from someone asking if getting a pro paint job would affect the tone of his Warwick natural ash bass. I said no, it wouldn’t. I’m going to be interested to see where that one goes.

When you paint your instrument, the coating acts as a damper of the wood natural sound. A satin bass should sound less muted than a shinny one. This is because gloss finish requires more coats of paint.
Warwicks are finished natural -probably with some wood coating? I have one but never bothered to check- so painting it will affect the tone of the instrument. How much? don't know and it will be dependent on the number of coats, gloss, etc. Check Pat Wilkinks videos where he discuss the differences between gloss and satin finishes.

Obs: Color should not make a significant / noticeable difference.

 

[MidlifeBeginner]

A legitimate way color will affect sound is how it inspires the player to play differently.

Does finish affect tone? Yes Does it make a big difference? No

You can look at the example of Stradivari violins, because there has been a lot of research on them. The tone wood is a lot of their sound. The forest near where they lived had tight grained wood from a historic drought. The composition of the finish also affects the sound. A violin is hollow bodied, so the finish is a significant percentage of the weight. On a solid body bass, finish is a small amount of the weight, so has a small affect on the tone.

Unfinished vs finished could be a big affect. Unfinished wood will change density a lot with humidity in the air. That is a bad thing. Wood should be at least oiled or stained to fill pores with oil instead of water. A natural finish is oiled or clear coated.

 

[B-Mac]

Adding sparkle to the finish dramatically affects tone by embedding small metallic flakes into the finish in close proximity to the pickups. This causes EMI interference to be reflected and magnified and fed directly into the pickups. For these reasons a ground wire should be run from under these kinds of finishes to the bridge plate. Otherwise, a noise gate is necessary to stop the hum and buzzing from these kinds of finishes. However, if you have a skilled person doing your finish, they can often use reverse wound/reverse polarity metallic flakes, which turns the entire finish into a humbucker. If the refinisher wires the metallic flakes in series, it will also thicken your tone.

As a side note, metallic finishes often also affect resale value because they add a couple of ounces to the answer to the "weight?" question most often asked in the Talkbass Classifieds.

Wow! You really did your research on that. Good job! I’m going to bookmark this post for future reference.

 

[Aloe]

there's something special about those oil-finished Wicks. it's weird that something wants to destroy this beauty.

does this affect sound? IME somehow yes, all gloss-finished Wicks I've played sounded differently from oil-finished. oil-finished sound like wood, gloss have a plasticky tone. that's my experience.

would this difference be enough to notice in mix? probably not.

 

[MidlifeBeginner]

Wow! You really did your research on that. Good job! I’m going to bookmark this post for future reference.

A thought just popped into my head of somebody painting their entire guitar in shielding paint. That would be funny.

 

[iiipopes]

To me, the tone of Sir Macca's bass is really deep blue. Trippy, dude!

 

[darwin-bass]

Years ago I built a fretless bass with a solid maple body (Warmoth neck). I finished the body with Watco oil and the bass sounded tubby. I have no idea why, but it did.

It also weighed a ton. I eventually sold it for the value of the neck.

 

[Fynn]

I just saw a Facebook post from someone asking if getting a pro paint job would affect the tone of his Warwick natural ash bass. I said no, it wouldn’t. I’m going to be interested to see where that one goes.

Ofcourse it does. When you have a nice finish on your bass the sound guy will be so astonished, that he will not turn you down.

 

[themickster]

So I know this is meant to be ridiculous, but I’m amazed by some of the things that ppl around here DO think affects tone. Manufacturers’ marketing that ignores the physics of how the signal is made doesn’t help.

'Warm vintage tones' is squit.

 

[Bass-ball]

no lol ***

 

[themickster]

I just saw a Facebook post from someone asking if getting a pro paint job would affect the tone of his Warwick natural ash bass. I said no, it wouldn’t. I’m going to be interested to see where that one goes.

One e of the other such questions I've seen is 'What are the best pickups for this kind of music?' A FB group I was in had that come up every few days and was always for same music. I should be thankful they don't ask what colour pickups they should have.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

This is why Facebook just needs to go away.
The greatest disinformation purveyor ever.

And no, color does not make any tonal difference.

 

[two fingers]

I would be more curious as to how well paint will bond to the wax finish of the guy's Wick. Once that paint flakes off it really won't matter, will it?

 

[bigtone23]

On solid body instruments, painting them darker shades of green will result in a tonally superior bass.

 

[Killing Floor]

I always heard red guitars are faster.

 

[EatS1stBassist]

I once took a torch and burned a p bass body. After wiping down I sprayed it with a light coat of clear satin. Sounds great! Has a dark charcoal type of sound!

 

[Pilgrim]

It's not the color so much as the amount of alcohol that goes into the audience.

Remember the rule of all gigs: "The more you drink, the better we sound."

 

[EatS1stBassist]

It's not the color so much as the amount of alcohol that goes into the audience.

Remember the rule of all gigs: "The more you drink, the better we sound."

Lol!

 

[Killing Floor]

I like black basses as they sound very dark. Red basses as a rule are very bright, natural basses are very transparent sounding and white basses sound very clean. Sunburst basses give you the whole palette of sounds which is why they're the best, bonus if they have a tort pickguard.

This! Not sure you specified the pick guard color.