Do Wood veneers change the tone?
 

I have been drooling over some of the offerings of the wood veneer topped Emeralds and have been wondering if the sound is different from the plain or raw CF top? I have read that my current CF guitar with hi gloss finish sounds different than the same exact guitar with raw finish.
So, does the veneer top change the sound?

I've asked Sean that a few month ago and he confirmed your thought.

Ha rms, from your other thread, as I had surmised, I thought you'd be contemplating this.

As to your question, my understanding from past reading, and maybe even past discussion with Alistair, is that the veneer is so thin and integrated/encased in the gloss finish, that it has no distinguishable effect on tone. Now, maybe my recollection has faded, so it'd be great if Sean or Alistair could chime-in to clarify.

I have asked the same question before getting mine, according to Emerald, there is no tone difference.

While the wood veneer does not change the tone, I have noticed these absolutely unquantifiable results:

* It looks absolutely gorgeous
* You will notice more of a spring in your step
* Women will find you more attractive
* You will be able to play chords only previously dreamed about
* Feelings of euphoria
* Bouts of uncontrolled smiling

Ask Emerald if a woody veneer may be right for you.

:)

I followed your post for your new custom X20 and fell in love with that guitar.
I will accept all of the above unquantifiable results without reservation. Thanks for sharing!

I'm kinda partial to it, too. ;) If you're still on the fence, I can make up some more irrefutable stuff.

I was playing the X20 this morning before heading out on the boat. The Blonde said to me, "Is there something about that guitar that makes you sing even better?"

She may be biased.

Actually, she may be correct. Of course, I'm only guessing, but I wonder if the unique design of the offset soundhole/port of the X20 in facilitating both upward and outward flow of air/sound serves to amplify the vocals which maybe gets picked up in the upward flow...kinda serving as a natural mic. Just a thought.

Interesting, seems GuitarDoc and pandaroo got conflicting opinions.

In any event, I've played a number of emeralds with and without the wood tops, including some discontinued models, and the veneer absolutely changes the tone. Think about it, how could it not? Depending on how Alistair does it now, he is either replacing some CF with wood, or adding wood to the normal amount of CF. Either way, the structure of the soundboard is changed.

That only makes sense to me. A C.F. guitar with a raw top to me sounds different than a hi gloss top which is actually layers of paint I believe. I think the gloss top adds some warmth but also diminishes the volume a bit, so i would think that adding a veneer to the top would do the same? Or I could be wrong.

I am excited to get my Emerald X20 Woody any day now. So this causes great concern. Should I have ordered it naked? Sean and Alistair agree that naked is fine but veneer is better for covering up blemishes, imperfections, zits, dark spots, wrinkles and other oddities.......oh! Thats right, we are talking guitar bodies, not human bodies. Hope I made the right decision to go for the veneer even though I have nothing to hide.

It has to change the tone, but by how much would be the question..

I know that that gloss finishes produce a different tone than raw. I have yet to play a woody, but I would think it would be tonally different than straight CF. That might be a good thing in that it may add warmth to the sound.

What's interesting in this discussion is that none of the people who have ordered wood/cf have had any complaints about either tone or projection. That silence says a lot.

I own a regular X20 Artisan and a Woody Cocobolo X20. With the exact same strings on them I can not tell a difference. I'm not saying there might not be a slight difference but nothing my ears or anyone else around me can hear.

To my knowledge Emerald does not offer a Raw Topped guitar as even the Opus has a Gloss finish on the top of the guitar.

When I've owned CA or Rainsong guitars that were Raw versus a gloss finish I could hear a little bit of difference.

ROTFLMAO...

And it's all true.

#truth #ifit'sontheinternetitmustbetrue

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