X30 Wooden Veneer Dulls Tone?

[Mark Stone]

If anyone has experience with both, is there a difference in the tone and sustain of the wood veneer X30s compared to the nekkid CF? TIA - I'm about 5 weeks out from placing an order - -

[Captain Jim]

According to Alistair (right from the source), there is no significant difference in tone with/without veneer.

I have 3 Emeralds, different models. One with a wood veneer, two no veneer; no X30, though. All three have great tone and sustain.

[kramster]

I never noticed a difference... still mostly CF and or composites and epoxy

[fregly]

If it were me I'd order one without veneer. I'm a guy who removes pickguards. Extra material will not help sound and could potentially hinder. Even if a little.

[oscarvan]

If you can hear the difference there's a highly compensated career out there for you somewhere.....

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

According to Alistair (right from the source), there is no significant difference in tone with/without veneer.

If the man who makes them says there’s no significant difference, that’s good enough for me.

[steelvibe]

I can definitely hear a difference...

Between good playing and my playing

[mot]

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

If anyone has experience with both, is there a difference in the tone and sustain of the wood veneer X30s compared to the nekkid CF? TIA - I'm about 5 weeks out from placing an order - -

I think you won't be able to tell the difference in a blindfold test. At least I couldn't. The driving factor should be if you want the extra costs/looks or not. Sounds about the same either way.

[Kerbie]

Mark, I have a Woody Maple X-7 and I can't imagine it having any more sustain. I think it's great and I would think the 30 might be even better in that regard.

[SpruceTop]

There's likely very little if any hearable effect on the tone with a veneer option. Although I think the veneer can look nice, I prefer my carbon straight up, no chaser.

I believe that the addition of a different material should have some effect on sound. The discussion is similar to previous discussions regarding the difference between gloss and raw Cargos. The suspicion was that gloss muted but warmed the audio. The same suspicion might apply to veneers.

Such suspicions have, thus far, remained unproven. Oscar suggested that if you could hear the difference you could probably have a highly compensated job. You might also have a highly skeptical audience.

That said, I believe that there was a difference between my raw and gloss Cargos. I thought the gloss was warmer and faced skepticism from respected CFers. I also believe that veneers add a warmth to CF but that could be me dreaming warm wooden dreams.

The blind test suggested by Mot would be an interesting forum project.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by fregly

If it were me I'd order one without veneer. I'm a guy who removes pickguards. Extra material will not help sound and could potentially hinder. Even if a little.

But... you can never prove it.

Originally Posted by oscarvan

If you can hear the difference there's a highly compensated career out there for you somewhere.....

Indeed. In the same class as astrologer or audiophile

Originally Posted by steelvibe

I can definitely hear a difference...

Between good playing and my playing

Of course...

Originally Posted by EvanB

I believe that the addition of a different material should have some effect on sound. The discussion is similar to previous discussions regarding the difference between gloss and raw Cargos. The suspicion was that gloss muted but warmed the audio. The same suspicion might apply to veneers.

Such suspicions have, thus far, remained unproven. Oscar suggested that if you could hear the difference you could probably have a highly compensated job. You might also have a highly skeptical audience.

That said, I believe that there was a difference between my raw and gloss Cargos. I thought the gloss was warmer and faced skepticism from respected CFers. I also believe that veneers add a warmth to CF but that could be me dreaming warm wooden dreams.

The blind test suggested by Mot would be an interesting forum project.

And they will remain unproven, along with 12-fret vs 14-fret, mahogany vs rosewood, Richlite vs ebony, glue wars, the effect of a cutaway and goodness knows how many other things.

The challenge with any kind of test like this is in isolating a single variable.

It's pretty much impossible.

But, without the discussion, the AGF would be a far less lively place

[RP]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

The challenge with any kind of test like this is in isolating a single variable.

It's pretty much impossible.

The other potential issue is having an adequate number of subjects for a decent sample...

[jdinco]

Originally Posted by RP

The other potential issue is having an adequate number of subjects for a decent sample...

Does that mean we are not adequate ?

[RP]

Originally Posted by jdinco

Does that mean we are not adequate ?

No, it means that a valid study would require having enough Emeralds in both veneered and unveneered form in order to determine that any differences in the dependent variable are the result of the independent variable and not due to chance...