Any tone or volume difference between Emerald with vs without veneer?

[jim3]

Curious to know if anybody has noticed a difference in either the volume or the tone of an Emerald that has a wood veneer versus one that does not have the veneer? The veneer looks beautiful, but I have not heard if it impacts the sound.
Jim

[Earl49]

This gets discussed here from time to time. The conventional wisdom is "no difference" and that comes from Alistair himself, plus end user reports. However, even in the carbon fiber world it is very difficult to make two guitars exactly alike, so some minor tone differences is certainly possible - just rather unlikely.

We happen to own two different X7 woody's (one koa, one bubinga veneer) and there isn't any difference that we can hear between those veneers. We do not have a with/without pair of the same model to directly compare though.

[Methos1979]

Most say no (including me) but at least one - Puerto Player - has this issue but it seems to be more of a one-off thing since he also has another woody that I believe he said does not have this issue. I've now owned 5 Emeralds, four of them woody's, and I have not noticed a difference from the non-veneer models. The only difference is the hefty price tag!

[jim3]

Thanks guys, very helpful. I really like the veneer covered guitars, but was concerned about impact on tone/volume. Your feedback has helped me make the decision to go with a curly maple veneer.
Jim

[benderman57]

I've owned both a regular X20 Artisan and a Woody topped X20 at the same time. I've since sold the Regular X20 to fund an X30. I could hear no real difference between them at least on my pair. I'm sure there could be a little difference in any of the guitars they build but on mine they seemed very alike in tone & volume/projection.