Satin frost finish over sunburst

[matt]

Dear fellow G&L lovers,

I am about to order my first G&L guitar (it's gonna be an ASAT Special) and I am already pretty sure about most of the options. However I recently read about the satin frost finish and I wonder, what it might look like on a sunburst body. Using google and the search function on the board I only found pictures of pearl, margarita, tangerine or graphite frost. Can anybody advice me with the finish or even has pictures of satin frost over sunburst?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Matt

[Fred Finisher]

Matt,
For what it's worth, I'll give you my opinion on satin finishes. Polishing a guitar, or anything else for that matter, is a very tedious task. In order for it to come out right, you have to spend quite a bit of time wet sanding the entire surface in order to remove all imperfections as well as the orange peel that occurs during the spraying process. Too much water can result in swelled areas of the wood that appear when the body is polished. Not enough sanding and you will have shiny scratches all over the surface. For this reason, polishing adds a fair amount of time to the guitar building process which results in higher costs. This is where satin finishes come in. In order to reduce costs, builders began introducing satin finishes much the same way furniture manufacturers did. High gloss furniture generally looks cheap so it was an easy transition in that market. High gloss guitars on the other hand look great when they are done right and have been built that way for decades.
Satin finishes can also be applied in less coats so another cost is cut for the manufacturers. As long as there is enough finish to protect the instrument for many years of normal use, having a thinner finish is not a bad thing. Once you take away most of the coatings, the protection is compromised. Too thick of a finish can also look plastic dipped and can have an effect on the resonance of the instrument. This is more noticeable on acoustic instruments but there are those that will tell you they can hear the difference between a sunburst and a white finish .
The biggest difference you will find in a satin finish is the loss of depth in the wood. If you look into a translucent finish, you see more than color. Your eye perceives the nuances of the fibers in the wood. This is particularly noticeable in Curly Maple where the wood looks "deep" and appears to move. applying a satin finish over that will obscure your eyes ability to see that. It would be like taking a good photocopy of a Cherry Sunburst and comparing it to the original, you can still see the figuring but it loses it's depth. Mahogany also loses a lot of it's character under a satin finish. One other thing to consider is this, a satin finish is sprayed on by applying a clear coat that has a flattening agent in it to reduce the sheen to the desired effect. If you scuff a satin finish it is difficult to return it to it's original luster without it looking like it was repaired. If you scuff a polished finish, you can always sand and buff it back to where it started. This is why you see inconsistencies in satin finishes, simply rubbing on the guitar while you are playing it will buff shiny spots in it.
I hope this helps answer your question,
Fred

[meursault]

Wow... A hell of a detaild and informative post !

I saw some burst gibbies with satin finish and they looked pretty cool...

[darwinohm]

If you can find one, look at a Fender Hiway One in Sunburst. The Highway One's are satin for the reason Fred explained. -- Darwin

[matt]

Guys, thank you so much for your replies!

Fred, your informaiton is indeed insightful and helping! I totally can see, where your name comes from!
I used to be a bit concerned that the glossy finish might look a bit too classy for my taste (I kinda like understatement with my gear) but checking out the Fender Highway 1 and reading about the effects of buffing shiny spots in the satin finish by just playing the guitar I'm willing to change my mind. I'm planing to order a swamp ash body in 2TS and I assume, the gloss finish will bring out the character of the grain very well just as Fred described. Equipping it with black PUs and a 1-ply black pickguard might give it the unobtrusive yet elegent appearance I'm looking for ...

[darwinohm]

2 TS is an excellent choice! -- Darwin

[Craig]

Here's an example of Frosted Two-Tone Sunburst:



Hope this helps.

[Fred Finisher]

This picture says it all. Guitars should look like wood, not Formica. If looks don't matter, this is a good way to reduce the manufacturing costs of an instrument. I believe I like this look about as much as Louis likes the pickguard.
Fred

[louis cyfer]

This picture says it all. Guitars should look like wood, not Formica. If looks don't matter, this is a good way to reduce the manufacturing costs of an instrument. I believe I like this look about as much as Louis likes the pickguard.
Fred

[matt]

Thanks Craig for the picture! It seems obvious why satin frost is more popular with non-translucent finishes.
So this made up my mind and I'll rather go with the glossy option.

Thank you all for your advive!