Matte Finishes?

High gloss finnishes can really affect the tone of an acoustic instrument by stopping the top of the instrument from resonating. With an acoustic guitar, almost all the sound comes from the top (Or "sound board"). When you coat that in 9 coats of varnish, it's not going to be able to vibrate properly.

As for the pro's and cons of matte/gloss finnihes, it's really personal choice. A matte top may sound nicer, but they tend scratch and dent very easily. Gloss surfaces are tougher, but in my opinion they don't look or feel as nice, but thats just personal.

I think the most important thing is a Solid wood top, i don't know much about the yamaha range, but I think their lowest priced ones come with laminated wood tops. These don't even come close to solid tops in terms of tone, sound quality or volume.

Anyway, there are some of my thoughts on the issue, but I'm sure somebody more experienced can put me right. Sorry I rambled on a bit :P

Peter

Both finishes will be snorted at by your average tone-snob, but to be honest I doubt the difference will be noticable.

Yeah, the finish is a pretty minor factor in a guitar's tone.

The main reason for matte finishes is that gloss finishes make any small unevenness in the large flat surfaces painfully obvious, and it takes a lot of expensive hand labor to get a glossy guitar really perfect looking. Not so with a matte finish.

I have a Fender with a gloss finish and a Martin with a hand-rubbed finish...almost bare wood. The Martin sounds much more pronounced and bright, whereas i can hear how the Fender is a little plunkier. The gloss finish really does stifle the vibration of the top a bit. But it's not a terrible thing, some songs I play, the articulation of the martin is a little too much and too bright, and if I want a more percussive sound, the Fender suits the job.

You can't compare the sounds of two entirely different guitars and tell what effect a finish has.

True.

Maybe it's in my head but I can feel differences in vibrations between the two guitars. The non-gloss vibrates more and the vibrations last alot longer. The gloss guitar has less vibration and less sustain. I can feel it if i put my hand on the top and I can feel it on my stomach when I'm playing them with a strap. I'm not sure how to explain it further.

It's a little like speakers, I guess. Take a speaker from your stereo and listen to it normally, and take the other speaker and put some plastic or something over it. The one with the plastic isn't going to be as articulate the one without plastic, right? It's not exactly the same but I guess it's roughly the same principle.

No, the difference in the finishes is negligible. You're comparing apples and oranges with two guitars that differ in every respect. The tops are different. The bracing's different. You can't possibly separate out any effect of the finish from that.

And the speaker analogy is not a good one. If you were stretching plastic over the sound hole of your guitar it'd be sort of comparable.

I know I'm not a luthier (although I'd like to be one day), but it just makes sense to me that a guitar encased in polyurethane isn't going to vibrate as freely as a guitar with a less plastic finish or a really thin satin finish. I'm not saying it would make a huge difference, but I would think it would still have an effect on the tone.

I never said it would make no difference, only that the difference is so small that it's unlikely to be noticed among the other differences between guitars.

Also, the difference in finish thickness is not directly related to the glossiness or dullness of the finish. Some matte finishes are very thin. So are some gloss finishes. The usual difference is that the polyurethane varnish has fine powdered silica mixed in it for a matte finish.

oh...i didn't know that

My Fender Telecaster is a lot less resonant than my Squier Strat because the finish on the Squier is thinner... but that's when I play them unplugged. When I plug them in I'm pressed to tell the difference.