Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by Fiddy » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:30 am

Do they?

My tone has been lacking...

:jacked:

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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by Larry Mal » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:44 am

Of course stickers rob your guitar of tone.

Not, though, as much as humidity does. How can your string vibrate properly if there's a bunch of fucking water in the air?

That's why I only play my guitars in a hermetically sealed white room environment in which all humidity is whisked away by complicated machinery. It's fucking wonderful for tone and all my friends agreed that I'd never sounded better even through the one inch glass separating us but they said that the constant nose bleeds were a little hard to look at.

I did have a small setback, though, since I realized that I was expelling tone-killing humidity with my every exhalation. I decided to simply hold my breath the whole time in order to chase my ultimate tone, but sadly I blacked out and hit my head on the sharp metal corner of my Dumble.

So I'm looking into some kind of SCUBA apparatus or possibly something that NASA would use to train their astronauts with although they haven't responded to any of the emails I've sent from my hospital bed. Government, you know? They won't allow me a guitar in this hospital which is probably good since my wife's constant crying as she signs various papers they give her to look at has got to be adding a lot of moisture to the air anyway and that can't be good for my tone.

I wish she would quit crying so much so I could figure out what's going on with my tone. They say I'll be able to get some rest soon, that sounds great, some nice rest. Maybe they'll let me look at my back issues of Guitar Player again.
Last edited by Larry Mal on Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by shadowplay » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:45 am

They certainly lower the tone IMO.

I was trying to stratify the tone lowering abilites of stickers running from the spinning bow tie and novelty socks end with your Ninja Turtle stickers, through your dull as dishwater corporate stickers for other guitar brands and services, on to advertising for some band, head on into some naff go faster motoring iconography, then hitching a ride on the Jesus Loves You train, before stopping off at a large breasted valkyrie riding a winged polar bear but then I realised that were all as bad as each other and gave up.

D
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by Embenny » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:16 am

The key is to measure the pattern of standing waves as the guitar vibrates, and place stickers only at existing nodes so as not to disrupt the natural resonance.

Of course, you could take this as an opportunity to attempt to shift the resonant frequencies of the guitar through selective disruption of standing waves, but the calculations involved might take a while.

Also, use only vinyl decals. You want to make sure that sticker melts into the nitro good and proper.
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by cestlamort » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:21 am

If you mean the little "made in the USA" stickers on Rickenbacker pickguards, absolutely.

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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:50 am

I've heard it's only shit stickers that have a detrimental effect. Cool ones actually enhance tone considerably. They also make you generally better at playing, it seems.
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by kdanie » Wed Nov 29, 2017 8:33 am

tribi9 wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:30 am
Do they?

My tone has been lacking...

:jacked:
Did they point a handgun at you when they took your tone?? If the answer is "yes" you were robbed, if the answer is "no" you just "loaned" the stickers your tone.

ken
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by Squirrel » Wed Nov 29, 2017 9:03 am

cestlamort wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:21 am
If you mean the little "made in the USA" stickers on Rickenbacker pickguards, absolutely.
Ha. I swear that sticker is the calling card of the fanboys who make owning a Rickenbacker about as appealing as stamp collecting.

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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by mackerelmint » Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:00 am

Look, if someone has any stickers of big-titted valkyries riding polar bears lying around that you're not gonna use because you can't stomach the thought of it ruining your tone, send 'em my way. Especially if they're big enough to cover the soundhole of a Martin Dreadnought.
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by Singlebladepickup » Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:06 am

Logically, it seems like a sticker over the sound hole would prevent tones from escaping, and thus being lost. If there are tits and polar bears involved, it might add sparkle and whimsy to your tone.

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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by antisymmetric » Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:23 pm

I've found no negative effects except for when the stickers are placed directly on the strings- and the larger the sticker/ the more strings spanned, the worse it got. :( Never again. :fp:
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by FightingPlankton » Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:26 pm

Squirrel wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 9:03 am
cestlamort wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:21 am
If you mean the little "made in the USA" stickers on Rickenbacker pickguards, absolutely.
Ha. I swear that sticker is the calling card of the fanboys who make owning a Rickenbacker about as appealing as stamp collecting.
Or riding a Harley
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by Embenny » Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:53 pm

Singlebladepickup wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:06 am
Logically, it seems like a sticker over the sound hole would prevent tones from escaping, and thus being lost. If there are tits and polar bears involved, it might add sparkle and whimsy to your tone.
Now that's thinking! I've been losing tone out of my acoustics for years!

I'm surprised I haven't gone bankrupt.
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by mackerelmint » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:15 pm

Singlebladepickup wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:06 am
Logically, it seems like a sticker over the sound hole would prevent tones from escaping, and thus being lost. If there are tits and polar bears involved, it might add sparkle and whimsy to your tone.
My thoughts exactly. The bigger the body, the smaller the hole, the more tone retained. Cover holes with stickers, or even a bunch of smaller corks if you've got an ovation. If you cut down wine corks for different size holes, use only corks from quality wines, you're sure to ruin the sound of your guitar if you try using a cork from a bottle of two buck chuck or something. Too bad Manischewitz is screw top, that stuff is so cloyingly sweet that it would have to make for sweet tonz. I guess you could try pouring it straight in. Or maybe wild Irish rose or something similar for various tonal properties.

Tip in some lagavulin, play smoke on the water with your smokey new tone. Aw yeah.
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Re: Do stickers rob my guitar of precious tone?

Post by Singlebladepickup » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:29 pm

Allowing wine to soak in the sound hole can yield a rich tone bouquet, with hints of chocolate or boysenberry. In a band setting, these tones pair well with beefy les Paul tones for a silky decadent mix.

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