The best of luck, but MAN I'd keep that finish. I find your bass the best looking SP5 made so far.

[quote="Bocete":2k8e4rv1]The best of luck, but MAN I'd keep that finish. I find your bass the best looking SP5 made so far.[/quote:2k8e4rv1] I appreciate the sentiment, but I hate black instruments. The fact that I bought this bass despite its color speaks to how wowed I was by the instrument when I played it in the store for the first time. I went into BassNW wanting to play to see how it felt/sounded thinking that I would turn around an maybe order one to my spec, but I was so overwhelmed by it I had to bring it home with me. A year later and still in love its time to make it absolutely perfect for me.

If you allow me, I have just learnt something very interesting during my visit to Bass Direct last Sat, Mark Stickley was telling Dave Swift that they had a run of SPZ and SP, i.e. stained over ash and those which are painted and lacquered, and the result of their tests was that those which are sealed and lacquered sounded much better than the SPZ hand stained ash ones... food for thought. I've known Mark Stickley for a number of years and I am positive that I can trust what he says, when he comes up with things like these.

[quote="Grand Wazoo":25h47hsw]If you allow me, I have just learnt something very interesting during my visit to Bass Direct last Sat, Mark Stickley was telling Dave Swift that they had a run of SPZ and SP, i.e. stained over ash and those which are painted and lacquered, and the result of their tests was that those which are sealed and lacquered sounded much better than the SPZ hand stained ash ones... food for thought. I've known Mark Stickley for a number of years and I am positive that I can trust what he says, when he comes up with things like these.[/quote:25h47hsw] Well if putting a fresh poly coat on the bass makes it sound better, than I'll be alright with it, though I don't tend to buy in to finishing differences effecting the sound appreciably. However, I'm not sure about the basses that Mark has gotten in, but I know in general the SPZ stained basses tend to be ash and the default body for the lacquered Super P's are alder, so I think that would have a lot to do with it. In fact, if his website is accurate, it appears that every single regular Super P he has in stock or has sold has been Alder and of course every PZ has been swamp ash, so maybe he has a preference towards Alder?

[quote="SmallEQ":1xkd52qe][quote="Grand Wazoo":1xkd52qe]If you allow me, I have just learnt something very interesting during my visit to Bass Direct last Sat, Mark Stickley was telling Dave Swift that they had a run of SPZ and SP, i.e. stained over ash and those which are painted and lacquered, and the result of their tests was that those which are sealed and lacquered sounded much better than the SPZ hand stained ash ones... food for thought. I've known Mark Stickley for a number of years and I am positive that I can trust what he says, when he comes up with things like these.[/quote:1xkd52qe] Well if putting a fresh poly coat on the bass makes it sound better, than I'll be alright with it, though I don't tend to buy in to finishing differences effecting the sound appreciably. However, I'm not sure about the basses that Mark has gotten in, but I know in general the SPZ stained basses tend to be ash and the default body for the lacquered Super P's are alder, so I think that would have a lot to do with it. In fact, if his website is accurate, it appears that every single regular Super P he has in stock or has sold has been Alder and of course every PZ has been swamp ash, so maybe he has a preference towards Alder?[/quote:1xkd52qe] You are absolutely accurate on your statement, satin on ash, lacquered on alder, and it maybe be that what Mark is trying to say is that the Super P sounds better (to him and the people who have tried them apparently) than the SPZ. Go figure but as I've said I know Mark has a very very tuned ear to a bass instrument so I do believe that his findings might be right on the money.

It's a Polyurethane/nitrocelulose finish. Approximately 3 coats. It is not sealed in the traditional way that you would seal a gloss finish.