John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi Steve
My panel absorbers have been stained with 2 coats of Minwax Red Oak, and look great. If I was to apply clear varnish (to seal and shine) would that affect the performance of the traps at all?

Thanks!

PS: How's that ice storm coming along?
It dipped below 70 degrees here in LA....brrrr!

The weight of more coats of finish would increase the mass of your panels slightly as well as a slight stiffening, possibly lowering the resonant frequency by maybe 0.25 hZ or so - pretty drastic change, I wouldn't do it

The ice is gone (yay) so my back yard doesn't look like this any more... Steve

Stve is right on the money here - but in addition The finish will in fact not only modify the density - it will change the reflective value of the material at higher frequencies as well.

This is a trick we have used in studios in the past to help with "tuning" them.

The higher you get the more coats of finish you apply - thus deader at the lower levels and more live at the upper levels.

Rod

Tung Oil

Looks good and works great without the reflective coating that varnish or varathane add. And its natural.

http://www.tung-oil.com/enusenspec.html

http://www.realmilkpaint.com/oil.html

cheers,
ollie



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I have a 6-string fretless bass that's Koa, finished entirely in Tung oil - it's so smooth you'd think it still had loose sawdust on it, doesn't even look finished. Plays amazingly, no stiction whatever on the neck... Steve