Gloss vs satin

Kherome said:

Is there anything a new player should know about buying a gloss finished uke vs a satin finished uke? Or is it purely aesthetics?

Click to expand...

A while back I was in a Guitar shop looking at what few Ukuleles he had for sale, he plays as well as sells and has had his shop for many years.

His advice on gloss was that whilst it was a nice looking finish for electric Guitars it was also a thick finish that tended to muffle acoustic instruments. I had thought that the consensus here was that gloss finished Ukes tend to be quieter than their satin finished siblings (which have a much thinner finish on them) but that’s not been brought out in this thread.

Personally I prefer the plain appearance of satin to gloss but that aside I don’t want my Ukes to have their sound muffled by a thick finish. I’m also inclined to think that high gloss finishes look fine when new but less so once they have been scratched up a bit, on mat those same scratches are less noticeable and mat is less fussy about any restoration.

A while back I was in a Guitar shop looking at what few Ukuleles he had for sale, he plays as well as sells and has had his shop for many years.His advice on gloss was that whilst it was a nice looking finish for electric Guitars it was also a thick finish that tended to muffle acoustic instruments. I had thought that the consensus here was that gloss finished Ukes tend to be quieter than their satin finished siblings (which have a much thinner finish on them) but that’s not been brought out in this thread.Personally I prefer the plain appearance of satin to gloss but that aside I don’t want my Ukes to have their sound muffled by a thick finish. I’m also inclined to think that high gloss finishes look fine when new but less so once they have been scratched up a bit, on mat those same scratches are less noticeable and mat is less fussy about any restoration.