pho-to-graaaaphs
The original finish on the Epic basses (and later the Orion and Rogue) is a thin polyurethane, usually only 3 coats or so. It's thin enough to allow the grain to show and be felt, but it's totally sealed. The idea was look like oil, care like poly.
We were happy with the initial results, but decided to discontinue the finish because over time, the satin-look of the finish shines up where it's repeatedly touched. It's also so thin, that the wood tends to get damaged, like an oil finish.
In my experience, the wood speaks more than the paint or finish, at least on Alembics. We've made instruments with the same spec list at the same time that sound different simply because the individual pieces of wood are different.
Each variable, such as the paint, will contribute to the overall result in some way. If you are interested in recreating the sound of an early Alembic, you should have us use an oil finish and probably a different top and back wood, a thin fingerboard, among other things. If you want a really bright sounding bass, and you ask for a Koa top and oil finish, we'll steer you to better choices for the goal.
An instrument is a complete picture, you don't play only one variable, and all the parts need to be considered if you want to take an educated guess about how it will sound/behave before you build it.
