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Firstly, I'll confess... I like thin nitro finishes on solid-body electric guitars. I don't know why, but many (but not all) of the most resonant electric guitars I've played have had nitro finishes. Whether it's because the nitro is lighter in weight than a thick poly finish... or nitro lets the wood breathe (or dry out, over time)... I don't know.
So... when it comes to guitars with a poly basecoat and a nitro top coat... is that just marketing (so the nitro-obsessed buyers can feel happy parting with their cash)? Surely, with a poly basecoat, the 'nitro lets your guitar breathe' type of argument is null and void (??).
What's view of the learned chaps and chapesses here?
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Plus the nitro most manufacturers are using has a load of plasticizers in it so it doesn't check like the old stuff
(formerly customkits)
I think the thickness and hardness of the finish makes a significant difference to the tone and feel of a guitar - and agree nitro probably achieves that better than anything else. It also ages gracefully.
When it comes to acoustics, I would certainly say that's an entirely different thing. Acoustics are very sensitive to wood type and finish.
I don't buy into the "breathe" thing, because nitro paints were used in the mid part of the 20th century to stop steel cars from rusting!
the tree stopped breathing the moment it was cut down.
i know what you mean though - I built a "relic" partscaster last year with a very thin nitro finish and you can really feel it vibrating.
thicker finishes muffle the wood - rather than stopping it from breathing.
And nitro is moisture-proof.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
As for resonance, all things being equal then a thinner coat should leave the instrument more readily able to vibrate, but nothing ever is equal so it probably doesn't really matter. And the placebo effect is very powerful - if you think the guitar vibrates more easily then for you it probably does.
http://tertl.blogspot.com - personal blog
Cars were painted in nitro (all layers), if it wasn't water-proof or resistant it'd be useless.
Nitro over poly. This depends on what exactly they're doing, the hard sanding sealer is a different animal to paint, it's damn hard and hard work to sand. There's that slightly hysterical old web page out there which confuses things by assuming that because the sealer contains a 'thing', and some paint happens to as well, that they're the same.
I'm going to do a Jazzmaster using two-pack clear as filler/sealer, it'll be stable & easy to sand. Then nitro colour. When it chips & wears up the wood will show just the same.
The whole terminology is messed up, 'poly' is misleading. Guitars can be a single paint type, or two different types if colour coat with a clear coat. A sanding sealer, if any, is something else.
Modern clear lacquer is two-pack or 2k to us (catalysed acrylic urethane, or just 'urethane' to the yanks).
A solid colour guitar may be just two-pack colour and nothing else.
If it's clearcoat over a base colour, the colour paint is called '1k acrylic' or just 'basecoat' at the trade counter.
None of these need to be thick (though often are on cheaper guitars - less prep I would think).
Polyurethane paint was used back in the day and some mostly cheaper necks (e.g. some Squiers) do have catalysed polyurethane clearcoat, which is really a furniture/industrial finish. Most likely some bodies of cheaper guitars too but I haven't stripped any.
Polyester clear is also used, mixed more like a resin than a paint
I can't say if it's as good the same or better but I object to the constant rubbish they dream up to charge more money for something it really isn't
(formerly customkits)
I think it's the wood + the finish. It's how the whole resonates.
It's times like this when we miss @randomhandclaps....
By now, he'd have photoshopped an image of someone applying a nitro clearcoat to a rather vexed parrot.