Guitar finish poll...

[rupe]

On a vintage style instrument that will be used in a highly dynamic setting, I can see the attraction of nitro as it has less effect on an instruments natural resonance than the poly finishes and it ages well. That said, for more aggressive styles of music where nuance is essentially lost, it really isn't an issue IMO...in that case I'd rather have something more durable for gigging. I voted that I don't care since I always look at the guitar as a whole...I've never chosen a guitar based on a specific attribute like finish (or body wood, neck wood, hardware type, etc).

 

[JTyson]

The PRS that I have that is nitro finished also has a Brazilian RW neck, I'm sure this is a lot of the difference too. This guitar is twice as loud with your ear a foot from the headstock as anything I have ever heard. Its the one in my avatar. The nitro on it is so thin, you can actually see wood in a few spots if you look hard. As others have said, the finish is changing pretty rapidly, the guitar is only 5 years old and there is a noticeable difference in the finish already. I actually like it better as it is changing. I guess my point is, all things being equal, I probably would not hear a big diff, but a diff nonetheless

 

[Vrad]

The PRS that I have that is nitro finished also has a Brazilian RW neck, I'm sure this is a lot of the difference too. This guitar is twice as loud with your ear a foot from the headstock as anything I have ever heard. Its the one in my avatar. The nitro on it is so thin, you can actually see wood in a few spots if you look hard. As others have said, the finish is changing pretty rapidly, the guitar is only 5 years old and there is a noticeable difference in the finish already. I actually like it better as it is changing. I guess my point is, all things being equal, I probably would not hear a big diff, but a diff nonetheless

Its not a subtle difference to me. If you think about it, poly, you're basically wrapping the guitar in plastic. It just doesn't resonate as well. The only finish that sounds better than nitro is an oil finish.

Edit - and I'm talking about ME refinishing a guitar with nitro, I'm a newb! Imagine it done professionally, by someone who knows what they're doing!

 

[PeteLaramee]

Whether it's paint or stain...if I'm going to have a "clear coat" I want nitro. Lately I just prefer tung oil.

 

[Vrad]

Whether it's paint or stain...if I'm going to have a "clear coat" I want nitro. Lately I just prefer tung oil.

Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil RULES!!
Its just not very durable on things like swamp ash. I have Musikraft made of swamp ash that I finished in Tru-oil. Its remarkably resonant but it takes no effort to put a dent in the wood.

 

[PeteLaramee]

Whether it's paint or stain...if I'm going to have a "clear coat" I want nitro. Lately I just prefer tung oil.

Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil RULES!!
Its just not very durable on things like swamp ash. I have Musikraft made of swamp ash that I finished in Tru-oil. Its remarkably resonant but it takes no effort to put a dent in the wood.

Yea man, I remember you posted a pic of that swamp ash body and I thought it looked great. I have one more body I'm going to tung oil (if/when I actually get the body). Whatever project comes next I'm going to try the Casey's Tru-oil.

 

[Vrad]

Whether it's paint or stain...if I'm going to have a "clear coat" I want nitro. Lately I just prefer tung oil.

Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil RULES!!
Its just not very durable on things like swamp ash. I have Musikraft made of swamp ash that I finished in Tru-oil. Its remarkably resonant but it takes no effort to put a dent in the wood.

Yea man, I remember you posted a pic of that swamp ash body and I thought it looked great. I have one more body I'm going to tung oil (if/when I actually get the body). Whatever project comes next I'm going to try the Casey's Tru-oil.

Yeah its a great piece of swamp ash.
If its a guitar you're not gonna play out with, Tru-oil is the way to go.

 

[PeteLaramee]

Whether it's paint or stain...if I'm going to have a "clear coat" I want nitro. Lately I just prefer tung oil.

Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil RULES!!
Its just not very durable on things like swamp ash. I have Musikraft made of swamp ash that I finished in Tru-oil. Its remarkably resonant but it takes no effort to put a dent in the wood.

Yea man, I remember you posted a pic of that swamp ash body and I thought it looked great. I have one more body I'm going to tung oil (if/when I actually get the body). Whatever project comes next I'm going to try the Casey's Tru-oil.

Yeah its a great piece of swamp ash.
If its a guitar you're not gonna play out with, Tru-oil is the way to go.

I bang the shit out of my guitars. Don't really care about getting them marked up. I just got a nitro RG7620 body a few weeks ago and it's already scratched up.

 

[Vrad]

Whether it's paint or stain...if I'm going to have a "clear coat" I want nitro. Lately I just prefer tung oil.

Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil RULES!!
Its just not very durable on things like swamp ash. I have Musikraft made of swamp ash that I finished in Tru-oil. Its remarkably resonant but it takes no effort to put a dent in the wood.

Yea man, I remember you posted a pic of that swamp ash body and I thought it looked great. I have one more body I'm going to tung oil (if/when I actually get the body). Whatever project comes next I'm going to try the Casey's Tru-oil.

Yeah its a great piece of swamp ash.
If its a guitar you're not gonna play out with, Tru-oil is the way to go.

I bang the shit out of my guitars. Don't really care about getting them marked up. I just got a nitro RG7620 body a few weeks ago and it's already scratched up.

YOu may want to avoid swamp ash then... you look at that thing funny and it will have a dent.

 

[PeteLaramee]

Whether it's paint or stain...if I'm going to have a "clear coat" I want nitro. Lately I just prefer tung oil.

Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil RULES!!
Its just not very durable on things like swamp ash. I have Musikraft made of swamp ash that I finished in Tru-oil. Its remarkably resonant but it takes no effort to put a dent in the wood.

Yea man, I remember you posted a pic of that swamp ash body and I thought it looked great. I have one more body I'm going to tung oil (if/when I actually get the body). Whatever project comes next I'm going to try the Casey's Tru-oil.

Yeah its a great piece of swamp ash.
If its a guitar you're not gonna play out with, Tru-oil is the way to go.

I bang the shit out of my guitars. Don't really care about getting them marked up. I just got a nitro RG7620 body a few weeks ago and it's already scratched up.

YOu may want to avoid swamp ash then... you look at that thing funny and it will have a dent.

My two tung-oiled basswood bodies aren't very safe either.

 

[Mudder]

For me, finish is only a deciding factor when everything else is equal. I like the idea of nitro, but if that guitar doesn't do what a poly guitar does then I don't care.

 

[Vrad]

Whether it's paint or stain...if I'm going to have a "clear coat" I want nitro. Lately I just prefer tung oil.

Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil RULES!!
Its just not very durable on things like swamp ash. I have Musikraft made of swamp ash that I finished in Tru-oil. Its remarkably resonant but it takes no effort to put a dent in the wood.

Yea man, I remember you posted a pic of that swamp ash body and I thought it looked great. I have one more body I'm going to tung oil (if/when I actually get the body). Whatever project comes next I'm going to try the Casey's Tru-oil.

Yeah its a great piece of swamp ash.
If its a guitar you're not gonna play out with, Tru-oil is the way to go.

I bang the shit out of my guitars. Don't really care about getting them marked up. I just got a nitro RG7620 body a few weeks ago and it's already scratched up.

YOu may want to avoid swamp ash then... you look at that thing funny and it will have a dent.

My two tung-oiled basswood bodies aren't very safe either.

No... no they're not basswood is just as bad!

 

[blackba]

I tried looking up my guitars for what finish they had and couldn't find anything about poly or nitro. How do you know?

 

[rupe]

I tried looking up my guitars for what finish they had and couldn't find anything about poly or nitro. How do you know?

What are they? If it's a heavy looking "plastic-y" finish, it is most likely polyurethane or polyesther. If it's a very thin, almost varnish-like finish, then it's probably nitro. There are very few nitro guitars except for reissues beyond the 70's, and even many 70's guitars were not nitro.

 

[JTyson]

The PRS that I have that is nitro finished also has a Brazilian RW neck, I'm sure this is a lot of the difference too. This guitar is twice as loud with your ear a foot from the headstock as anything I have ever heard. Its the one in my avatar. The nitro on it is so thin, you can actually see wood in a few spots if you look hard. As others have said, the finish is changing pretty rapidly, the guitar is only 5 years old and there is a noticeable difference in the finish already. I actually like it better as it is changing. I guess my point is, all things being equal, I probably would not hear a big diff, but a diff nonetheless

Its not a subtle difference to me. If you think about it, poly, you're basically wrapping the guitar in plastic. It just doesn't resonate as well. The only finish that sounds better than nitro is an oil finish.

Edit - and I'm talking about ME refinishing a guitar with nitro, I'm a newb! Imagine it done professionally, by someone who knows what they're doing!

I agree, but I dont have a mahog neck or maple neck nitro finished guitar for a basis of comparison, so I'm assuming the RW neck is a factor, I just dont know how much of a factor it is. I can tell you there is more acoustic volume at the end of the neck than there is at the body At the same time, I can tell you that the nitro finished body has more resonance than my other PRS McCartys that are not nitro, so I do agree with your point

 

[Death by Uberschall]

Unless you just dip and drip dry your guitar I doubt you would find a big difference. Just more the raise the price mojo.

I'll even go as far to say that if you painted 10 guitars with a thin coating of nitro and 10 with thin coating of poly, there would still be the effects of the wood and build. Enough that 5 out of each set would sound better than 5 out of the other set.

 

[blackba]

I tried looking up my guitars for what finish they had and couldn't find anything about poly or nitro. How do you know?

What are they? If it's a heavy looking "plastic-y" finish, it is most likely polyurethane or polyesther. If it's a very thin, almost varnish-like finish, then it's probably nitro. There are very few nitro guitars except for reissues beyond the 70's, and even many 70's guitars were not nitro.

Rickenbacker 360, Gretsch Brian Setzer hot rod, Fender MIA strat, Gibson LP custom '73, and '03 Gibson LP standard LE in trans blue are the ones I am curious about. I have a feeling none of them are nitro, maybe I don't know what I am missing

 

[Marshall Freak]

I tried looking up my guitars for what finish they had and couldn't find anything about poly or nitro. How do you know?

What are they? If it's a heavy looking "plastic-y" finish, it is most likely polyurethane or polyesther. If it's a very thin, almost varnish-like finish, then it's probably nitro. There are very few nitro guitars except for reissues beyond the 70's, and even many 70's guitars were not nitro.

Rickenbacker 360, Gretsch Brian Setzer hot rod, Fender MIA strat, Gibson LP custom '73, and '03 Gibson LP standard LE in trans blue are the ones I am curious about. I have a feeling none of them are nitro, maybe I don't know what I am missing

Your Gibsons are Nitro, your Fender is Poly unless it's an EJ, and the Ric is poly. Not sure about the gretsch, probably poly.

 

[AmpliFIRE]

I tried looking up my guitars for what finish they had and couldn't find anything about poly or nitro. How do you know?

What are they? If it's a heavy looking "plastic-y" finish, it is most likely polyurethane or polyesther. If it's a very thin, almost varnish-like finish, then it's probably nitro. There are very few nitro guitars except for reissues beyond the 70's, and even many 70's guitars were not nitro.

Rickenbacker 360, Gretsch Brian Setzer hot rod, Fender MIA strat, Gibson LP custom '73, and '03 Gibson LP standard LE in trans blue are the ones I am curious about. I have a feeling none of them are nitro, maybe I don't know what I am missing

Your Gibsons are Nitro, your Fender is Poly unless it's an EJ, and the Ric is poly. Not sure about the gretsch, probably poly.

I'm pretty sure those Gibby's are poly as well...

 

[Marshall Freak]

I tried looking up my guitars for what finish they had and couldn't find anything about poly or nitro. How do you know?

What are they? If it's a heavy looking "plastic-y" finish, it is most likely polyurethane or polyesther. If it's a very thin, almost varnish-like finish, then it's probably nitro. There are very few nitro guitars except for reissues beyond the 70's, and even many 70's guitars were not nitro.

Rickenbacker 360, Gretsch Brian Setzer hot rod, Fender MIA strat, Gibson LP custom '73, and '03 Gibson LP standard LE in trans blue are the ones I am curious about. I have a feeling none of them are nitro, maybe I don't know what I am missing

Your Gibsons are Nitro, your Fender is Poly unless it's an EJ, and the Ric is poly. Not sure about the gretsch, probably poly.

I'm pretty sure those Gibby's are poly as well...

No, Les Pauls have never been poly.