Your favorite kind of guitar finish?

  • Thread starter Thread starter BDuncan
  • Start date Start date

What is your favorite kind of guitar finish?

  • Gloss

    Votes: 21 70.0%

  • Satin

    Votes: 5 16.7%

  • Raw Tone

    Votes: 2 6.7%

  • Tung Oil

    Votes: 5 16.7%
  • Total voters
    30
I usually go for a natural or stained wood look with oil or satin poly finish. I've been gravitating towards Varathane lately.

I'm going to start a couple of refinish projects this weekend. A natural finish won't work well so I'll be painting them. With paint gloss tends to look better. so I'll likely polish them to a mirror shine.
 
Nitro gloss if you're buying. Poly gloss if I just need a sturdy jobber so really that's be wonderful. I'll take a satin but I'll just buff it out anyways.

I agree with @homespun dune buggy sparkle should be on the list.
 
I just care how my guitars sound, not how they look, so I like Shellac and then Nitro. Poly or Oil are no-go’s for me
 
thenine said:
What’s wrong with oil finish? What makes it a no-go for you?
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Oil finish guitars IME sound dry, lacking harmonics and so the notes don’t connect very well to each other vs nitro, shellac or even thin poly. There can be though a nice openness to the the sound. I still though have a a few oil finish guitars I’m keeping for now because they have unique sounds from the choice of body woods, but unfortunately are oil finished
 
braintheory said:
Oil finish guitars IME sound dry, lacking harmonics and so the notes don’t connect very well to each other vs nitro, shellac or even thin poly. There can be though a nice openness to the the sound. I still though have a a few oil finish guitars I’m keeping for now because they have unique sounds from the choice of body woods, but unfortunately are oil finished
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Are you talking electric guitars or your classical acoustics?
I can say yes, the finish used on acoustic guitars will 100% affect the tone an harmonics that are projected. Certain finishes and the finish thickness can have a dampening effect on the soundboard. French polish shellac is in my opinion the best.
Electric guitars, I've never noticed the finish having much of an effect.
 
MadAsAHatter said:
Are you talking electric guitars or your classical acoustics?
I can say yes, the finish used on acoustic guitars will 100% affect the tone an harmonics that are projected. Certain finishes and the finish thickness can have a dampening effect on the soundboard. French polish shellac is in my opinion the best.
Electric guitars, I've never noticed the finish having much of an effect.
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Both. People can call me crazy all they want, but it’s a huge difference IME

One particular time that really stood out to me was back when I worked at this guitar store where they had an early ‘50’s Tele that was refinished and it sounded like a dud vs other Tele’s I tried of that era. The owner of the store said it wasn’t refinished the proper way (not that I would know visually), so later he took it in to get refinsihed again in what he felt was the right way and it sounded completely different. It sounded actually how a good vintage ‘50’s Tele should sound. The guitar had life to it again the way one expects a vintage guitar to have vs recent ones

Pretty much any classical that’s at least better than the electric guitar equivalent of a squier will have shellac finish, but I guess sadly not the case with steel string acoustics. To me it’s not right that many expensive electrics and steel strings use those finishes. It implies to me that tone isn’t their priority
 
braintheory said:
Both. People can call me crazy all they want, but it’s a huge difference IME

One particular time that really stood out to me was back when I worked at this guitar store where they had an early ‘50’s Tele that was refinished and it sounded like a dud vs other Tele’s I tried of that era. The owner of the store said it wasn’t refinished the proper way (not that I would know visually), so later he took it in to get refinsihed again in what he felt was the right way and it sounded completely different. It sounded actually how a good vintage ‘50’s Tele should sound. The guitar had life to it again the way one expects a vintage guitar to have vs recent ones

Pretty much any classical that’s at least better than the electric guitar equivalent of a squier will have shellac finish, but I guess sadly not the case with steel string acoustics. To me it’s not right that many expensive electrics and steel strings use those finishes. It implies to me that tone isn’t their priority
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Whether or not i agree with you, i love your certainty.

I love nitro finish. Kxk nitro best finish ever
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
Whether or not i agree with you, i love your certainty.

I love nitro finish. Kxk nitro best finish ever
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With that particular case as well as many other comparisons I’ve done it was very clear to me and I think it would be to most guys on here too if they started caring more about the sound vs looks of guitars, but they can I guess make the argument once it’s all in a mix or recording with stuff added it doesn’t matter to them anymore
 
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