Greetings,

I have a wine red highway one with Satin nitro finish. I belive that Fender used this type of finish so the paint could wear and eventually look 'road worn'. If it were up to me I would rather a guitar with usfinished or finished wood just like the 70s relic Stratocaster. But this guitar is what it is, and it is the perfect guitar for someone learning like myself.

Where the cut away section of the body is, the surface is starting to turn gloss rather than being flat in colour so I am assuming this is how the paint starts to wear on this guitar. Does anyone else who has this type of guitar have the same change in colour? It looks really good in gloss becasue you can still see the grain of the body.

In fact this guitar would have looked great if it had a coat of gloss over the top. I completed about half an appresticeship in vehicle painting so from what I can gather the finish on these guitar are unsealed. They have just been painted using a very thin undercoat that can easily wear once the surface has come in contact.

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Fender Highway One HSS Stratocaster '09
Modified Fender Champ600
Honer Special20 Harmonica

Yes that sounds exactly right. My Highway Strat is 6 months old and wearing nicely. On the body top where my forearm/hand rests, the finish is starting to polish up nicely. Elsewhere, it has small chips that wouldn't have troubled a poly finish. Cool - thats what I wanted when I chose a Strat with this finish..

I don't know if the undercoat will wear. They use Fullerplast as a sealer. It is a very hard polyester sealer. I am not sure if it is too thin to be durable. That stuff is near bulletproof.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Yes. I have a Highway 1 Strat and yes it is more shiney where my arm comes around. I have had mine for almost a year and do not have any paint missing and the only 2 scratches on it came with it when I bought it. I play mine everyday at least an hour a day. I do use a dry cloth to wipe it down, but it seems to be putting a shine on it.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Are there any products that are safe to polish the rest of the guitar with?

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Fender Highway One HSS Stratocaster '09
Modified Fender Champ600
Honer Special20 Harmonica

Well since it is a Fender I figure this could not hurt...

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=420050

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I used McGuires scratch X to polish mine up. Be carefull buffing it out. I put an indentation into mine with my finger nail and this was through a thich towel I was using and short fingernails. The finish / wood seems very soft.

I buffed mine up 3 times. It still has a kind of orange peel effect when you look at it up close, but it does have a nice shine.

Mine is a sunburst, not sure how the other colors look polished.

Ok thanks. I will have a look into both of those products. Well I have to admit that I am disappointed, the finish is strating to look poor. For anyone thinking of buy a Highway, may I suggest the sunburst and not anything with a flat finish. This is something I would have expected from a Squier

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Fender Highway One HSS Stratocaster '09
Modified Fender Champ600
Honer Special20 Harmonica

I've read that the nitrocellulose finish was used so as to allow the wood to "breath" more fully - to get the maximum amount of tone from the body wood, etc. I don't recall exactly where I read this (somewhere online, in a review), so it may not be accurate. Perhaps the nitro finish was used for both reasons - to enhance tone as well as allowing the guitar to "grow old gracefully"?

It's certainly not as durable as the polyurethane finishes are, but that's part of the whole character of these kinds of guitars. It was one of the things I considered when I recently bought a strat. I decided that, since I'm just a "bedroom blaster" who doesn't intend to gig with the guitar, and since I'm careful with my stuff and look after it, the durability (or otherwise) of the finish wasn't such a big deal.

Also, if the finish does enhance the tone, then I'm happy with that. Besides, I have a friend who has a '72 strat, and he complains constantly that his guitar looks "too new" (some people are never happy, are they? ). People pay top dollar for the relic look, so if it happens to the H1 over a period of time as a normal consequence of playing the guitar, I don't see it as a big deal, personally.