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Post subject: Nitro finishes and seeing old guitars I used to own
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 4:38 am
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I learned two things yesterday while I was visiting my local luthier, that I found interesting.

1. I learned that my '75 sunburst Strat has a nitro finish. While playing it, I noticed that the finish "hazed up" or turned whitish where it came in contact with my body due to the humidity in MD. This is has never happened before. The haze went away, but it freaked me out.
When I dropped the guitar off to be re-fretted, I got to talking with Phil’s paint guy about this. He explained that nitro does that. I was surprised by this because I thought Fender stopped using nitro at this point in history. After doing some research, it turns out that Fender was still using nitro for some guitars and headstocks (but used a different finish for the back of the necks).
2. The other thing that happened was that I met the guy who bought my PRS McCarty I traded to get the ’75 Strat in the first place. How often do players get to meet the person who buys their old guitars?


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Post subject: Re: Nitro finishes and seeing old guitars I used to own
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:01 am
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Interesting, most modern players will never play a Nitro finish, or form an opinion about the wood breathing affecting tone. The mystique, real or imagined, will grow.

As for meeting the person who bought your guitar, that's rare, unless they're in your band! :lol:

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Post subject: Re: Nitro finishes and seeing old guitars I used to own
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 10:06 am
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I have noticed all the 70's Strats use nitro on the headstock face (was told this is due to the decal taking nitro better then poly) and the rest of the neck is poly. As far as the bodies some are nitro (and I have even seen them checking) and some are poly, but I think they were all sealed with poly. I have a 73 body I am doing a resto on and it has a very thick and heavy poly sealer which I can't imagine would be too good with "breathing" and will be a nightmare to remove. However on a transparent finish like a sunburst I can not confirm if they used something else, mine is a solid color. Not too long ago I had a 72 ash body and it did not seem to have a very thick undercoat, natural finish. IIRC that was a one piece as well making it extra rare. But needed money so I sold it....now regret.

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Post subject: Re: Nitro finishes and seeing old guitars I used to own
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 12:09 pm
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I recently had a 'slight' fish tank leak and a couple people of my guitars were leant against the wall, and where my ja90, which has a poly finish, was resting on the floor the finish went hazy white as you described.

So maybe not a nitro only problem?


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Post subject: Re: Nitro finishes and seeing old guitars I used to own
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 12:18 pm
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danagos wrote:
Interesting, most modern players will never play a Nitro finish, or form an opinion about the wood breathing affecting tone. The mystique, real or imagined, will grow...


Well that may be true of Fender guitars, though Fender still produces many guitars w/ nitro finish like my '57AV.

But there are lots of manufacturers still using nitro. IIRC, the Les Paul Standard continues to be nitro, as are Rickenbackers. My '10 Heritage H-535 is nitro (as are all Heritage guitars). My Martin DC-1E is nitro.

My FSR Custom Tele, Telebration Empress Tele, MIM 'Nashville' Tele and my '14 American Deluxe Ash are all Poly.

So in my case, 3 out of 7 are nitro.

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele


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Post subject: Re: Nitro finishes and seeing old guitars I used to own
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2014 12:31 pm
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Lightnin MN wrote:
danagos wrote:
Interesting, most modern players will never play a Nitro finish, or form an opinion about the wood breathing affecting tone. The mystique, real or imagined, will grow...


Well that may be true of Fender guitars, though Fender still produces many guitars w/ nitro finish like my '57AV.

But there are lots of manufacturers still using nitro. IIRC, the Les Paul Standard continues to be nitro, as are Rickenbackers. My '10 Heritage H-535 is nitro (as are all Heritage guitars). My Martin DC-1E is nitro.

My FSR Custom Tele, Telebration Empress Tele, MIM 'Nashville' Tele and my '14 American Deluxe Ash are all Poly.

So in my case, 3 out of 7 are nitro.

cheers!

Oh, YAH? Gotta give ya that one.
(I'm glad I used the qualifier "most") hehehe

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Post subject: Re: Nitro finishes and seeing old guitars I used to own
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2014 6:27 pm
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The thing is the late model Fenders that are "nitro" are still painted over a poly undercoat sealer hence not doing any nitro "breathing" as far as the wood is concerned. Granted appearance wise it will age like an older one and can check but if there really is any kind of a tone advantage to nitro you would need to strip off all the poly sealer to test the theory. I have heard some of the custom shop vintage ones don't use the poly undercoat and hence more authentic to the 50s and 60s where of course some claim part of the tone is due to the nitro not smothering the wood like poly does and claim it gets better with age like a fine wine. As far as if there is any truth to that I can not say for certain as so many other factors can effect tone as well.

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