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Poly vs Nitro

Doughboy

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I'm about to finish my basswood soloist & was thinking of going for Nitro. All my other guitars have been Poly but I read that Nitro sounds way more natural & lets the guitar's natural tone come out & doesn't smother it like Poly.

What would be the disadvantages of Nitro vs Poly?
 
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Doughboy said:
I'm about to finish my basswood soloist & was thinking of going for Nitro. All my other guitars have been Poly but I read that Nitro sounds way more natural & lets the guitar's natural tone come out & doesn't smother it like Poly.

What would be the disadvantages of Nitro vs Poly?

With electric guitars/basses, there is no sonic/tonal difference. It's a myth, likely started by somebody who heard a real luthier say he'd never finish a guitar with poly because it would wreck the tone of something he spent 80 bajllion hours building. Nobody bothered to mention that the luthier was talking about an acoustic instrument, or checked to see if he was talking out of his ass. The myth has been perpetuated for years to the point where now otherwise intelligent people will swear they can hear a difference. Of course, the power of suggestion is tremendous, and to be fair, there have been some guitars built in the past with finishes on them that rivalled armor. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Fender!

As far as pros/cons between nitro vs. poly...

Nitro can be applied just about anywhere and return good results. Poly requires a special environment, tools and protections.
Nitro is easy to repair, while poly is not. On the flip side, poly can take a lot more abuse, and so rarely needs repair.
Given a properly prepped body, nitro still takes many, many steps and is labor intensive, while poly is pretty much a one-shot deal.

All that said, shoot the nitro. If you have to ask, you're a long way from being able to shoot poly without making yourself very sick or dead. Commercial shops like Warmoth or any of the guitar OEMs can do it because they're set up for it. But, for you to justify getting set up that way, you'd have to be painting a lot of bodies/necks.
 
Yes, very amusing.

To answer the OP, I have two telecasters:  Both are alder, with Canary boat necks, and lollar pickups.  One is Nitro, and the other is poly.

I cannot for the life of me tell the difference in tone between them.
 
If there is no tonal difference on electric, then I'll go with poly due to it's protective properties.

I recently attended a seminar with world renouned luthier Leo Eimers & he only uses Nitro, but he also only builds acoustic gypsy jazz guitars in the Selmer Maccaferri style so I guess you can't compare it to an electric.
 
I wanted to wait a bit before I responded.  I agree 100% with cagey.

I will say this, concerning the ease of poly.  While NOT instrument grade, I have used MINWAX spray poly on three builds, nitro on the other three.  My very 1st warmoth build, a maple tele is over 15 years old and I used 5-6 coats of minwax spray poly.  Looks FANTASTIC!!!!.  Held up well too.

The only issue is it is a bitch to rapair if it does get messed up.  On a recent build I sanded thru when finish sanding.  As much as I tried to blend, I ended up refinishing the entire side of the guitar!!!

My Zebra strat I used satin poly spray, looking and feels like a natural wood finish. 

My next build will be a double cut gibson replica...nitro all the way.

I have to ask if you are spraying your self?  Another difference is CURE time.  Poly is good to go in about 72 hours depending on how many coats and humidity.  If you wait longer, you will have a finish that is hard as nails and almost impossible to buff.  Nitro can take weeks to full gas/cure.  Sand to soon and you will gum the finish.
 
Cure time is why I went with Poly. I did not find it that hard to apply and used no special equipment except for an organic filter mask which was about $20. I had a spray bomb filled with a custom color at an automotive paint store which cost $30. Painted it outside early in the morning when there was no wind. It took 3 coats, sprayed about 10 minutes apart. An hour later I took it to an automotive body shop to be clear coated which they did for free (I tipped them $20). Later in the day I had it back. While not my first dance with a rattle can, it was pretty easy to get good results.

 
Do singers worry about whether different types of lipstick will change the way their lips resonate and so make their voice sound better or worse?
 
I wouldn't doubt it.  Some diva types will wear scarves outdoors in summer to keep their vocal chords warm.

As for the finish thing, I met a guy who had stripped all of the Poly off of his Fender Jazz Bass and redone it in Danish oil.  It looked fantastic!  He was ranting about how the Fender finish killed the tone.  He strummed it, sitting in its case.  I didn't hear it before the refinish or plugged in, mind you, but, "See?  See!". Nope, I don't.  Sounds like a bass to me.  He believed it.  That's all that mattered.
 
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