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.