nitro lacquer finishing advice (edit; SUCCESS!)

DanTravis62

DanTravis62

Well-known member
So, I've done a handful of poly finishes on kits and homebrews, and have a process I use every time - sanding sealing etc

Any advice for nitro? What do you guys do?

I just really wanted a guitar that doesn't exist, so I'm building it 🤷

It's like a tele deluxe with no pick guard, soap bars, and Gibson Inverness nitro finish

I'm not exactly nervous, but any tips for doing the nitro would be helpful
 
Last edited:
Progress pics for fun:

1000011007.jpg


The Wilkinson's are just for show, Fralins are going in.

Also it's going to be 25" scale, under 25.5 was another spec sticking point impossible to find
 
Allow for more time in between coats as it takes far longer to dry than Poly. You should be in a ventilated, temperature and humidity controlled environment when doing the job
 
thegame said:
Allow for more time in between coats as it takes far longer to dry than Poly. You should be in a ventilated, temperature and humidity controlled environment when doing the job
Click to expand...

Got the ventilation, temp, and humidity control part in my shop - also safety glasses and an n95

I normally only wait an hour ish between poly coats - do you wait longer for nitro?

And this isn't a Sam-esque tone thing, I just prefer the look, feel and wear of nitro by far
 
At least double the time. You may need to sand between coats to eliminate imperfections such as drips, etc. I'd do a bit of research before starting since Nitro is different and more time consuming to work with.
 
thegame said:
At least double the time. You may need to sand between coats to eliminate imperfections such as drips, etc. I'd do a bit of research before starting since Nitro is different and more time consuming to work with.
Click to expand...

I already do light sanding between poly coats normally - that's good to know though, about the time. I wouldn't have guessed a couple hours between coats

It doesn't need to look like a Gibson or PRS custom shop, but I would like it to look decent

I'm debating doing an undercoat (white? Silver flake? Yellow?) or two to get the green to pop
 
DanTravis62 said:
Got the ventilation, temp, and humidity control part in my shop - also safety glasses and an n95

I normally only wait an hour ish between poly coats - do you wait longer for nitro?

And this isn't a Sam-esque tone thing, I just prefer the look, feel and wear of nitro by far
Click to expand...
Nitro has a feel like nothing else. The kxk i had still haunts.me
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
Nitro has a feel like nothing else. The kxk i had still haunts.me
Click to expand...

I don't know why, but poly irritates my skin

And especially because i'm doing 3-4 hour cover sets once a week, and crazy drunken 200 bpm punk shows once a week, that's alot of guitaring

So i'd rather not have a giant rash on my forearm
 
I generally do tung oil on my bolt ons, ill deal with poly or nitro on the necks that's not the problem, its my right forearm on the body.
 
There’s lots of good YouTube videos. I went with this guy’s short series.



You can spray nitro coats fairly quickly. You don’t have to wait that long, just follow the recommendations of the mfr. I’ve used StewMac and Oxford and don’t have a preference.

Nitro ‘melts’ into the previous coat. If you spray well you shouldn’t have to sand between coats. It typ takes a full can of color for a body but it might be a tiny bit more if you don’t spray it well or it’s a tough color to get opaque. IME it takes more than one can of clear, at least two cans imo. You’re going to sand most of the clear off so don’t worry about putting too much on. The hardest part by far is the wet sanding to get it level (dull surface, no shiny spots). Then after you sand it where it’s all dull…you go up in grits and then polish with compound to get it shiny. But getting it level without sanding thru is the hardest part for me.
 
FWIW, I wet sand with Truoil, wiping it all off after every session/grit and using Turpentine as needed to thin it so it all comes off except for whatever soaked in. Then buff it really good with denim (blue jeans). Best feeling neck ever.
 
SpiderWars said:
FWIW, I wet sand with Truoil, wiping it all off after every session/grit and using Turpentine as needed to thin it so it all comes off except for whatever soaked in. Then buff it really good with denim (blue jeans). Best feeling neck ever.
Click to expand...

I'm not really concerned with the neck - especially with a fender style one like this, I prefer to sand them down, do a couple coats of true oil, and let them get gross and broken in with age

The actual body finish with the nitro is what I don't have experience in
 
Shellac finish can be cool too. I’ve only seen it done on classical guitars, but some also use a finish made of egg whites. I know nothing about the technical/application stuff, but just some ideas to play with. Some of my favorite currents guitars use a shellac finish with thin nitro on top. I know this isn’t about tone, but it sure is a nice bonus of it as well

Ruokangas describes nitro vs poly as the sound equivalent of doing it without a condom lol. Not sure what that would make shellac or egg white with that analogy
 
braintheory said:
Shellac finish can be cool too. I’ve only seen it done on classical guitars, but some also use a finish made of egg whites. I know nothing about the technical/application stuff, but just some ideas to play with. Some of my favorite currents guitars use a shellac finish with thin nitro on top. I know this isn’t about tone, but it sure is a nice bonus of it as well

Ruokangas describes nitro vs poly as the sound equivalent of doing it without a condom lol. Not sure what that would make shellac or egg white with that analogy
Click to expand...

Perhaps a lamb or sheepskin reusable condom from the 1800s :ROFLMAO:

I just hate how "unavailable" pricewise nitro finishes are on fender style guitars, which I tend to use as gigging "beaters"

It's annoying because I feel like it's vastly superior in feel and in the way it wears

I've never tried doing it myself with nitro, but I figure since the guitar is going to be a workhorse/beater it won't be the end of the world if there are a couple imperfections
 
Hey @DanTravis62 check out this one I did. Once I put the first coat of color on I knew I had not prepped well enough. So instead of going back and sanding (which is a beauty of nitro, you can usually just sand back and fix it) I decided to embrace it. So I just kept spraying as normal but I didn’t wet sand. I went straight to polishing compound to try and get a slight shine on it. It’s very uniform as far as grain and feels great. No sanding was such a timesaver!

You can kind of see the grain in this pic.

20211107_090005.jpg
 
That's ridiculously cool, and good to know - I would be totally happy with an "earthy" type finish like that with a bit of texture

I'm pretty heavy handed with the sanding and sealing normally, but obviously i've never done nitro before so I wasn't going to assume anything
 
DanTravis62 said:
Perhaps a lamb or sheepskin reusable condom from the 1800s :ROFLMAO:

I just hate how "unavailable" pricewise nitro finishes are on fender style guitars, which I tend to use as gigging "beaters"

It's annoying because I feel like it's vastly superior in feel and in the way it wears

I've never tried doing it myself with nitro, but I figure since the guitar is going to be a workhorse/beater it won't be the end of the world if there are a couple imperfections
Click to expand...
Well it seems they could be better than nitro possibly, so that’s why I wasn’t sure what they’d be in the analogy lol

I didn’t realize the nitro you want is expensive or hard to get. Maybe shellac or the other could be cheaper (I wouldn’t know) and also not have some of those precautions to take care of like with nitro, idk. Just thinking out loud
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top