poly or nitro?

[ccasj]

Hey guys, do you know what finish might be on my '86 Rhoads that I just got? Did they use a standard clear, or could it possibly be either?

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

I'm no authority, but my guess would be poly. Which IMO is not a bad thing.

[ccasj]

only reason i ask is because there's chipping on my wings that i just want to put a light coating of something on to stop it from getting worse. and from what people have told me is that i need to use either clear nail polish or superglue. but i need to know which clear it is so i know which of those two i can use.

[sully]

Get your superglue and accelerator out; it's urethane.

[ccasj]

Get your superglue and accelerator out; it's urethane.

sounds like you're pretty positive about this, huh? i've never really heard of urethane for guitar finishes (then again i haven't researched that topic too much). and ironically i just bought some CA accelerator for a fret job. have any suggestions to going about this?

[busdriver]

i've never really heard of urethane for guitar finishes

[Musician78]

hmmmm

[sully]

sounds like you're pretty positive about this, huh?

Yep! Depending on the era, Jackson has used automotive urethanes for color and clears, along with polyester sealers and clears.

As far as tips on going about filling chips, I've often used a medium viscosity CA glue with an applicator tip to drop it in. Hit it with a bit of accelerator (although I've noticed that some accelerators tend to turn white, so YMMV), and then go ahead and begin sanding it flat. You could also scrape it until you get the majority of the excess scraped, then sand it level with the finish. Be careful not to go through the surrounding clear coat.

Sully

[ulijdavid]

I think Sully is correct. Even Fender used Polyester for their sealers way back when. They would use Duraplast (Dupont - I think) for the sealers. The duraplast is a polyester. Polyester is great for sealing and leveling. Don't let Fender fool you into thinking their old guitars are all nitrocellulose lacquer. Their guitars were polyester sealer, lacquer color coats, and lacquer clear. They used whatever the car manufacturers were using.

[ccasj]

Ok. so if all i'm looking to do is get rid of the sharp edges on the cracked areas (so that they don't snag and peel up), I should have no problems just laying down a bit of ca and then spraying some accelerator on it?

and purely out of curiosity, is the accelerator used in this case simply to stop the glue from running into unwanted places?

[sully]

Yeah, pretty much! Accelerator rules when it comes to gluing down frets, too.

Sully

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

Cool info. On a tangent, the "poly vs nitro" flamefests on Tele forums are hilarious. IIRC, one of the best players, Brent Mason, used a Kahlered tele finished in car primer to record many of the top CW songs in years past.

[ccasj]

Cool info. On a tangent, the "poly vs nitro" flamefests on Tele forums are hilarious. IIRC, one of the best players, Brent Mason, used a Kahlered tele finished in car primer to record many of the top CW songs in years past.

that's the exact reason i don't know anything about different clears. every time i see a topic on it, it turns into a 'which is better' (well, i've seen a lot of these debates at least). and personally, i couldn't tell you which is which, so why does it matter? i'm sure there's a difference, but it certainly wouldn't factor into whether i buy the guitar or not.

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

that's the exact reason i don't know anything about different clears. every time i see a topic on it, it turns into a 'which is better' (well, i've seen a lot of these debates at least). and personally, i couldn't tell you which is which, so why does it matter? i'm sure there's a difference, but it certainly wouldn't factor into whether i buy the guitar or not.

I think any difference is negligible. But I'm pretty sure the finish in question is poly.

[DonP]

and purely out of curiosity, is the accelerator used in this case simply to stop the glue from running into unwanted places?

Don't ask me how I learned how important this is.