Tenderly, Nitrocellulose
My Gibson Les Paul Studio has a gorgeously lustrous glossy nitrocellulose lacquer finish. This is a premium finish. Or so I thought! Recently I noticed that the bottom edges of the guitar body are showing some damage. My heart sank a little bit to see my treasured Les Paul disfigured like this.
In some dark recess of my mind, a vague memory came back that the foam on some guitar stands can react with the finish on guitars. Sigh.
I use a classic little OnStage guitar stand. I’ve used this type of stand with every guitar I have ever owned, and never had an issue. Until now. I guess all of my previous guitars had simple polyurethane finishes. Those are the “cheap” finishes compared to nitrocellulose, but apparently what you give up in glowing beauty, you gain in thick-skinned toughness.
So apparently, where the foam supports of this guitar stand are contacting my Les Paul’s bottom edge, the reaction is causing a blemish in the guitar finish. 🙁
My first thought was to put a couple old cotton socks over the guitar stand supports. That was a little too embarrassing, so instead I busted out the blue tape. Ugly, but it works:
Update May 1, 2015: I’ve just found another blemish in the Les Paul’s nitro finish, this time up on the headstock where (I assume) there has been no contact with guitar stand foam.
WTF?
Is nitrocellulose really so sensitive?!?
Update February 21, 2016: I bought a new Ultimate Support guitar stand!
April 1, 2017 @ 11:56 am
Nitro is not a “premium” finish. There’s a lot of hype around nitro and people thinking poly finishes are bad, or plastic. But nitro is made from cellulose, which is also plastic (cellophane).
Nitro is liked because it’s easy to rub out. And additional coats burn in the prior coats. But that feature also makes it reactive to solvents and other plastics.
This is one reason that guitar makers started using poly!
April 3, 2017 @ 7:36 am
Hi David,
Thanks for the explanation. It makes perfect sense that the easy repairability of nitro also makes it sensitive/reactive to other plastics.
In my limited experience, it’s pretty clear the poly is a tougher finish! But I guess if you do damage the poly finish, it’s much hard to repair?
I guess using nitro is more of a marketing tool for Gibson – a more vintage/classic approach to guitar building. Once the guitar leaves their doors, I can’t imagine they care very much about repairability.
-John
Ultimate Guitar Stand - Planet Z
April 1, 2017 @ 9:48 pm
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April 3, 2017 @ 11:55 am
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April 3, 2017 @ 11:13 pm
Hey John! Chips in a poly finish can be repaired. Dan Erlewine has a video at stewmac on using super glue for drop fill chip repairs:
http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Resources/Learn_About_Instrument_Finishing_and_Finish_Repair/Fixing_a_small_chip_in_your_guitars_finish.html
April 4, 2017 @ 12:15 am
Thanks for the link, Sean. Super glue is amazing stuff, and Dan Erlewine is a great teacher!
John
July 10, 2017 @ 7:19 pm
I recently bought a 50’s Tribute Gibson SG. It has the “vintage gloss” finish which is a very thin semi gloss type finish. Do you think this finish could be damaged by a guitar stand like yours? So far I haven’t seen any blemishes but I’ve only had the guitar for a week.
July 10, 2017 @ 10:01 pm
I’m not certain about that specific finish, but I wouldn’t take any chances!
-John
January 25, 2020 @ 10:23 pm
Ok so is there a type of foam that can be used without damaging the guitar finish. Surely there must be foam without the plastic content which causes the issues. Further, why would the stand manufacturers make something that damages the very thing they are supposed to protect, makes no sense to me.
January 26, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
Good question, Keith! You’d think they’d be able to find some kind of foam that would behave better with nitrocellulose!