I've seen wobbly, bumpy-lumpy crap poly finishes too. Yet Gibson and other fine instrument makers stick with lacquer. There is simply no other finish that can compete from a dollars and time standpoint with Poly. There is still wet-sanding and buffing to do. Lightly sand it back again to get rid of some orange peel, then shoot a thinned top coat or 'flow coat'.ĮDIT: Done with spraying. Wait a day or two, sand it back nice and level, shoot two more coats. Then I wait a day or two, shoot three more. You can shoot three good clear coats (three passes around the instrument is a good, wet 'coat' around here) in a day, or even more. If you give three good coats with two sanded back of lacquer-based vinyl sanding sealer, then your color coat, then a few clear coats on top of it, it doesn't take that long to do. Lacquer is not that time-consuming to do, if done right. Lacquer can give an excellent finish, used properly.įor my eyes, lacquer properly done has a sheen like no other, a 'glow' about it. Poly can give an excellent finish, used properly. It is part of the finishing process as a whole, and the best of polys or lacquers will look like a shiny dog turd in the sun if you do not do all the best preparatory work you can do to the instrument prior to and including the sealing. Consider the prep work actually part of the finish, because it really is.

Lots of good, talented folk here get great results from poly, but they also have a dirty little secret, just like I do.Īnd that is, good prep work under the finish. I'm able to get the most out of my finishes because I know how my lacquer will react around the year in all seasonal conditions.

I use nitro because it's what my customer base wants, and I know it very well.

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