Strats

[Nathans_Dad]

Fender USA is poly finished.

Most Fender custom shop stuff is also poly. You have to ask for nitro.

The Highway 1 line was a matte nitro but that line has been discontinued. Still, the cheapest way to get into a nitro finished Fender if you find them used.

[VaSteve]

If you wanted one in nitro, wouldn't it be easier to buy a raw body and stain/tint it? You could put all the Fender hardware on. The guys on the telecaster board Build them from scratch.

I bought a MIM Tele in butterscotch blonde in February. Great guitar.

[911dean]

I know my Custom Shop strat is nitro and so is my brothers GE Smith tele.

[Nathans_Dad]

Let me clarify. The straight up Custom Shop Strats are poly finished. I just checked the website.

Any of the signature stuff is done to the artists specs. So if they want nitro they get nitro. Most of the vintage tribute stuff is also nitro since that's what was used on the original.

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by stuartj

IM not sure that's right....certainly Fender Custom Shop stuff is all nitro- but its not the nitro they were using in the 50 and 60s. Are Fender USA gits poly finished?

Yeah, youre correct about stripping poly bodies. If I ever do that again, Im sending it off to be chemical dipped and stripped. You get a better result too....no matter how much filling and sanding you do after a heat gun strip, the nitro shows every defect in the wood under the new paint.

I doubt the custom shop ones are nitro either. VOC laws. Unless they do it with rattle cans LOL. All the Fenders that I know of are poly finished with that God awful basecoat filler.

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by Nathans_Dad

Let me clarify. The straight up Custom Shop Strats are poly finished. I just checked the website.

Any of the signature stuff is done to the artists specs. So if they want nitro they get nitro. Most of the vintage tribute stuff is also nitro since that's what was used on the original.

My 51 p-bass re-issue is as poly as it gets. It's the color of most school busses as well.

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by Nathans_Dad

The cheap Chinese copies play as well and sometimes better than the American made ones.

The reality is that most "American made" Fenders are simply assembled in the US, the parts are manufactured at their main plant in Mexico.

It ain't about the label, it's oh it sounds!

Oh, and I think Doug was looking for a first electric, I think a MIM or a Squier are great first electrics. Why spend a grand on a guitar when you don't really know what you like yet?

As I said, they are very good. You couldn't build a guitar of that quality for the 300 bucks you pay for the thing at walmart.

Because its made of reprocessed cardboard from god knows where with cheap chinese parts made under unknown conditions like every other cheap POS power drill/sneaker/barbie doll that floods US big box category killers.

How Fender splits its US/MEX manufacture and assembly is a NAFTA mystery...I was told for example that ALL necks are made in USA and some are sent to MEX for final finshing and come back as MIM instruments. So who knows.

The point is - don't buy cheap chinese import copies.

[Shuie]

That must be a new policy. I haven't seen them all, but Im sure I have not seen a single guitar from the Fender Custom Shop built in the last 10+ years that had a poly finish. Every Team Built, Master Built, Relic, etc., I've ever seen played or owned has had a nitro lacquer finish. Not like the finish on a '50s guitar, but still nitro lacquer. Even the 'thin skin' non custom shop USA guitars that were built for the big retailers like Music Machine & Dave's are nitro. Even the Roadworn MIM bodies are nitro..

[Nathans_Dad]

Well, polyurethane really is a superior material to nitro. Nitro yellows, cracks and crazes over time. Now, we think that's cool now because it shows the guitar has been through some use. From a purely protective standpoint though, poly is better.

Some people say nitro breathes better, I've never been able to hear a difference between a nitro finished and a poly finished guitar. I think a lot of that stuff is placebo effect.

[72doug2,2S]

Originally Posted by stuartj

These cheap copies are very good.

But I don't understand why you guys are screwing about with cheap chinese import copies of vintage American icons. We are all old enough and ugly to have the real thing. Why not buy a new USA instrument and keep your countrymen in jobs, or find a yourself a real vintage Tele?

cheap chinese "fender" at big box guitar sellers. The reason the US economy is in the ****.

Yes, I know I'm not helping the situation, but the facts are these:

Times are not good in the old US of A. No matter what you hear about the record stock market, people are working harder for little pay and fewer available jobs mean they'll stay right there and keep doing it.

When the job markets open up again the labor market will force wages up and workers will demand some life balance again.

[Nathans_Dad]

Originally Posted by stuartj

As I said, they are very good. You couldn't build a guitar of that quality for the 300 bucks you pay for the thing at walmart.

Because its made of reprocessed cardboard from god knows where with cheap chinese parts made under unknown conditions like every other cheap POS power drill/sneaker/barbie doll that floods US big box category killers.

How Fender splits its US/MEX manufacture and assembly is a NAFTA mystery...I was told for example that ALL necks are made in USA and some are sent to MEX for final finshing and come back as MIM instruments. So who knows.

The point is - don't buy cheap chinese import copies.

I would agree on not buying Chinese knockoffs, the Classic Vibe Squier series is not a Chinese knockoff though. Those are actually some of the best bang for your buck Fenders being made today.

Don't get me wrong, I think the US Fenders have a place too. I love my American Standard Tele. I also love my MIM strat!

I have a hard time paying more than $1000 for a guitar, I can't tell any difference in the sound and if my guitar was that expensive I'd be afraid to scratch it so it would probably waste away in the case.

[911dean]

Originally Posted by targa911S

I doubt the custom shop ones are nitro either. VOC laws. Unless they do it with rattle cans LOL. All the Fenders that I know of are poly finished with that God awful basecoat filler.

If they are not some kind of nitrocellulose lacquer, do you know what the finish is?

Fender advertises it as nitro and I know the finish on my strat is completely different than what's on my Epiphone.

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by Shuie

That must be a new policy. I haven't seen them all, but Im sure I have not seen a single guitar from the Fender Custom Shop built in the last 10+ years that had a poly finish. Every Team Built, Master Built, Relic, etc., I've ever seen played or owned has had a nitro lacquer finish. Not like the finish on a '50s guitar, but still nitro lacquer. Even the 'thin skin' non custom shop USA guitars that were built for the big retailers like Music Machine & Dave's are nitro. Even the Roadworn MIM bodies are nitro..

THis is what I understood....although the 'nitro' on the cheaper gits is shot over poly base coats.

Gibson USA and Gibson Custom shop are all "nitro". But- what F&G are calling "nitro cellulose" today is not what was being shot in the 50s and 60s...its too damn toxic for use.

We re-finned this one with nitro lacquer...smells unreal, and did for months after

[targa911S]

The early guitars were sprayed with automotive colors that they could get from the paint manufacturers cheap. Leo liked inexpensive. All of Fenders early colors cross over to Ford and GM mixes. They used real nitro because that is what was available and it dried quicker than enamel. Fiesta red is a 55 Thunderbird color. They used a lot of Cadillac colors as well. PPG paints has a conversion chart somewhere on line reranch may have it as well.

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by Nathans_Dad

Well, polyurethane really is a superior material to nitro. Nitro yellows, cracks and crazes over time. Now, we think that's cool now because it shows the guitar has been through some use. From a purely protective standpoint though, poly is better.

Some people say nitro breathes better, I've never been able to hear a difference between a nitro finished and a poly finished guitar. I think a lot of that stuff is placebo effect.

This absolutely true. I still love me nitro.

[targa911S]

yes they are still just spraying nitro over that awful poly base, so what's the big deal? It means nothing other than a selling point. I just finished a PJ bass in nitro from the bottom up, finished it months ago, You can still smell it in the music room. It takes a long time for nitro to "gas off"

[Nathans_Dad]

So if the "nitro" finish is a thin skin of nitro over poly, what's the benefit? Even those who think nitro breathes better would have to admit that the poly undercoat negates any breathing effect.

May as well buy a good MIM strat and upgrade the electronics. You'll have a better guitar for less $$$.

[Shuie]

Originally Posted by Nathans_Dad

Well, polyurethane really is a superior material to nitro. Nitro yellows, cracks and crazes over time. Now, we think that's cool now because it shows the guitar has been through some use. From a purely protective standpoint though, poly is better.

Some people say nitro breathes better, I've never been able to hear a difference between a nitro finished and a poly finished guitar. I think a lot of that stuff is placebo effect.

You are really lucky that you can't hear the difference. I really wish I couldn't hear the difference. It would have saved me a lot of money over the years.

[Nathans_Dad]

Yeah, people claim to hear all sorts of differences. Some people SWEAR a strat sounds better with the tremolo cavity cover taken off, supposedly let's the guitar breathe.

Right.

[Nathans_Dad]

Originally Posted by Shuie

You are really lucky that you can't hear the difference. I really wish I couldn't hear the difference.

This is not the description of an MIM strat btw.

I can tell the difference between a low end Squier and an American strat, but some of that is electronics.

Put the same electronics in a good MIM strat and I bet you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between that and a strat with similar electronics.