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antennafarm wrote:

popvulture wrote: My other favorite thing about nitro finished guitars: the weight. Some manufacturers do poly just fine, not overdoing the coat. On the other hand, plenty lay that shit on thick and you end up with something that feels much more like a piece of heavy-ass plastic than a piece of wood.

I'm not a hardcore corksniffer in the sense that I'll turn my nose up at anything poly—I've played shitty Squiers that sound amazing. I am, however, of the mind that the way they did stuff in the old days is better than they do now. I don't think that's an outlandish opinion—a lot of the fuckups and overall decreases in quality from manufacturers have been directly related to cost-cutting measures, and I consider bad poly finish jobs to be a prime example.

We all agree that the jury's still out on sound advantages, but in terms of just overall level of enjoyable tactility, I think the difference is undeniable.

That's a different issue, not poly vs nitro, but cost cutting vs at-any-cost. I may be splitting hairs here, but I think that's an important distinction. I have a MIM tele neck that's poly but feels wonderful (satin finish, though). Comparing a Squier and, say, a non-import Parker... not fair.

Also, if you're talking about "cost-cutting," what do you think the satin-finished low end Gibsons are? That's purely cost cutting (just like the Studio and lower Gibsons in general - Studio is basically just a Standard without bling). Really, most of the processes we've inherited and are used to were just cost cutting measures of the past, and that cost-cut Gibson nitro finish isn't going to age like the checked-out vintage finishes. (note, for the record, I think we agree almost entirely on things! just the particulars I'm quibbling about)

I guess my end point is: find what's important to you and go from there, but ultimately, just find something that speaks to you and play the damned thing! Even superficial things can help you connect with an instrument and if that gets you playing more, then it's not that superficial, is it?

JereFuzz wrote: So how do you figure current nitro finishes are worse than previous years? What was the date where the changeover to shittier processes occurred? Sometimes cost cutting results from superior processes.