Couple of points to make on a month old video.... First, even on Fender's non-Custom Shop vintage reissues that are billed as a "nitro" finish they are nitro sprayed over a poly base. I've got a Fender American Original 50's strat that is like that and it retailed for over $1400 when released. So is that guitar going to "sound" like nitro? Probably not. Second point is regarding the Jim Lill video. Maybe I'm the crazy one but in his video the changes in sound were extremely obvious to me, it didn't prove the point he was trying to make in the slightest. The strings suspended over nothing with a pickup underneath sounded vastly different than a real guitar. I was baffled at all the comments saying it sounded the same. It's almost as if the psychology of people being told something was true and their wanting to believe it caused them to have a mass auditory hallucination. I was dumbfounded by all the people who thought his video showed anything valid. My experience was the opposite. I find all his videos to be kind of like that. Again, maybe it's just me...
I had my 96 American standard strat refinished by MJT guitars out of Southwest Missouri. The refinish was money well spent. I had it done to be like brand new nitro, and it has started to age nicely. It was refinished about 5 years ago. Bought the guitar brand new for my first guitar ever in 97, and the poly just looked terrible after 20 years. No patina whatsoever, and just a few nasty chips and gouges.
The question is there just a difference or is there a good and bad difference. Then if there is difference can the tone knob be changed to make it same as it was. If so then probably not worth a repainting.
Brand new strings were put on for both examples. If you follow the link in the description, you can see the full video where we go through all the procedures.
I think a more accurate control group would be an identical Poly guitar just to account for minute difference in identical guitars. (Variables like pickups wood etc.)
That was actually startlingly different. But the odd thing is that in the clean example poly was the darker sounding one but with the medium gain, to me nitro was darker sounding. Ot maybe poly somehow had more gain so it made it sound brighter of the two. Either way that's really weird. With the heavier gain there was very little audible differences, that's where you'd be splitting hair to compare the two. Never in a million years would I expect any of this.
I wonder if some of the sound difference might be due to how the neck was screwed in before and after the refinish. It would be interesting if you could now unscrew the neck and remount it (maybe keeping It less tight) to see is there are sonic differences.
Hey, next time you are short someone, I'll take their place. Haha, I'll bring nothing to the show, just want to hang with cool guitar guys Love what you all do for the community.
I have an Ibanez Proline 1770 and I LOVE the dark tone as much as the silver pearl paint job. I HATE the way the poly has gone UV green over the decades and have often pondered a refinish. This video makes me think I might lose some of the darker tone, but not a huge amount…so guess what…that can be eq’d to get where I like it so…. It’s still an issue of will I lose be able to match/replace the original paint finish vs putting up with the green tinge!!
In the early years of Fender putting poly on guitars it wasn't the same, not as thick at least. They basically encase the body in thick plastic now. Also, I don't think poly sound bad, but I prefer nitro.
I think '68 onward is polyurethane with a few exceptions, like Candy Apple Red I don't think was fully Nitro even early in the 1960's. Yet, the most famous Fender models and the "golden era" are all nitrocellulose.
Thickness of the finish matters most. I’ve found you notice the difference between a thick and thin finished guitar on the wound strings. The thick finished guitars didn’t have the zing.
this is the BEST nitro vs poli video ever! Thank you guys for the huge effort on this experiment! My conclusion; Poli sounds a bit more "plastic" and "trapped". Nitro sounds more open, adult and warm.
Thanks so much, unfortunately I took a spill, blacked out and hit my head on a coffee table then the tile floor. Fracturing my eye socket, concussion and some lacerations! Thankful to be healing
Would have been nice to see a graph of both on the same note on the same graph. Even though they are different, it doesn't look like it would be that hard to EQ with a pedal to match whichever guitar you preferred.
Yes .. but .. if you want a Stratocaster that sounds like Hendrix beloved woodstock strat then you will need a polyurethane first layer with thin nitro layer on top for the color as it was the way in Fender company in the late 60´s :-) .. at that time it was prefered to have a tough instrument than a delicate nitro one
Don’t get it. They sound different. So what. They both sound good. You could probably eq them to sound the same. How could you say one better than the other. It’s subjective. I’ll take the clean looking poly everyday as opposed to the pain in ass nitro that checks, have to be careful what stand I use, what product I use on it, etc
I'm happy with my urethane finished LP type. Why can't I just be happy in ignorance. I didn't even know there were different finishes until after I bought the thing.
Just because there are tonal differences doesn’t mean that nitrocellulose is better. There are many negative factors associated with nitrocellulose and way less with poly.
See full video of the nitro vs. poly refinishing process here: ua-cam.com/video/q5KM7fy-rqU/v-deo.htmlsi=dcwTVeeUb6sO5JpW
Couple of points to make on a month old video.... First, even on Fender's non-Custom Shop vintage reissues that are billed as a "nitro" finish they are nitro sprayed over a poly base. I've got a Fender American Original 50's strat that is like that and it retailed for over $1400 when released. So is that guitar going to "sound" like nitro? Probably not. Second point is regarding the Jim Lill video. Maybe I'm the crazy one but in his video the changes in sound were extremely obvious to me, it didn't prove the point he was trying to make in the slightest. The strings suspended over nothing with a pickup underneath sounded vastly different than a real guitar. I was baffled at all the comments saying it sounded the same. It's almost as if the psychology of people being told something was true and their wanting to believe it caused them to have a mass auditory hallucination. I was dumbfounded by all the people who thought his video showed anything valid. My experience was the opposite. I find all his videos to be kind of like that. Again, maybe it's just me...
I had my 96 American standard strat refinished by MJT guitars out of Southwest Missouri. The refinish was money well spent. I had it done to be like brand new nitro, and it has started to age nicely. It was refinished about 5 years ago. Bought the guitar brand new for my first guitar ever in 97, and the poly just looked terrible after 20 years. No patina whatsoever, and just a few nasty chips and gouges.
The question is there just a difference or is there a good and bad difference. Then if there is difference can the tone knob be changed to make it same as it was. If so then probably not worth a repainting.
DID YOU PUT BACK ON THE EXACT SAME (USED) STRINGS AFTER THE REFIN THAT WERE ON IT BEFORE THE REFIN??? SORRY FOR THE CAPS THE CAPS LOCK KEY IS BROKEN
That is a very good question and could make a huge difference, especially with hex-core strings.
Brand new strings were put on for both examples. If you follow the link in the description, you can see the full video where we go through all the procedures.
@@VertexEffectsInc RIGHT ON, THAT'S WHAT I FIGURED. THANK YOU FOR THE REPLY AND FOR DOING THIS 👍 👍
I think a more accurate control group would be an identical Poly guitar just to account for minute difference in identical guitars. (Variables like pickups wood etc.)
That was actually startlingly different. But the odd thing is that in the clean example poly was the darker sounding one but with the medium gain, to me nitro was darker sounding. Ot maybe poly somehow had more gain so it made it sound brighter of the two. Either way that's really weird. With the heavier gain there was very little audible differences, that's where you'd be splitting hair to compare the two. Never in a million years would I expect any of this.
I wonder if some of the sound difference might be due to how the neck was screwed in before and after the refinish. It would be interesting if you could now unscrew the neck and remount it (maybe keeping It less tight) to see is there are sonic differences.
Hey, next time you are short someone, I'll take their place. Haha, I'll bring nothing to the show, just want to hang with cool guitar guys
Love what you all do for the community.
I have a question. I have a 2016 MIM Standard Telecaster polar white. And I swear it's turning a yellow. Is this possible with a polyurethane finish?
I have an Ibanez Proline 1770 and I LOVE the dark tone as much as the silver pearl paint job. I HATE the way the poly has gone UV green over the decades and have often pondered a refinish. This video makes me think I might lose some of the darker tone, but not a huge amount…so guess what…that can be eq’d to get where I like it so…. It’s still an issue of will I lose be able to match/replace the original paint finish vs putting up with the green tinge!!
Many Fenders made after the late ‘60’s are not nitro and they sound great.
In the early years of Fender putting poly on guitars it wasn't the same, not as thick at least. They basically encase the body in thick plastic now. Also, I don't think poly sound bad, but I prefer nitro.
I think '68 onward is polyurethane with a few exceptions, like Candy Apple Red I don't think was fully Nitro even early in the 1960's. Yet, the most famous Fender models and the "golden era" are all nitrocellulose.
Thickness of the finish matters most.
I’ve found you notice the difference between a thick and thin finished guitar on the wound strings. The thick finished guitars didn’t have the zing.
this is the BEST nitro vs poli video ever! Thank you guys for the huge effort on this experiment! My conclusion; Poli sounds a bit more "plastic" and "trapped". Nitro sounds more open, adult and warm.
What happened to Brian? I dont have any social media accounts besides UA-cam. I hope hes ok and healing up well
Thanks so much, unfortunately I took a spill, blacked out and hit my head on a coffee table then the tile floor. Fracturing my eye socket, concussion and some lacerations! Thankful to be healing
@@omilionaudio oh man! That sounds painful!! I hope ur better soon
@@orryfishburne5326thank you!
Keith played a plexiglass guitar on tour. Maybe that will ease my OCD in regard to this.
Would have been nice to see a graph of both on the same note on the same graph. Even though they are different, it doesn't look like it would be that hard to EQ with a pedal to match whichever guitar you preferred.
There is, in the video the two graphs are running simultaneously. You could EQ in post but it's not going to change the source.
Awesome nitro vs poly video thank you 🙏
Glad you liked it!
The poly looks and SOUNDS BETTER.
Yes .. but .. if you want a Stratocaster that sounds like Hendrix beloved woodstock strat then you will need a polyurethane first layer with thin nitro layer on top for the color as it was the way in Fender company in the late 60´s :-) .. at that time it was prefered to have a tough instrument than a delicate nitro one
Don’t get it. They sound different. So what. They both sound good. You could probably eq them to sound the same. How could you say one better than the other. It’s subjective. I’ll take the clean looking poly everyday as opposed to the pain in ass nitro that checks, have to be careful what stand I use, what product I use on it, etc
They sound different, and I think that was the question that got answered.
I'm happy with my urethane finished LP type. Why can't I just be happy in ignorance. I didn't even know there were different finishes until after I bought the thing.
Just because there are tonal differences doesn’t mean that nitrocellulose is better. There are many negative factors associated with nitrocellulose and way less with poly.
Almost sounds like theres a fuzz pedal on the poly
Nitro looks better and feels better in my hands, I do think it sounds better to me too.
Possibly unpopular opinion: poly sounds better
Oh wow, crazy difference. The nitro sounds a lot ‘nicer’ than the poly for sure.
Poly sound brighter 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Less views on this video because people fear the truth ; )
Or they fear the stupidness of the people believing this hoax
Boomers luv nitro