My new Ivanovski Busato

Joonas

And I thought that your guitar looked different because of lighting.

As far as I know nitro is a fragile lacquer. Anecdotally it is supposed to sound better. Gibson uses it on their electric guitars but not on their budget brand Epiphone although they make the same models. A lot of people prefer nitro lacquer actually because it wears faster, as ironic as it sounds, people like their guitars to get wear marks from playing.

Buco

Yeah, because I read somewhere that said nitro is fragile, I thought that's what my guitar had initially and that's why it got checkered on an extremely cold day.

VicBulbon

Yes, a lot of nicer old guitars have nitro. I think my 32 L4 has that finish. Poly generally feels very glossy and most modern electric guitars tend to have that finish.

Its interesting to hear that he used nitro back in the days. He told me specifically that now he uses French polish because its the best.

billyshakes

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/122383#Comment_122383

I think even poly finish on a -21 deg day would be "fragile."😅

Buco

Yeah, no joke.

I'd think the less coverage, the better, wood can vibrate easier. Your Busato seems to follow that. That thing should be a cannon.

paulmcevoy75

Just for the record, finish should have a minimal effect on sound. At least, most professional level finishes. If you are spraying heavy poly on a guitar (like the super crazy thick finishes Fender uses sometimes), that definitely could affect the sound a lot, but most finishes are pretty thin, and are similarly thin enough to not really make any difference. I don't think in general it has any measurable effect.

Nitro shot well is usually quite thin. It does have a tendency to check in cold weather, and that's sort of a fetishized thing in vintage circles, at least for certain guitars. There's a spray can finish by Gluboost that is a "cold checking" formula to mimic that sort of cracked look. Not really my thing.

Basically the finish shrinks more than the wood and you get those cracks. Or vice versa. Not sure.

Anyway, pretty sure after researching this quite a bit that finish has close to zero effect on the sound of the guitar. I use epoxy and tru-oil mostly. The "Ken Parker" finish. Because it looks and feels nice but I don't attribute any positive or negative tone qualities to it.

I did do French Polishing for a while but quit because it's a total pain in the ass, easy to fuck up and takes forever. And it's not durable. Supposedly "easy to repair". I didn't really find that, but you have to repair it a lot. That's just my experience, I never totally got my routine down but it has not been worth it to me.

paulmcevoy75

But I don't think nitro is "fragile". The vast majority of guitars probably made through the 1970s were shot with nitro, maybe even more recently. Don't quote me.

Nitro is very, very nasty health wise, it has a lot of restrictions for environmental reasons and the formulations have changed a lot related to VOCs. I think it also takes more skill to shoot well than more modern poly finishes, which also are less deadly and have less VOCs.

But Nitro seems to have a specific look that we are all into and that's the vintage Martin and Gibson look (and likely a lot of good french guitars, I would imagine). If I knew how to do it and had the facilities and the knowledge to shoot it safely, I'd definitely consider it.

All the classic fender finishes were Nitro AFAIK. There wasn't any alternative at the time.

Here's an article by Jeff Jewitt who is sort of the grand teacher of finishing. If I said anything above that doesn't jive with this article, I'm wrong.

jewitt finish history.pdf

Buco

Vic, did you get it?

VicBulbon

Buco, not yet. It should arrive Friday according to the tracking. Its been held up in Skopje for quite a few days. Very excited to receive it. It doesn't come in any case, so hopefully its in one piece. Do you know of any other Ivanovskis in the US other than ours? He made hundreds of guitars, but I guess most of them are probably in central Europe.

Buco

Oh that's weird. For me it was getting stuck at the US customs. Hopefully they release it for you and you get in on Friday.

When I lived in Chicago, I knew of 4 more Ivanovski guitars. I also played one that's now in California and Larry's @lorenzop These last two have darker smokey tone which I loved. So that's at least 7 including mine that I can remember playing.

He usually sends a gig bag of some sort. Did he tell you there won't be any? But he packs them insanely well protected. It could be he's trying to cut down on his own cost because his guitars today are as much or sometimes cheaper then when I got mine in 2009.