The best lacquer for guitars

What is the best lacquer for guitars?

This is a question that may be answered different by many people.
One will say that Nitrocellulose lacquer is the best, while another disagrees on that.
So, is there a “best lacquer” for guitar? Maybe, maybe not…
Mainly guitars will be sprayed in Polyurethane lacquer or Nitrocellulose lacquer. Both are different ways of lacquer.

Is there a difference between Polyurethane- or Nitrocellulose lacquer?

Yes absolutely, polyurethane lacquer is highly resistant to chemicals, moisture and wear, which makes it perfect for heavy use. It can be applied in thinner- or thicker lays. While a thin coat allows good resonance, a thicker coat can inhibit it. 

Nitrocellulose lacquers aren’t resistant to a lot of chemicals, so you don’t want to use these lacquers when you need to protect your instrument to things from outside.

But when you need the guitar to look “new” for a long time, you should use these Polyurethane lacquers.

Is there a difference in sound between Polyurethane- or Nitrocellulose lacquer?

Yes, usually there is a difference in sound between these 2.
A Nitrocellulose finish mostly is softer and is usually sprayed in thin layers. This helps the guitar to sound more open, rich and more resonant.

Thick nitrocellulose finishes will choke the wood’s vibration more, which gives, let’s call it, a more neutral sound.

Pricewise

Polyurethane lacquers are typically cheaper than nitrocellulose lacquers due to its less labor-intensive apply.
Besides that, it cures faster and requires fewer coats.

According to this and definitely not willing to generalize, you may see cheaper guitars mostly with a Polyurethane finish, while more expensive guitar have Nitrocellulose finishes.

Verdict about the best lacquer for guitar

In general, if you want a great looking guitar and you want it to look it like new all the time and you play it “heavy use” style, you would choose a Polyurethane finish.

Well, looking for a great “open” sounding guitar, with lots of resonance and a scratch on it isn’t a problem? You would, in that case, choose for Nitrocellulose finish.

Other ways to make your guitar sound better.

How to make your guitar sound better is one of the things all guitar players deal with.
Whether you are new at guitar or an advanced player, everybody is on the search for better tone.
Especially for those who are new to guitar and want to know how to make the guitar sound better, we wrote a blog about “how to make your guitar sound better”.

Why you should consider thick guitar picks for better sound and comfort

You might be overwhelmed by the amount of different guitar picks.
Should you choose a thin or thick guitar pick?
Even though you are a beginner at guitar.
In an easy to read blog we’ll let you know 9 reasons to consider thick guitar picks.

About ChickenPicks guitar picks

The reason for me to make my own picks was diverse.

Somewhere in the mid 80’s I played those famous red Nylon Scotty’s 0.60mm picks. But I needed a better tone, so there was the need for a thicker pick, that wasn’t flexible.

At that time you only could find black Gibson Heavy picks and Dunlop 2.0mm (the purple one).
They sounded OK to me but the playability was bad. I had to work too hard, because I missed a well balanced pick.

So I experimented with different materials and thicknesses with beveled edges etc. Read more about ChickenPicks guitar picks here.

More about picks in particular

Guitar pick sizes chart: compare different picks to each other

The history of guitar picks

These picks are so easy to play and your sound will be awesome

The best boutique picks on the market

Which small guitar picks will be worth checking out

What others say about ChickenPicks guitar picks

Musikhaus Thomann
Chicago Music Exchange
Guitarpickreviews.com
Anatomy of guitar tone

Guitar essentials:

In guitar essentials we write about interesting things every guitarist should know a bit of,
especially when you’re new to (electric) guitar.
We definitely don’t dig deep into theories or technical aspects.
You will find many scientific documents about anything somewhere on the internet.