To Finish or Not to Finish

That is the question… Rats, I’m conflicted!

Ok, this is Luthierspeak, so bear with me – Stream of consciousness can be good sometimes….

Anyway, guitars have been finished with a lot of stuff. In the olden days, they mostly got French Polished varnish like violins and all their cousins. As steel strings replaced gut, and guitars got bigger, Nitrocellulose lacquer began to replace varnish. That remains the status quo pretty much today - Nitro on flat tops, (Or a water-based equivelent), and French Polish on Classicals...

So, why finish at all? Ever seen what raw wood looks like after it’s been pawed, handled, and used for a while? Ever seen working musicians work? It's not pretty - Ever seen the top of Willie Nelson’s go-to guitar? That’s why. Musicians are barbarians, and playing live is like sports – Y’all are gonna get sweat and dirt and dust and grime and grunge all over that guitar, and that’s just playing. Raw wood, especially relatively soft woods like Spruce and Cedar, (Which is what the vast majority of guitar tops are made from), will dent, ding, scratch and crack like nobody’s business. Add to that the fact that we’re not talking about slabs of wood here – We’re talking about stuff that is around .010” in thickness on the sides, back, and top – That’s thin. Hell, you have to be careful about what kind of environment your axes hang out in, let alone what kind of company they keep: Heat and moisture alone could kill an unfinished guitar dead in nothin' flat.

The trade off, of course, is tone – Guitars sound like they do because the wood rings and sings. Finish, any finish, deadens and changes the sound somewhat, and some more than others. Some cheap guitars are finished with polyurethane, just like the crap you buy for your picnic table at Lowe’s: It’s relatively thick, heavy, and, well… It makes guitars sound bad…
Lacquer and Shellac are favored because they make relatively thin, light, hard finishes. Not only that, but if you ding something like polyurethane, you can’t fix it in a way that won’t look terrible – The old stuff doesn’t know the new stuff, chemically speaking, and ne’er the twain shall meet – Whereas Shellac or Lacquer can be repaired such that you wouldn’t even know it’d been dinged – Their old and new chemistries snuggle up together like seal pups…

Then we get into that chemistry thing a bit more, and other pros and cons surface – First and foremost, they don’t call it Nitrocellulose Lacquer for nothing – That means if things go wrong, in the immortal words of Tweety Bird; “Awwww, to poooor Luthier – he fall down go BOOM!” As in explode. It’s also laced with all kinds of volatile esters and whatnot, making it, well… poisonous, actually. If you’ve ever lived with or near a wood worker using the stuff, you know what I’m talking about. And the newer water-based lacquers aren’t much different, really – Just different chemicals, but still nasty – It’s like, choose your poison – Did you want arsenic or strychnine with that? And since this stuff is usually sprayed on, you can’t find a better way for all that nasty crap to get into your system…

And finally, most players have come to know, love and expect that shiny, mirror-like look from quality guitars...

So what’s a Luthier to do? Go with the flow and use very sophisticated equipment to do your best in keeping this stuff away from you and the environment? Brush it on? Or use something different?

I’m leaning toward different. I’m leaning toward less volatile, not so shiny, more user friendly finishes. I’m leaning toward Shellac, and existing oil-based finishes such as are commonly used on hardwood flooring. It makes for a different look – Softer, not so shiny, but in trade off, the wood shines through much more, in my opinion – And after all, isn’t that what it’s all about, the wood? Lighter finishes means better sound transmission – That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. No, the instruments won’t be as resistant to dings and dents but again, in my opinion, I’ve seen very few guitar lacerations that didn’t happen because of a harder finish. They’re a working thing, meant to be used, so they’re gonna look used, no matter what we put on top of them.

I believe players will come to like the change. I’ve been doing necks in an oil finish for a while now. Players see that and make the same comments over and over again – They love the feel, they love the look, and could you do the whole guitar like that?

Yep, I can!