Stand padding and nitro lacquer

imperialbari

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 24, 2010
Messages
123
Reaction score
1
I am not into the finer details of lacquer and especially my English terminology on the topic is limited and not necessarily precise.

Being an instrument collector I am very much aware about the effect of the storage format. The instruments placed very accessibly, that is on stands, are more likely to get play time.

I recently bought a couple of guitar/bass stands from Thomann in Germany, who warned that these might damage instruments with nitro lacquer. My Chinese heavily lacquered campfire guitar sits in the stand holding body as well as gripping around the neck. I haven’t seen any damage on that one. The Ovation bass sits in the one only touching the lower body. Actually only the soundboard has a lacquered surface being touched, and there has been no visual damage so far.

Are there uke makes known to be coated in nitro lacquer, and are there makers known to never using nitro lacquer?

Klaus
 
Hi Klaus,

Kamaka finishes their product with lacquer who else I can't say but most use
a "poly" finish, urethane, polyester, etc.

As for those "unfriendly to lacquer stands its a fact. My white Fender Stratocaster
turned an unpleasing brown where it contacted the padding, I was so ticked I ended
up selling the strat and tossing the stand in the bin. Many suggest covering the areas
in question with some cloth. I generally store my stuff in hard cases, not great for display
but thay're safe.

Cheers.
 
Thanks the reply (even if my dyslexia nearly had me deleting the email notification - I, sadly, but honestly, thought it was one of those Ukrainian offerings of certain services - I will have to program a certain letter constellation as being acceptable).

Discolouration is bad enough in its own lack of right, but my real fear would be about the lacquer bubbling and flaking, as that would affect playability.

Another aspect of my ignorance: I am not sure I can distinguish lacquer from the other finishes. At least I am not sure about which parameters to look for.

Klaus
 
I had a problem with some wall hangers made in China. Hung a couple of Martin guitars with gloss finish. It marred the finish. Covered them with cloth and no more problems. Lucky for me these are road worn guitars used every day. Just another lesson learned. never had a problem with floor stands.
 
Yeah, I've got nice dark marks on the sides of my peghead on an off-white SG (custom, one off order, no less) courtesy of one of those INgles "string swing" wall holders. So now I wrap the rubber padding in a couple of layers of cloth from an old t-shirt. Did I hear someone saying something about closing the barn door after the horses are gone? :(

John
 
homeruke.gif


As a teacher I took pride in looking into the minds of my students, as that made it so much easier to help them developing themselves.

You obviously would have been one of the easier ones to look through, but now my eyes are too old to tell whether it takes a cow or a dino doing the hula to turn you on.

Anyway it appears I am not entirely lonesome tonight about my original worries.

Klaus
 
I think it's a cow - the important thing is that it's playing a ukulele - kind of hard to see - I guess I shrunk the images down too small after capturing them from the youtube video.

John
 
Ain‘t against comics, but ain’t as hot on them as 30 years ago. The Simpsons have been filtered almost totally from my universe, as the colours are not kind on food already eaten.

Yet I had to follow up on that uke intermezzo. Found a copy of what probably is the original short version, which has poor sound. There are two versions which repeat the uke sequence without any context. One does so for 10 minutes, but here is a shorter one:



Appears being a comic metastunt referring to Clarabelle of Disney fame. The Danish name for Clarabelle is Nora Malkeko (Nora Dairy-cow), which then is a reference to Ibsen’s play, so we are seeing the uke deeply embedded international culture.

Klaus
 
Sorry if not everybody finds the video above here too udderly funny.

K
 
I have decided to re-purpose some wine bottle cork into pads at the contact points on my stand. If anyone has done this, and discovered any negative effects, please let me know.
 
I have successfully wrapped stands with cotton handlebar tape for bicycles


20191113_125904.jpg
 
Nitro finish is a feature of high end instruments and is sensitive to cracking and reaction with other materials including skin, straps and stands. If you have such an instrument you usually know it. To protect finish play them with long sleeves, don't put in case with strap, and put covers on the supports of cheap stands if it will rest there for extended time. Many modern instruments have a finish that is much more durable and you won't need worry about.
 
Has anyone ever had issues with the "String-Swing" instrument hangers? (The authentic ones, not the cheap, no-name knockoffs.) I've been using them for a few years on a variety of modern ukes and never had a problem.
 
Has anyone ever had issues with the "String-Swing" instrument hangers? (The authentic ones, not the cheap, no-name knockoffs.) I've been using them for a few years on a variety of modern ukes and never had a problem.
No. I've been using a wall rack for a few years with 14 instruments, several of which are shellac'ed and no problem.
I asked the company and they assured me, that their rubber is good for any instrument surface.
 
Any type of pliable plastic has softeners that can affect the finish of instruments. The information sheet (which no one reads) that comes with a Snark tuner, warns against leaving it clamped to the headstock. They are just meant to be left on long enough to tune the instrument and then removed. The same is true of many capos and vinyl-backed straps. And don't leave your instrument on a Naugahyde couch or chair. There's a chance you will ruin both the finish of the instrument AND the chair or couch.
 
Any type of pliable plastic has softeners that can affect the finish of instruments. The information sheet (which no one reads) that comes with a Snark tuner, warns against leaving it clamped to the headstock. They are just meant to be left on long enough to tune the instrument and then removed. The same is true of many capos and vinyl-backed straps. And don't leave your instrument on a Naugahyde couch or chair. There's a chance you will ruin both the finish of the instrument AND the chair or couch.
Nitro finishes don't like coarse or rough textured material very much. Especially if it is pressed against the finish for a period of time. I found this out the hard way when the little strap that prevents the lid of my hard cases from opening too far was laying across the top of a nitro finished tenor. The pressure from the foam padding in top of the closed case left indentations in the finish after two days in the case.

Now, I make sure that I tuck the strap off to the side as I close the case.

Never had this happen with a poly finish, or a satin or thin nitro finish.

The weight of a uke hanging on a hook is not heavy enough to be a problem from pressure.
 
Nitro finishes don't like coarse or rough textured material very much. Especially if it is pressed against the finish for a period of time. I found this out the hard way when the little strap that prevents the lid of my hard cases from opening too far was laying across the top of a nitro finished tenor. The pressure from the foam padding in top of the closed case left indentations in the finish after two days in the case.

Now, I make sure that I tuck the strap off to the side as I close the case.

Never had this happen with a poly finish, or a satin or thin nitro finish.

The weight of a uke hanging on a hook is not heavy enough to be a problem from pressure.
I had this exact thing happen with a Pono Tenor. Fortunately, the impression was very faint and I was able to buff it out with a gentle polish. I don't know what kind of finish it had. Ever since then, I've been very careful with straps and other things that might press against the finish.
 
It is not the pressure but chemicals gassing out from the materials that destroys the finish. Just leaning against it is enough. If it is pressed against something it will of course get an impression from it.
It's mostly plastics, artificial rubber, artificial "leather" that all contain softeners and they are able to do damgage many years after manufacture. Real leather contains harmful chemicals from the curing process.
I read about a 3.000$ Martin that got an impression from the "leather" tag on the plectrum compartment of an original Martin case !
 
Top Bottom