Photo Finish

Many guitarists will swear that electric guitars with nitrocellulose finishes – the kind you’d find on many 50s and 60s Fender electrics, for example – sound the best. It’s a sweeping statement and, almost immediately, one can think of exceptions to that bit of tone folklore. But is there a grain of truth in it? And if so, why would nitro finishes perform better than polyester or polyurethane finishes?

Curious, I dropped a line to one of the UK’s top luthiers Patrick James Eggle. His wonderful nitro-finished Macon single-cut electric won a deserved Gear Of The Year award in our last issue, but his decades of experience include making top-quality guitars with all kinds