Fixing Swirls on Nitro Finish

[curlywurly]

I wanna preface this by saying I actually love the hell out of this guitar. My last few posts have been about grievances and so will this one to be honest so I wanted to mention I love this guitar and how it plays and feels more than any other guitar Ive ever played. I played my friends strat last week and the fretboard felt fake and weird and the guitar was way too heavy, this thing plays so smooth comparably its amazing, I may even get a second one.

That said…part of why I got a PRS and even paid extra for Wood Library was DEFINITEY the aesthetics, I thought it was beautiful as hell. What bugs me though is that its absolutely covered in what look like polishing swirls on the body front AND back when you shine it in a super bright light.

This is a guitar with nitrocellulose finish, I know because the tag on the guitar said so and it smells amazing. I’m actually wondering a few things actually if you guys can help me.

I already searched the forums and I guess the best way to fix the scratches is to use an edgeless microfiber cloth with meguires polish that i keep seeing everywhere using fast light strokes, just wanna double check this is safe for nitro and not just v12 or anything? Also…what if I just dont fix the swirls? Presumably even if I clean them they will just come back right? If I leave them they wont eventually get so bad they dig into the wood or something right? Im basically asking if its something I have to take care of if I want to avoid damage to the actual wood underneath or if I may as well just leave them.

Sorry if it’s a strange question…this is my first “real” guitar having historically purchased cheap ones so this is all kind of new to me. I’ve been so scared of making things worse I just bought microfiber cloths and wipe it down with nothing for now to avoid further damage.

 

[Greywolf]

I'm a Luthier and have used the full line of Colortone compounds, they have a swirl remover which is the lightest .

ColorTone Polishing Compounds - StewMac

The final step for a beautiful finish.

www.stewmac.com

 

[Em7]

If you are only dealing with swirls and not deeper scratch, this is my suggestion: https://www.amazon.com/Menzerna-SF3...ocphy=9007502&hvtargid=pla-465737535563&psc=1

In my humble opinion, Menzerna compounds are head and shoulders above the competition.

 

[László]

I posted this minutes ago in another thread.

u polish out the swirls, you should wax the guitar with carnauba wax. I am surprised by how few guitarist wax their guitars. It extends the life of the finish and makes swirl marks less of a problem.

Actually, waxes are an option with pluses and minuses. The main plus is that they fill in surface imperfections like swirl marks, and make the guitar shinier by reflecting light more uniformly. To a small degree, if you sweat a lot on a guitar, they'll offer a modicum of surface protection.

Waxes have a few drawbacks that are worth considering. I learned this stuff back when I was entering cars in shows.

Waxes build up. A second coat of wax doesn't remove the first coat, unless it has abrasives or more chemicals, which most players don't need. They yellow over time, so the more layers, the greater the yellowing.

Unlike car finishes dealing with road grit and dirt sticking to the paint and being scraped across the car while it's washed, guitars don't usually need it.

Many waxes also contain mild abrasives, especially the so-called 'cleaner-wax' products. This stuff is useful on a car, but isn't necessary on a guitar.

Carnauba wax is used by car people because it's very hard, and is therefore resistant to the kind of dirt, grinding and sand that sticks to a car; it's so hard, in fact, that even in a car wax it has to be combined with more petroleum distillates than other waxes to soften it up for use - it comes in the form of pellets that are as hard as plastic. OF course, because it dries so hard, it builds up more quickly. Most people don't need that level of protection from abrasion on a guitar, so it's unnecessary unless you're dragging your guitar through sand.

All of this isn't necessarily a criticism of using waxes, because lots of people like them, but it's something to keep in mind when you think about what you want building up on your guitar. It all comes down to personal choice.

If I was to use wax on my guitars I'd use it very sparingly.

Most show cars are polished first, using something very mild, like Meguiar's No. 7, and then waxed. This will reduce swirl marks before waxing, so there are fewer microscopic valleys and pits for the wax to fill.

Lots of players have come into my studio and asked me how I keep my instruments in such showroom-new condition. Here's how I do it, but of course, folks have their own techniques. My philosophy is like the physician's - do no harm! So that means, keep them clean, minimize the use of abrasives like polishes, don't add layers of wax.

1. Keep them cased when not in use. Nothing good happens leaving them out. Houses have all kinds of crap like food grease and dust in the air to land on the guitars and gunk them up, which creates a sticky dirt. This also buffers the temperature and humidity changes that occur from hour to hour in all houses, so the wood isn't expanding and contracting so quickly, keeps the gunk off, and obviously, accidents are less likely to result in damage to the instrument. Yes, I get that you want to eyeball stuff. Buy some real art that's meant to hang on a wall.

2. I wipe them down with a slightly damp, soft microfiber cloth after a few days' use. I dry them with another fluffy microfiber cloth.

2. If I see swirl marks, which almost never happens since I don't overpolish my instruments with abrasives, I polish them out using a very fine polish like Virtuoso using a soft microfiber cloth. If you're going to use a polish, remember that it works when the abrasives break down to microscopic particles. The smaller the particles, the fewer swirl marks. So you want as mild an abrasive as will do the job, and you want to use lighter, faster strokes instead of grinding the abrasive hard into the paint.

Keep in mind: all polishes contain abrasives. They work by removing finish, like sandpaper, and they create ultra-fine scratches that progressively beome finer and finer until you can't see them with the naked eye. You don't want to be sanding your guitar all the time.

Yes, it seems like babying the guitar, but it's very easy to overdo it.

3. Maybe once a year I'll put a little of PRS' cleaner on a soft microfiber cloth and shine 'em up if they need it; they don't always need it. This stuff has no abrasives and leaves a nice shine. It's what they use at the factory before shipping the guitars.

That's it. Keep it simple, protect the guitars using cases, and do no harm with abrasives in polishes.