Taylor has oxidised nitro .

[Len Biglin]

Hi Guys , I have an old Taylor 410 here with a Nitro finish , its tacky and oxidised especially where sweat gets to it . I have polished and buffed it but it still feels tacky , any ideas on how to treat it ? seal it? overspray it ? Thanks Len

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Unfortunatly, sweat has ate it... I would sand (messy job) until the tacky feeling's off, and respray, not spray over.

[Len Biglin]

Thanks P.A. , I always respect your opinion.Len

[Kerry Krishna]

 Long sleeved shirts 100% of the time next time, all the time!   

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

You're welcome, but I don't have that much experience on the nitro finishes. I wish some folks here with much more experience would give their thought about it.

Sometimes I have good results buffing the tacky part with coarse compound than scuff sand and respray.

[Russell Vance]

Hi Pierre,

I would give my thoughts on it if I knew a solution other than to strip and refinish.  The issue here is a fundamental:   the finish is compromised by either poor application or subsequent unknown chemical or similar attack (smoke, sweat, water...etc etc) and no amount of local treatment is going to be successful over time/in the long run.  Stripping and refinish is a high price to pay.

Nitro is great but it is abused and misused/misapplied so often as to have people think it is a poor option for finish.  It takes time to apply and a long time to cure before final buffing.    But, done well its a thing of beauty and tone and given its ability to be easily repaired and rebuffed I consider it to have no peers. 

Modern guitar finishes are, in the majority of cases, economic expediency and cheap and easy cosmetics.  However, this is not so bad - economic expediency is what one wants for a mass produced, cheap or throwaway guitar and it allows many more people to own a guitar.   This is a good thing.  Regards, Rusty.

[Pierre-Antoine Roiron]

Thanks for the input Russell.

[Guitar Fixer]

Hi Len,

The 410 is not lacquer. By the advent of the 400 series Taylor had abandoned Nitro. It has a finish on it that is Gummy and smells a bit like soap. It never fully hardened or cured.  You can scuff and seal it with the finish of your choice or if the budget allows the best course of action would be to strip it back to wood then reapply.

Skip

[Len Biglin]

Thanks Rusty and Fixer , I will ring Taylor and get their angle on it .

[Paul Verticchio]

Fixer,

Just to correct a bit of misinformation:

The 400 series was introduced a couple of years before Taylor started using the UV cured finish.  It's quite possible that it's one of those. 

A fellow player of mine had an early 410 and it did the exact same thing.  In his case, it was the chemistry of his perspiration that caused the problem. 

Len- Best of luck in finding a viable solution.

[Christian Johnson]

Call Taylor.  They've got an active repair dept, and I've had good luck with them in the past.  I'm not a Taylor fan, but I've called them with specific repair questions and they've always been glad to share info.  When I've had  to replace parts, they always make sure I'm ok with the procedure.  They've sent me videos showing how to.  I wouldn't be surprised if they'd offer to fix your guitar gratis if you ship it to them.

[Guitar Fixer]

Thanks Paul,

I'm not sure what misinformation I've provided to Len but I wouldn't mind clarifying a bit. Taylor has never used UV finish as a top coat on their satin instruments. For the most part they used an excellent product by Lawrence McFadden (4108) with a flattening agent mixed in. Prior to the use of that product they tried other satin finishes from various manufactures. Some were good and some not so much and I'm sure that Len has one of those earlier finishes and a call to Taylor will confirm that.

[Paul Verticchio]

Fixer,

Thanks for the tech update.  I appreciate it. 

I think we've at least established that whatever it was, it was dicey at times.

Thanks again man.

Best of luck (: