04/08/2014
I posted this in the Kramer Guitar FB Group and I'll post it here as well for those of you who aren't members of that group but who have a curiosity of how temperature affects certain types of paint material.. in this case, Polyester Clear Coats used by The Kramer Guitar Company...
How Do !
I was talking to someone from the group yesterday about a few things and I'd like to take a moment and make a Public Service Announcement in regards to Problems with Guitar finishes...
There are basically 3 types of paint on 98% of the painted guitars on earth..
1) Lacquer ( Nitro Cellulose / Acrylic / Shellac )
2) Enamel ( Air Dry / Catalyzed )
3) Polyester
I really don't want to bore you with a full blown lecture about the science of paint materials, what I want to briefly talk about is the idiocyncracies of each of the 3 and what you SHOULD and SHOULDN'T do with them respectively.
For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to talk about Gibson, Fender and Kramer.
American Gibson's are basically finished in Nitro Cellulose Lacquer
Fenders (Pre CBS) were finshed in Nitro Lacquer and (CBS) in Enamel however, both pre CBS and CBS were dip sealed in "Fullerplast" which is a Polyester Sealer
Kramers ( Neptune NJ Finished) were painted with Acrylic Laqcuer and Enamel color coats and Polyester Top Coats (Some early solid colors like White, Cream, Red, Pink and Purple were tinted polyester).
The point with Kramers finished in New Jersey is, regardless of what was used as a base coat color,the Top Coat (the part of the finish you feel with your hands) is ALWAYS polyester
ESP finished Kramers are done in Catalyzed Urethane (enamel)
Of the 3 types of materials... Polyester is by far the Strongest, Glossiest, Hardest and most Resiliant. Because it has these properties, it is also the most susceptible to drastic Temperature Changes..
What this means for you as a Vintage Kramer Owner...
Well, it means that your guitar is less likely to fade or wear out or get dinged, but it is more likely to crack if it's yanked out of a 40 degree case into a 80 degree room.
Why is this ? Polyester is SUPER strong and hard in itself. It's the hardest paint material known to man, almost as hard as glass. The cracking isn't caused by paint material failure... it's caused by the wood beneath it expanding, contracting , swelling in a rapid manner. Polyester Finshed Guitars NEED to be kept at Room Temperature ( not in cold storage sheds) and they need to be unboxed after shipping only after being left to acclimate gradually over time) Contrary to popular belief... Air Cargo holds are not temperature controlled for the most part, and at 40,000 ft of Altitude, even in the summer months, those cargo holds get to Below Zero degrees... It's best, if you're buying or selling a Vintage Kramer, to be patient and ship it ground rather than air..
Something else to be very wary of (as Rusty Shakleford can attest to with one of his recent aquisitions) under no circumstances, do you ever clean ANY guitar, espcially a Polyester finished guitar with Soapy Water or any type of liquid in copious amounts as this will seep into screw holes and swell / expand the grain... The Wood will move, the Polyester wont. The result will be a Cracked Finish...
I'm not trying to cause panic or make an alarmist claim of woods acting like the Weee Wowwww cake on The Little Rascals... I'm not talking about 20 to 30 degree temperature changes over the course of weeks, I'm talkng about 40 to 60 plus degree changes over the course of hours. For those of you who doubt the Hygroscopic capacity of wood or its expansion / contraction abilities... take a cloth tape measure out to your favorite tree in the yard and measure it's circumference in the middle of August then again in the middle of January and let me know what you come up with...
I hope this has been helpful and informative...
