Sandy, I remember the discussion here, probably not long after I joined LTG in '05, in which it was discussed that Corona wouldn't/couldn't spray nitro. Now that conversation was here on the forum, but never substantiated, so I can't say for sure if they did, or if they didn't. Just too long ago. I just remember reading that here.
Jim, one thing you gotta remember about current Cordoba seel strings, they're Chinese-built like GAD's, and I've never seen a modern Chinese guitar with NCL lacquer. (Doesn't mean they don't exist, I've just never heard of one yet. Probably incompatible with the speed of production model needed by those makers, I'm guessing.)
I remember later mentions about nitro and Corona as well, but my memory has it that it was never "proven" that's why Fender took Guild out of CA, and it never really seemed like enough of a reason all by itself anyway.
Seeing that article a couple of years back that mentioned the brand new state of the art finishing booth built specifically for Guild in Corona finally put paid to the qeustion, in my mind at least.
Granted it still leaves open the question of whether constant tightening of the allowable emissions standards and
cost of compliance certfication proved burdensome for Fender to meet, and
contributed to their exit motives.
Nitro CAN be sprayed in CA, it just requires some pretty expensive compliance measures.
I'd hope that Sandy's note that the compliance levels required at New Hartford are still very similar to California's and that possibly the equipment could be transferred happens, or who knows, maybe the old booth is still lying unused in Corona and could be bought and updated if needed right from Fender in CA?
My personal feelings about nitro are that I'm a traditionalist and I'm in that school that believes it improves with age due to drying out and becoming more resonant, but even if that turns out to be untrue, the real bottom line advantage it still has over the others is
spot repairability.
Even the guy who wrote the article Joe linked to concedes that in his very last sentence.
"Durability" is kind of counterproductive if the only way to fix the scratch is to repaint the whole car....
