Lacquer cracking on Les Pauls

Fine checking on my 92:

WytLytnyn said:

Haven't read the whole thread, but I believe I saw a vid recently of an Anderton's guy taking liquid nitrogen or something to the effect to induce checking on his pristine Goldtop.

To each his own. I think think a Goldtop with checking looks bada$$. Minor wear on a well-flamed sunburst is sweet but probably would want to play my wear into the skin of mine.....whenever I get one....

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Yep. It was Peter Honore.

It is your central heating, warm guitar rapidly cooling = cracks, or cold guitar rapidly heating. Nytro lacquer is to blame, you have great guitars with thin nytro lacquer.

It's sad if you hate it but your guitars are aging....

I recently bought a 2017 Pelham blue SG. I've had it since Christmas. When I received it, it was absolutely mint. Yesterday I noticed some check lines across the back of the headstock. I'm assuming the machine heads (factory installed Grovers) were tightened a little too much because that's the only place. Point is, the guy before me either kept in in the case and barely played it, or his home environment is totally different from mine, because it didn't happen with him, yet happened here in just a months time. It's my first proper Gibson, so I had prepared myself for "nitro issues", although I like the character that comes with them. I would never "age" such a fine instrument on purpose, but I dig the look. The finish has also turned a beautiful green hue along the high E side of the neck, especially in the first position. The high side fretboard binding is also turning a very nice amber. I guess the chemistry of my skin oils or something. I do play it ALOT. I just think when you buy a Gibson, you have to be able to accept the unstable properties of their finish, which I hope they never change.

as both Suhr and PRS are spraying some models with Nitro I guess these companies are going backwards as well .

I have an '06 Pelham Blue Gibson 335, owned from new. The first couple of years, it smelt strongly of vanilla, and the finish on the back of the neck would get sticky really fast when ever I played it.
After about 2 years, the smell subsided, and the neck problem stopped. Suddenly I noticed cracks in the finish between the Grover tuners, and when I looked further, around the binding on the body and neck.
A crack, about 1mm wide and 20cm long opened up between the binding and the rim of the guitar around the end pin, and also between the joint of the rims at that point.
It has been stable for the last 10 years - but this winter the crack has started spreading wider around the top.
I'm not happy about the checking, but I accept it as part of the nitro ageing process.
As for the crack - I wonder where Gibson draw the line between cosmetic and structural.
How do I go about finding out - I'm in the UK, and the dealer that I purchased it from has gone out of business.

NINFNM said:

Fine checking on my 92:

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That's cool. Those plentiful, uniform horizontal cracls are great but a couple of random vertical cracks near the control knobs doesn't look cool. It just looks like damage, or a flaw.

My RT GT has three deep, vertical cracks going through the control knob cavities but is otherwise mint. It looks cr@p.