"Flash-Coat Lacquer" Finish
The finishes on most new American Vintage guitars and basses consist of three coats: sealer, color and a topcoat, all of which are 100-percent nitrocellulose lacquer and are hence quite thin. This is a vintage-style finish treatment that lets an instrument "breathe" with a more natural resonance since it doesn't "constrain" the instrument's body as much as thicker and more confining modern finishes.
The term flash-coat lacquer refers specifically to the quickly applied thin and final "flash" of topcoat lacquer applied to most new American Vintage instruments. In addition to the sonic advantage noted above, the composition of and method of application for this final finish layer imparts a more authentically vintage appearance to these new instruments.