When you expose the grain of the wood you open the Dore for all sorts of negatives. Moisture/dirt/oil from your skin excessive were/you name it. After you sand it down there all sorts of spray finishes available to protect and seal the wood. You wont even know it's there, but the wood will.
----Danny,

I find a liberal application of a bandsaw works wonders

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If you sweat at all when you play, bare wood is not really a good thing. There's a finish on that neck for a reason - to protect it from you. A Charvel Desolation 2 guitar I got for Christmas is made standard with a naked mahogany neck and it feels very strange to me. I do not sweat at all through my hands, so that's not a problem, but it's weird feeling. I'm tempted to at least clear coat it.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

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Cheers
Steve

ive sanded necks with no resulting problems. but recently i bought a couple of gretsch guitars that a friend ade me promise not to sand. still there was the stickyness of the neck to deal with.. when woring on another guitar i finished it off with bees wax and discovered that the neck was super slick.. no matter what the temp or humidity was... so now all my necks get a bees wax rubdown.. in my opinion thats the best thing i ever used on a neck to stop the stickyness problem. its a mix of bees wax and lemon oil thats avalable at home depot in the paint section.

The definitive answer. I like it. Pesky necks, sheesh! Lose 'em, I say!


A less radical approach might be Draino or Liquid Plumb-R. If they can unclog drains then guitar necks gotta be a whole lot easier to unclog. Most of us are just soooooooo darned lucky, I guess. Take me for example. How many years now? And never had a clogged neck? Maybe I'm past due. Next week all my necks'll clog up and I'll be hooped!

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

well i cant say i ever had a (clogged neck) dont know what that is.

ive had some guitars as the original poster says that the clear gets tacky.

you may be just lucky or have enough oil in your skin that it becomes a natural lubricant..

the bees wax is done like waxing your car you put it on and then when it dries you remove the excess with a rag... just like on your car..

i wish i found that years ago.. but if your not having this problem well im happy for you... draino mingt be a bit excessive though

I normally sand glossy necks just a tiny bit, just to take that top layer of stickiness off while leaving most of the lacquer intact.

Needs redoing every once in a while, but it's how I like it!

I lightly rubbed the back of my Strat's neck with a scouring pad (a "Meanie Greenie" pad), just enough to lessen the gloss (and subsequent "stickiness" from outdoor gigs) down to a satin finish. I didn't go down to bare wood, that would be a bad idea, IMHO.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Hi All,
It seems that the general consensus throughout this thread is to avoid bare wood. My confusion with this is... after years and years of playing the guitar wouldn't it be safe to assume that the neck finish will wear down to bare wood at some point, and if that's true what (if anything) is done to avoid any adverse issues if this happens?

Finger Ease is a product sold at most music retailers. Mean't to to be used to cut down on string squeak it is also an excellent lubricant for the back of the neck. Works great on gloss or satin finishes. If you do take the finish down to the wood you may want to consider regular tratments of tung oil and wax. The wood needs to be protected from the elements and the dirt and grime from your hands.

hi , as has been said , a light sand with 1200 grit will get rid of the stickyness , i do it to my epiphone sg400 every now and then when it need it , usually just once a year if it needs it . on another point my old 89 mij std's neck is pretty worn but i've never thought of sealing it again , it was my main guitar for a long time and it was beat to hell , but i love the feel of the back of the neck the way it is , cheers
Alan

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well in reality if thats how it wore dwn.. the wood will be getting the benefit from the oil in your skin.. so its never really bare wood..

They've slightly changed the description of this product but it is still the same product. It is a woodworkers aid. Its intended purpose is to stabilize wood so that when you cut, shave or machine the wood the internal stresses of the wood are rendered frozen so it doesn't warp out of shape as you work it. It works by penetrating the wood and filling in the pores of the wood and then setting up to a hard transparent acrylic. It cuts and sands. It's about the same hardness as a typical hardwood and it will take a finish as well. If a person really truly needed to have bare wood on the back of his neck this product could keep dirt and sweat and crud from entering the wood's pores. I've never heard of it being used for this purpose but I can't think of any reason it couldn't work. Not that I think sanding a neck is a sane idea but if one wanted to ruin a perfectly good guitar this might be a viable option.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=20079&cat=1,190,42942

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

having read the product description.. it says this is for working with green wood.. wood that isnt dried.. i believe the point of this is to let it dry evenly rather than having an open spot onthe wood so it would dry quicker on one side than the other causing it to twist or warp.

i believe fender gibson etc kiln dry there wood negating the need for this product..

i have to say again ive been sanding necks for 45 years never had a problem doing that.. down to bare wood,, that i wouldnt do.. but ill never sand another since i discovered the bees wax..

hey that could be a good song... la la la