in the lab i work at we have a large UV tester that can put out 10 times the suns normal
UV radiation levels. does anyone have any experience aging satin poly necks this way? I got an 03 highway one strat with a super white maple neck that i would like to yellow a bit. would this approach have decent results? general opinions on this would be useful.

I'm not at your level of knowledge on the area, but that just doesn't sound like a good idea... I wouldn't do that to any of my guitars. Just play your guitar, and let it age naturally, ageing shows how long you have had the guitar and how much you play it, not that you bought it like that or made it like that in a lab. But if you want that, you could probably buy an after market neck, or a road worn guitar.

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"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
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2011 standard strat
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I have played it so much its almost due for a refret. it is just so white.... the neck looks like drift wood but it feels wonderful....... I finally wore all the clear coat off the frets and the back of the neck is now polished, along with several spots on the finger board. but it is just so darn white. it feels old and warn but it looks like driftwood :/ it just does not match the rest of the guitar well now. i do not want to re finish it because i like the feel so much so i just thought some sun rays would help. I really don't want to start all over again with a new neck lol

Hello bizarredude: in the instrument world UV is usually used to cure lacquer and varnish rather than to age it. So happens I've just been working in a violin making workshop where they have a nice UV cabinet for speeding up the varnishing process - though violin makers often hang an instrument finished "in the white" (not yet varnished) in sunlight for a few weeks so that the bare wood darkens a little, and exposure to intense UV is sometimes used for the same purpose.

However. I have a 2005 Strat that had a milky white neck when new - personally, I loved it for that. Now six years later that neck has definitely yellowed a touch, just with exposure to indirect daylight.

So I expect if you placed your Strat in a UV cabinet the same thing would happen, albeit quicker. How much quicker I don't know: you may have to leave it there for weeks or months - are you up for that?

If you do it please make a careful comparison between the neck as it is now and a graded color chart so that you can know for sure whether the UV produced the result you are looking for. And then report back to us: I for one would be curious to hear how it turns out for you.

Cheers - C

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A large UV tester isn,t something to many of us have sittin around

yea...... I didn't think about that


I wont get to try until next week though, running a product test currently.
but I will take plenty of photos during the process and update the thread with my results.

Sure,some people have them,they're called tanning beds.

I have a 1988 stratocaster plus. I oil the necks on all my guitars. I guess this attributes to yellowing. I've never had a problem doing this. I've oiled rosewood necks too. Some guitars I've had over 40 yrs.. I find it mellows the neck well with aging, and keeping it in great shape. Never had to refret a neck from sweat and dirt grinding them down. My stratocaster maple neck was stark white in 1988, but now nicely yellowed from age. It only took 15 yrs.

I say do it. Take the risk.

One thing to note, is that if you do, you give the neck even coverage of the UV light. Turn it over every now and then and keep a close eye on it. Nothing more funnier than seeing an aged to hell neck, and a brand spanking new rosewood fingerboard. IMO

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after bombarding the neck with extremely high levels of uv radiation on a rotation platform for a solid week. I see absolutely no change. it is ever so slightly darker but that it is probably just the wood burning under the clear i guess this natural process cannot be accelerated in this manner I am trying to locate a cheap beat up nitro finished neck to see how it reacts, so I will update the thread when I find one.

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How much power was waisted on this experiment. And who paid for it?

buy a cheap Squier or Warmoth and go to town!

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

I don't think they come in nitro do they? And I would never pay what it cost to have a warmoth finished just for an experiment lol

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Idk. Just do it for like 5 seconds on yours maybe.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Nitro? You said that the finish was poly. The highway one is only nitro on the body finish, not the neck. Poly will never show age in the same way that a nitro finish does.

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Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.