Friends
I have a problem with my brandnew American Deluxe HSS Strat (manufactured in 2011).
She has a maple neck with a silky finish.
When I have to grip firmly e.g. When bending 1 1/2 steps the movement of the bending
And supporting fingers on the fretboard as well as my thumb on the edge / backside of the
neck produce crunchy wooden noises. Has nothing to do with frets or strings, the varnish
seems to block the friction between fingers and neck.
I already tried a product 'fast fret' but it didnt help too much...

Does anybody know about this?
Is it because the guitar is brandnew and the noise will dissappear by time?
Or does anybody know some remedies to get the finish of the neck more slippy?

Thanks Roland

Welcome Roland.

First off, stop with the Fast Fret. It is a gimmick which in the long run will crud up your frets, strings and fingerboard. It will get to the point of where all three will become addicted to the stuff in the sense that you'll have to keep dumping more and more on to keep everything slick. Wipe it all off the best you can.

On to your root problem: What you are experiencing is common with a new maple fingerboard. The finish is sprayed on the fingerboard after the frets are installed. So, when you bend the strings, the strings are grinding the finish off the frets. This is normal and will work itself out with normal playing. If you want to accelerate the removal, you can keep bending until the crunching is gone wherever or use your pick to chip off the finish wherever you see it glazed on a fret. No, it won't chip it off the fingerboard while doing so. Some choose to have a light fret level (or light grind and polish) to get rid of it all in one shot. Personally, I find this a bit of 'overkill' though.

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Thanks Rock Star,

This is great news

I'll waste the Fast Fret immediately and proceed as you wrote.

Keep on rockin'

Roland

Glad to help; enjoy!

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