Improving playability of glossy neck...

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pennylink

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I play a Larrivee DV-09 acoustic (cutaway dreadnought with rosewood back/sides and sitka spruce top). Love everything about the guitar, except the back of the mahogany neck is a high gloss finish, which tends to feel "gummy" or sticky sometimes, slowing down movement up and down the neck.

Does anyone have a remedy for this other than refinishing the neck?

If refinishing the neck is the only remedy, can a satin finish be applied on top of the high gloss, or does it have to be stripped first?

Thanks for any advice :)
 
Yeah, certain types of wood polishes will leave it gummy. Pledge usually takes care of it though, just try to stay away from other, thicker polishes/cleaners.
 
Farview said:
clean the neck, then hit it with something like pledge.
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NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!
NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!
NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!
NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!
NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!
NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!
NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!
NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!
NOT PLEDGE!!!!!!!


Pledge has silicon in it, which will ruin the finish of a guitar. Use a good quality guitar polish. I recommend Powerchord by Bioterra Industries, but the Keyser stuff is OK, and the GHS stuff is real nice too. Just do not EVER use furniture finish for a guitar.

It is possible you guitars finish has some kind of silicon problems. It has a light cured urethane finish, so I am not an expert in what exactly could cause the problem you are having. It may not have cured properly, though I seriously doubt that. But the fix for that is pretty easy, so give it a try. Put it out side face down, in direct sunlight, on a sunny day for 10 minutes. 2 minutes would be enough, but heck, give it the extra 8. You are not going to hurt anything, as long as you protect the top from getting scratched.

The real problem with trying to refinish the neck is that I am not sure how well lacquer would stick to the finish which is on there. This is particularly an issue if you already have a silicon infection in the finish. If I were doing it, I would feel the need to spray a coat of shellac first. Shellac sticks to most anything, but I am not sure how it would work in this case.

As you can tell from my rather meandering answer, there is not a real good answer to the problem. I would find a repair person you trust, and talk to them about it. It may be possible to just wet-sand it back with 320 grit, and leave it at that. But I just don't know without seeing it.

The other thing I would look into is a guy by the name of Michael Dresdner. He used to do weekly chats on wood finishing issues. If he is still doing it, you might see if you can get him to give you some insight on your problem. Michael is the most knowledgeable guy in the world on wood finishes, as near as anyone can tell. He was also the driving force behind the design of Tacoma guitars. He has a lot of experience in every level of the guitar building business, from small shop hand made instruments, all the way up to large factories. I believe he even consulted with Larivee when they switched over to the light catalyzed finish they are now using.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light, I was hoping you would chime in. Thanks!

No worries, I've never lathered it up with any silicon-containing products. Except when being played, the guitar has been kept in its case since I bought it new about a year ago from a dealer who had just received it from the factory.

By coincidence I own a book on finishing by Michael Dresdner. Although it doesn't get into guitar applications specifically I might read through it again when I get home tonight to see if I can pick up on anything that might apply to my situation.

Just to clarify, the glossy finish on the neck just feels tacky (definitely more so than on my other guitars), but it doesn't actually seem to have gone soft.
 
You could also try and dull the finish down using really fine steel wool. The kind that is so fine that it looks like little hairs. 000 or 0000 maybe?
 
randyfromde said:
You could also try and dull the finish down using really fine steel wool. The kind that is so fine that it looks like little hairs. 000 or 0000 maybe?
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Steel wool is not nearly as good as wet or dry sand paper (used wet). OOOO is too fine, and OOO is too corse.

You also want to be extremely carful with this, as you can sand through the finish. With a catylzed finish, if you sand through, you are totally fucked. Caution is very important.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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