Neck Finishes

  • Thread starter Thread starter ibanezrocks
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ibanezrocks

ibanezrocks

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All my electric guitar playing life I have played on unpainted maple necks, and now that I have an SG the finish on the neck feels wierd. I have no problem with the shape of the neck, just the feel of the finish, and I really like the feel of the Godin LG necks which are unpainted but still mahogany. Is it easy to refinish a neck from a painted one to a Godin type finish, and how would I go about doing that?
 
Is this SG new or old? If it's old I would remove the strings and buy some Naptha, put it to cloth and give the rosewood a good rubdown. Don't saturate the neck. You can dip a toothbrush in it and scrub up close to the frets in order to get any deep inbedded dirt.
 
Sorry I should have clarified, I was specifically referring to the BACK of the neck, not the fretboard.
 
nitro can be sticky, especially compared to cheaper poly finishes, which are essentially plastic when they dry. Nitro is a lacquer and really never hardens fully. The trick is to keep it really clean and keep your hands really clean before playing. But that's in a perfect world.

You can try sanding it with really fine sandpaper, like 1500 or 2000 grit. Really fine. But keeping it clean does wonders for a nitro neck.

3 Gibson SG's and counting,
H2H
 
You can simply sand the finish off the neck and put on a tung oil finish, which is very simple and smmmmoooooooooooovvvvvvvve, baby.

Here's a guitar kit manual that describes how to do a tung oil finish.

Please be aware that you will adversely affect the value of the guitar.
 
You might give the neck a good rub down with 0000 steel wool, this will give you more of a satin finish rather than a slick one. Also if you ever decide to sell, the neck can be polished and buffed back to its original shine so it wont adversely affect the value. I have to agree, the plastic feeling finish which is used on lots of new guitars feels awful, it may be durable but from a player's point of view it leaves something to be desired.
 
Sorry I didnt respond sooner. So no one knows what kind of finish the godin necks have?
The tung oil way seems to be simple enough, but are you sure it works for mahogany necks? and are there any examples of popular guitars that I have played that have that kind of finish on the neck either maple or mahogany?
 
ibanezrocks said:
...but are you sure it works for mahogany necks?
Click to expand...

The guys on the Carvin BBS with tung on mahogany really like it.
 
Thats one (of many) reasons I sold my Gibson SG....I can't stand that "tacky" feel of the back of the neck. If you sand it off, it knocks the value off the guitar. Sell it and buy one that feels better.
 
no I love the guitar, and it was slightly used when I got it, I'm going to try the tung oil finish.
 
I probably won't get around to it for a couple of weeks, but I'll be sure to post about it when I can.
 
Linseed oil feels amazing. Get it sanded down with 400+ grit (I used 500 on mine), slap two coats on it and man, does it feel good.
 
ok I promise this is the last question, so all I have to do is sand off the old finish by hand? what grit of sand paper would I use for that, and then what grit would I use right before applying the tung oil and between coats? how thick should each coat be? and how much should I sand between coats?

well I guess that wasnt the last question, but it was the last 4.
 
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