I’m surprised you didn’t finish with something like 1200 grit. But I will follow your lead. I just bought a beautiful maple neck and it is way too slow! Thanks!!
You may not have noticed, but right below the volute is the scarf joint of this guitar's neck (i have this same Ibanez model, satinized) and that's why there are those dents which need more sanding.
I just got a $3700 guitar and here I am. Amazing I even have to do this after paying so much (well, I didn't pay that much, that is the sale price at retailers). Especially considering my $400 Revstar already has it done, and beautifully.
@@MetalHeadMarc - agreed. I've never been blown away over a guitar my entire life like I have been with the Revstar. Mine felt like a custom shop model. Lowest action I've ever felt, fast neck, great sound. Amazing. I'm glad not everyone and their mother is buying one
Agree, love the neck on my Revstar and will use this technique on my Epi 339. I’m removing the tuners and will sand the entire back of the neck like the Revstar.
@@christhompson5553 - Nice. Yeah man Revstar really changed my expectations of quality for money. One mod I made to mine and I highly recommend is slapping on a Duesenberg Diamond Deluxe short tremolo. It's the best trem ever made for these types of guitars. So superior to Bigsby it's not even comparable. Smooth as silk, looks amazing, stays in tune like you wouldn't believe. I could only find them in Europe though but worth the hassle of overseas shipping. If you get it, make sure you get the short one, the long one won't fit. You could also get the "les trem" version but to me that isn't very sexy
Hi. I´ll do this job for confort first, the idea is avoid a sticky neck. The issue is that devalues the instrument, if you want to sell It or trade down the road, you´ll regeret IT. I woldn´t do It to an expendive guitar, even a mid level, If this is an Ibanez GIO that´s OK, but to a Les Paul or PRS no way IMHO
I use to take off the painting material. Pure clean wood is amazing to play. Amazing playability. Easy to just sandpaper off the dirt when it becomes dirty.
Thirty minutes of "one last pass"es LOL Been there so many times. Recently stripped an old guitar of all paint and treated the neck with tung oil, liking it so far. My four main guitars may go from occasionally getting a new scuff sanding like this, to instead being altogether stripped. Well, the maple ones anyway. Not sure about mahogany bare. What do you think? Would you go all the way to a mahogany neck or leave it and just occasionally resand?
You do not need to. This process only scuffs the clear poly finish, so if done correctly the poly finish is still there covering the paint and no oils or water can make it to the paint, much less the wood
No oil needed but a little bit of carnauba wax where it was sanded and a good buffing does good. Honestly though, if you just play it a couple of times all over the neck, the oils on your skin will get rid of the dusty/cloudy look and it will just be smooth satin
I wipe down the neck, strings and tuners with a drop of body cleaner on a soft cloth after playing, then a short hard buff with a fibre cloth (sometimes under the strings to buff the frets and wipe the board). Takes about one minute on a quickie and three for a good one, then this is non-necessaire. And the strings stay bright. On one vintage strat, the neck stays smooth and I haven't changed the strings for over two years. But, I guess it's only a lump of wood... For serious work, say on a bought used axe, good vid though. Bit tricky if you want to sell an axe maybe.
@southeast guitar repair Why not create a rounded tape line that matches the body of the guitar and would look more like a natural wear line from a hand vs the hard edge created with the straight across tape? A little more 'artistry' could be applied to make it look more like natural wear.
I did this to a bunch of my guitars before. Didn’t use that much care though ha ha. I’ll tell you it takes a lot of nerve to start dragging sandpaper across a NM guitar neck! One I started on a MIM Telecaster I did it to all my guitars at the time. Including a Brand New Gibson LP! That took nerve but I was happier for it. I lost my nerve for it on my more expensive guitars I’ll admit. I have an American Vintage ll that could probably use it.
I have been trying to bring m,yself to do this to my new 7 string MS Schecter. I know I will be glad I did, but man.......Its hard to breing myself to do it
If it's a polyurethane finish unless you just burn through to the paint or wood with a powered sander or something you can just wet sand and buff the finish back out to gloss if you don't like it
Basically poly finishes are just hardened plastic epoxy. The ones they spray on guitars are sometimes well over 3/8" thick. They really lay the mils of coating on because they want the finish to be durable. You're maybe going down two or three mils of polyurethane by hand sanding it, not even remotely close to getting out of the poly and into color or wood
These poly finishes are thick. Like..... extremely thick. Even on the necks. It can be sanded through to the paint itself but it would take a good bit of sanding by hand to do it. Using a powered sander might eat through far quicker versus hand sanding. But they commonly spray it thick to the point that stripping a poly finish guitar can often be a really rough thing to tackle. Basically the finish is a plastic epoxy that dries as hard as a rock. I don't actually know why they spray it so thick but a lot of inexpensive or mid level guitars that get racked in stores for long periods of time have poly finishes I think because the manufacturers hope they look all shiny and new in the store after being handled or moved around over and over. Poly finishes downfall is that they are heavy, far too glossy (unless thick gloss is your bag) and sticky as hell to the touch. But its ultra durable, hence why it would normally take an awful lot of aggressive sanding to get even close to the paint layer.
The poly finish is still there and the wood is still very much sealed. Even if it wore through to bare wood unless it was a huge spot it wouldn't really hurt anything, just look like a neck with a worn through finish
Yeah, this video is exactly how they do it in guitar factories. Scotchbrite is too aggressive and leaves nasty scratches and looks (and worse, feels) like garbage. He is doing this for a customer, and if a shop just went at my guitar with a piece of wet dish scour pad and tried to charge me for it I would sue them until their business closed 🤣
I did this to an Epiphone LP. Pretty much the same method shown here. Worked great, plays better!
Excellent!
Really useful tutorial. I like the way you marked out the extremes with masking tape.
Glad it was helpful!
I’m surprised you didn’t finish with something like 1200 grit. But I will follow your lead. I just bought a beautiful maple neck and it is way too slow! Thanks!!
You may not have noticed, but right below the volute is the scarf joint of this guitar's neck (i have this same Ibanez model, satinized) and that's why there are those dents which need more sanding.
best tutorial out there super detailed idk why hasnt this vid got many views. anyways very helpfull thank you so much
Glad it helped!
Thanks man…I feel confident I can do this on my own now…Great video
You can do it!
Really nice work. That looks great.
I just got a $3700 guitar and here I am. Amazing I even have to do this after paying so much (well, I didn't pay that much, that is the sale price at retailers). Especially considering my $400 Revstar already has it done, and beautifully.
I love my Revstar, especially how Yamaha did the neck. Too many players are sleeping on Yamaha
@@MetalHeadMarc - agreed. I've never been blown away over a guitar my entire life like I have been with the Revstar. Mine felt like a custom shop model. Lowest action I've ever felt, fast neck, great sound. Amazing. I'm glad not everyone and their mother is buying one
Agree, love the neck on my Revstar and will use this technique on my Epi 339. I’m removing the tuners and will sand the entire back of the neck like the Revstar.
@@christhompson5553 - Nice. Yeah man Revstar really changed my expectations of quality for money. One mod I made to mine and I highly recommend is slapping on a Duesenberg Diamond Deluxe short tremolo. It's the best trem ever made for these types of guitars. So superior to Bigsby it's not even comparable. Smooth as silk, looks amazing, stays in tune like you wouldn't believe. I could only find them in Europe though but worth the hassle of overseas shipping. If you get it, make sure you get the short one, the long one won't fit. You could also get the "les trem" version but to me that isn't very sexy
Lovely job. I do this to my double basses. It stops heating fatigue in It’s tracks!
Best example I jave seen on RUclips.
Heating = hand 🤷♂️
Hi. I´ll do this job for confort first, the idea is avoid a sticky neck. The issue is that devalues the instrument, if you want to sell It or trade down the road, you´ll regeret IT. I woldn´t do It to an expendive guitar, even a mid level, If this is an Ibanez GIO that´s OK, but to a Les Paul or PRS no way IMHO
Should you tape the binding ad well?
Will this work on a finished/clear coated maple neck? Looks awesome!
Well done. Do you do this on maple poly fingerboards?
Did you only use 800 grit sandpaper?
Any benefit with a final 1000 grit pass?
I use to take off the painting material. Pure clean wood is amazing to play. Amazing playability. Easy to just sandpaper off the dirt when it becomes dirty.
And leavimg the wood open to moisture can cause the neck to warp, at least oil it. There is a reason a finish is put on.
Thirty minutes of "one last pass"es LOL Been there so many times. Recently stripped an old guitar of all paint and treated the neck with tung oil, liking it so far. My four main guitars may go from occasionally getting a new scuff sanding like this, to instead being altogether stripped. Well, the maple ones anyway. Not sure about mahogany bare. What do you think? Would you go all the way to a mahogany neck or leave it and just occasionally resand?
Great video, thanks for the lesson. One question....shouldn't you apply a layer or two or some sort of oil, like Tru Oil to protect it?
You do not need to. This process only scuffs the clear poly finish, so if done correctly the poly finish is still there covering the paint and no oils or water can make it to the paint, much less the wood
No oil needed but a little bit of carnauba wax where it was sanded and a good buffing does good. Honestly though, if you just play it a couple of times all over the neck, the oils on your skin will get rid of the dusty/cloudy look and it will just be smooth satin
I wipe down the neck, strings and tuners with a drop of body cleaner on a soft cloth after playing, then a short hard buff with a fibre cloth (sometimes under the strings to buff the frets and wipe the board). Takes about one minute on a quickie and three for a good one, then this is non-necessaire. And the strings stay bright. On one vintage strat, the neck stays smooth and I haven't changed the strings for over two years. But, I guess it's only a lump of wood... For serious work, say on a bought used axe, good vid though. Bit tricky if you want to sell an axe maybe.
Cool video, I just wax it. However, many necks need this treatment. Lol
800 grit only?
You can use 600 too, but just dont get too skookum with it.
@southeast guitar repair Why not create a rounded tape line that matches the body of the guitar and would look more like a natural wear line from a hand vs the hard edge created with the straight across tape? A little more 'artistry' could be applied to make it look more like natural wear.
We do a clean line unless the client asks for additional work.
The option is available if the client wants to invest in the additional labor costs.
I did this to a bunch of my guitars before. Didn’t use that much care though ha ha. I’ll tell you it takes a lot of nerve to start dragging sandpaper across a NM guitar neck! One I started on a MIM Telecaster I did it to all my guitars at the time. Including a Brand New Gibson LP! That took nerve but I was happier for it. I lost my nerve for it on my more expensive guitars I’ll admit. I have an American Vintage ll that could probably use it.
I have been trying to bring m,yself to do this to my new 7 string MS Schecter. I know I will be glad I did, but man.......Its hard to breing myself to do it
If it's a polyurethane finish unless you just burn through to the paint or wood with a powered sander or something you can just wet sand and buff the finish back out to gloss if you don't like it
Basically poly finishes are just hardened plastic epoxy. The ones they spray on guitars are sometimes well over 3/8" thick. They really lay the mils of coating on because they want the finish to be durable. You're maybe going down two or three mils of polyurethane by hand sanding it, not even remotely close to getting out of the poly and into color or wood
Do you end up sealing the exposed area now, or does it still have some poly still on it?
These poly finishes are thick. Like..... extremely thick. Even on the necks. It can be sanded through to the paint itself but it would take a good bit of sanding by hand to do it. Using a powered sander might eat through far quicker versus hand sanding. But they commonly spray it thick to the point that stripping a poly finish guitar can often be a really rough thing to tackle. Basically the finish is a plastic epoxy that dries as hard as a rock. I don't actually know why they spray it so thick but a lot of inexpensive or mid level guitars that get racked in stores for long periods of time have poly finishes I think because the manufacturers hope they look all shiny and new in the store after being handled or moved around over and over. Poly finishes downfall is that they are heavy, far too glossy (unless thick gloss is your bag) and sticky as hell to the touch. But its ultra durable, hence why it would normally take an awful lot of aggressive sanding to get even close to the paint layer.
The poly finish is still there and the wood is still very much sealed. Even if it wore through to bare wood unless it was a huge spot it wouldn't really hurt anything, just look like a neck with a worn through finish
What did you wipe on it at the end? The yellow bottle?
naphtha
And your done? Did you put anything back on the neck?
That's it for this one. Client wants the speed.
@@southeastguitarrepair1456 notwhistanding that, what other additional treatments/enhancements you can do on top of this?
Why not cup the sand paper so as to sand evenly? You keep using your finger tips when you should be using the palm of your hand.
Thought he would blend and polish...
We will if that is what the client wants to pay for.
I wear a mask when I do this.
Yes that is the preferred way, for us we needed to speak during the video so he took one for the team.
1 min wih a wet green scotch brite does the same thing 😀😀
useless tuto
Difference is our work looks good. That botched scuff sand is fine for a junk guitar.
Yeah, this video is exactly how they do it in guitar factories. Scotchbrite is too aggressive and leaves nasty scratches and looks (and worse, feels) like garbage. He is doing this for a customer, and if a shop just went at my guitar with a piece of wet dish scour pad and tried to charge me for it I would sue them until their business closed 🤣