Roasted Flame Maple Neck—Finish or Not?

GuitarMadCap

Junior Member
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Should I finish my Roasted Flame Maple neck? I see that it’s not necessary but is it bad for wood longterm if it’s not finished.

How would unfinished feel compared to a standard maple neck with a satin finish?
 
“Burnish”? Like with steel wool? Should I do the neck and fretboard? They will both be Roasted Flame Maple.
 
Never bring steel wool close to a guitar
Yet another example of bad advice I got from my local guitar tech. He once told me to take steel wool to the back of the neck to buff out imperfections in the finish. It seemed questionable at the time—glad I didn’t try it.
 
Just as an option you can apply a pure Tung Oil finish to the roasted Maple. Helps with the dry feeling of the wood and doesn't make it "sticky". It does darken the color of the wood slightly, but it is dead simple to do.
 
I say do nothing to it and let it shine up with your playing. Absolutely. Now go out there and play.
 
Tru oil provides a nice light amber tint to roasted maple and helps make the figure pop.
IMG_6964.jpeg
This was sanded to 600, then three coats of tru oil, then sanded after curing to 2000 grit up followed steel wool and gunstock wax.

Very easy to do, and feels heavenly.

Having said that - here’s Warmoth vintage tint satin nitro on roasted maple. Really beautiful dark butterscotch sort of color, and feels great as is.

IMG_6656.jpeg
 
If you want the color to stand out applying oilis a good option. If you just want to enjoy the bare wood (no, not that :)j leave it as is - as I did on Coffee. Feels great.
 
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