Burnishing Raw Necks

[Patrick from Davis]

Naphtha is getting harder to get in some parts of the country (Environmental).  Benzene is a chemical compound, and a name used for organics rather generically.  It is Gasoline in Germany, and cyclic organics elsewhere.  Coleman camp fuel is similar to Naphtha if you can't find naphtha at the hardware store.  Also Zippo lighter fluid is naphtha (Ronsonol) as well, but rather pricey.  But, they are solvents that will wet the sandpaper, and float away with a little time.
Patrick

 

[AgentPotato]

I just finished to polish my all pau ferro neck and thought I'd share a picture. I am very pleased with the outcome and quite frankly didn't expect it to feel that awesome.
It is hard to believe that the tuning mashines mirror in a not painted neck

I hope it shows the attached picture, since it doesn't preview it

 

[Cagey]

The picture showed up, and it looks great! Good job!

 

[DustyCat]

Just an update, I applied the progressive polishing paper technique posted by Cagey to my padouk neck about 6 months ago or so. I was worried because afterwards, if you looked closely, you could see micro scratches, not what you would see upon first arrival straight from the factory and out of the box.

Well, I put in some hours playing it over the months, and the wood seems to have "normalized" from the friction and sweat and now I am proud to say that the micro scratches from amateur sanding/polishing have really disappeared and the neck is the cat's meow.  :headbang1:

Ill try to post some pics, but the light in my place is pretty dark for good camera shots.
I got some other necks I plan to give the time to in the near future.
Great tip!

 

[Cagey]

You shouldn't be able to see any abrasive marks by the time you get to the 2000 grit. It should look almost like wood-grained glass. If there are marks left, they'll be from early in the process, where they weren't removed in the next step. Once you get into the finer grits, it's difficult to remove scratches - the paper just doesn't cut enough.

 

[6stringer]

Hey, here's a dumb question: Do you burnish the fingerboards as well, or just the back of the neck?

 

[croquet hoop]

That would be impractical to do (ask those who sand/polish the finish on a maple fingerboard). Besides, on that side of the neck, what matters is that the frets are polished, not the wood between them.

 

[Cagey]

It's not a dumb question. But, no. Can't really do the fretboard with frets on it. I did do one - the L5S in my sig - but I bought it without frets and did it myself. You can see a bit of that work here if you're interested.

The problem is the frets get in the way. You'll wreck the frets themselves, plus they keep you from getting close. It's a nice effect if you do it the way I did, but you gotta wanna do fretwork. It's not terribly tough; it's just time-consuming and you need the appropriate tools. The results are great, though.

 

[6stringer]

It's not a dumb question. But, no. Can't really do the fretboard with frets on it. I did do one - the L5S in my sig - but I bought it without frets and did it myself. You can see a bit of that work here if you're interested.

The problem is the frets get in the way. You'll wreck the frets themselves, plus they keep you from getting close. It's a nice effect if you do it the way I did, but you gotta wanna do fretwork. It's not terribly tough; it's just time-consuming and you need the appropriate tools. The results are great, though.

Thanks Cagey! So, I take it that it would be "bad" to sand cross-grain on the fingerboard to try and avoid the frets?

 

[Cagey]

Yeah, you don't want to do that. Again, you'll tear up the frets, and sanding against the grain never works out well.

Although, you do grind/sand/polish frets perpendicular to the fretboard grain so they're fairly quiet. Otherwise, they'll make a lotta noise. You can hear it on the first few bars of Jimi Hendrix's intro to "Foxy Lady" - frets are noisy as hell.

 

[stubhead]

Although, you do grind/sand/polish frets perpendicular to the fretboard grain so they're fairly quiet.

This needs to be trumpeted from the ramparts, engaged as a Mega_Sticky that even the NSA will like, branded on the foreheads of luthier wannabees (backwards so they can read it in the mirror).

The reason being: there are actually a few "tutorials" on the net designed to show you how easy it is to CROWN frets - going the long way! And one in particular is nicely written & formatted, a toetul lak uf speeling defucts, etc. Nice pictures, chummy older brother language - and the guy is advocating wasting probably 1/3 of the metal left after they're leveled the long way. It's easy to see how somebody could generate this idea - "the lazy man's guide to ruining your neck".... But they're dangerous, slop-headed and they need to be hunted down & eliminated! As qvuikly as pozzible!!! Lemme just find my Ted Nugent decoder ring, I know I've got my death ray in here somewhere.... safari time!  :headbang1:

 

[Tele-me about it]

WOW!!  So glad I joined this forum and saw this since I'm considering a build from Warmoth within the month.  Was planning on tru-oiling, but this way sounds much better for my prospective wood choices! Now after reading this, I have just a couple of questions...

Body plan:
All Wenge T-bass, hollow body w/ F-hole, ivoroid binding

Neck plan:
T-bass neck, fretless Pau Ferro board on Goncalo Alves (still deciding if I want binding or not)

~Firstly, would there be any inherent problems with trying to burnish the body?  I did read that another person had done it to a wenge NECK, but now I'm curious if it's plausible for the other half of the equation to have the same treatment.
~Secondly, I saw a lot of people saying you shouldn't do the fingerboards because of the frets being in the way, but what if it's a fretless bass neck?  Would the flatwound strings of a bass ruin any burnishing done on a fretless fingerboard?

Edit: Just went to the T-bass body builder and Wenge wasn't listed as an available core-wood for some reason.  In the event it's not possible to have by the time I order, what if the core was Black Korina with a Wenge laminate?

 

[bagman67]

Two things -


1.  Just because wenge doesn't show up in the builder does not mean it's unavailable.  Try telephoning Warmoth.  You can certainly burnish an exotic-lumber body just as you would a neck. 


2.  You can certainly polish the fretless board, but depending on your playing style and string choices (roundwound vs. flats vs. tape wound, etc.) you may not enjoy that shine for long. 


Sounds like you've got a fun axe planned.  Looking forward to seeing it materialize.


Peace




Bagman

 

[stubhead]

I spent more time playing bass in bands than any other instrument, the last twenty years or so militantly fretless (yes it CAN punch), so:

Although pao ferro is my favorite wood for fretted instruments, I have a fretless with pao ferro and another with ebony, and I think the ebony sounds better in the important categories. And I only use flatwound D'Addario "Chromes" on them, there's some kind of masochism involved in sticking Rotosound or other stainless steel roundwounds on a fretless - like, duh... (?) There's such a wider degree in difference between various bass strings (compared to the regular choices in guitar strings) that I almost think that's the first order of experimentation to get out of the way; knowing that I was going to be using the D'Addario "Chromes" had some effect on other decisions on these two. But, I do like pretty much simple basses, no "mixing boards on a board" EQ's and all that. I'm afraid of instruments that are smarter than me....

 

[Day-mun]

Ernie Ball group II nickel flat-wound's don't screw with my ebony 'board.

DO NOT PUT ON ROUND-WOUND'S!

TAPE-WOUND'S SUCK! -SOUND LIKE SNAPPY MUD, AND THEY ARE NOT CONDUCTIVE; YOUR HANDS CAN'T "GROUND" THE STRINGS SO THE BASS BUZZES JUST LIKE WHEN IT IS PLUGGED IN WITH THE VOLUME UP WHILE SITTING ON THE STAND. -THE WHOLE TIME. -EVEN WHILE YOU PLAY. -JUST DON'T DO IT.

 

[Tele-me about it]

Been doing a lot of thinking since yesterday...  I dont think I'd trust myself to sand around the f-hole.  With my luck I'd probably turn it into into an I-hole or something, haha!

Ebony actually was a strong contender for my board choice, but I figured I'm planning a SSB for in the distant future using one and I like the idea of not crossing woods  :dontknow: Saw a couple vids with a pau ferro fretless board and, though I dont know anything besides my bongo5, thought the tone was nice.  I'm glad you mentioned the chromes Stub!  Was kinda on the fence between rotos and them, actually, but then I searched for and found this great comparison vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R2LOXMqyg8 and they sound so much... cleaner, i want to say?

and yup, avoiding roundwounds and nylons like the plague.  Nylon tapes sound cool, but I've heard way too many horror stories about them.  Never considered the grounding issue... just one more reason to stay away I guess!

But anywho, I guess I'll just burnish the neck.  Sounds like it'd be the smartest thing to do, for me at least.

 

[bagman67]

You can avoid deforming the edge of the f-hole by using a flat, firm rubber sanding block.

 

[Cagey]

Check out Dura-Blocks. Highly recommended. Coupled with the proper papers, you can get finishes that are show-worthy.

 

[Day-mun]

Thanks , guys for the recommendations! when I started lurking on this thread, I didn't know I'd get some of my unanswered questions answered. the dura-block will be worth pickin' up; got a body refinishing project coming up. Also, the link to the flat-wound string comparison was great! my nickel flats are okay, but I've been wishing for that clean-ness that Tele-me was talking about. Roto chromes will be my next set fo' sho'!  :icon_thumright:

 

[Phaedrus]

Hey(=

First of, this is my first message, so..Umm..Hi?

Anyhow, I've just recently bought my first set of Warmoth parts. this is my first ever build, and besides doing most of my set - up by my self I have no expirience with "working on" a guitar.
Still, thankfully it wasn't an impulse decision, so I had a lot of time to read before and after making the order (;

To the point-
I got a beautyful bloodwood raw neck. I saw what you wrote here while wating for it to arrive and got in the meantime 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000 grit wet - papers.
After reading I still couldn't figure out:
a. Are all the grits needed?
b. should I run the papers dry? Wet? With water? With alcohol?
c. Just to make sure- no need what so ever for a finish/oil? If it matters I got the pro construction.
d. Did someone ever write a guide for doing this? From reading here it seems fairly simple, and being that I have no previous experience I would love any detailed instructions that will guide me through.

Any tips would be great!