Burnishing Raw Necks

[NovasScootYa]

Micro Mesh cloth sheets range from 1500 to 12,000 grit and work very well for a slick finish on wood, frets, etc.
Unfortunately exotic wood necks have the same dimensions as unfinished maple necks and unfinished maple necks are undersized to accommodate the additional thickness of a Warmoth applied finish or a customer required finish. For the profile of an exotic wood neck to feel correct either treat it like maple and apply a finish or convince Warmoth to add a minimum .006” thickness to the profiles of exotic wood necks.
I know .006” doesn’t sound like much but it means a neck with a finish is around .006” thicker on the bottom and .006” thicker per side. To feel the basic difference between finish and no finish simply apply strips of blue 3/4" painter’s tape to each side and along the bottom of an unfinished neck.

 

[Cagey]

You're kidding, right?

You're talking about the difference in the end result of a decision to jump out of a window from the 42nd vs. the 41st floor.

If you know people who can feel a few thousandths of an inch in neck thickness, you may want to widen your circle of friends  :laughing7:

 

[NovasScootYa]

Not so fast...Are you telling me that in your hands you cannot tell the difference between a finished neck that is .012" wider and .006" deeper? Apply the tape as suggested to your unfinished neck, play some cowboy chords for awhile, remove tape, play again and get back with me. :cool01:

 

[Cagey]

I can sense differences much smaller than that, but not in neck dimensions.

Imagine two blocks, one exactly 1" square, and one that's 1.006" square. Pick up one, set it down, then pick up the other, and tell me which is bigger. If you can sense that, you have some magical hands and are probably in the wrong business.

As it happens, I have a neck on the bench now that I'm going to burnish tomorrow. Out of curiosity, I'll measure it before and after the operation to see how much material is removed. I don't think it's that much, but we'll see.

 

[Updown]

:dontknow: I reckon i've lost .012" off my hands each week in guitar playing.

So I don't think I could feel that difference on my slick raw necks.  :guitarplayer2:

Back to burnishing my raw necks.  :icon_biggrin:

 

[NovasScootYa]

It's not rocket science...An instrument equipped with a neck such as an unfinished '59 Round-back will not have the correct slightly fuller feel of an instrument having a '59 Round-back with a finish applied. Unfinished necks are undersized which allows a manufacturer to apply their finish and bring the neck to profile specs. An exotic wood neck arrives with the same dimensions as a finish-required maple neck.

 

[elgravos]

Well I'm very confident I won't notice any difference!  Just reporting in as I've ordered a roasted maple neck which I'm impatient to go to town on.  That will replace the finished maple neck currently on my strat.  I simply can't deal with finished necks any more now that this is out there.  Cagey, you've turned me into an anti-finish snob.  Shame on you.

 

[bagman67]

Save your breath, elgravos.  Cagey's not a man for whom shame is a frequently felt emotion.  :icon_jokercolor:


But I know where you're coming from.  I'm pretty adaptable as a player, but I do wish my finished maple necks could feel more like my raw wood ones.

 

[Cagey]

Cagey, you've turned me into an anti-finish snob.  Shame on you.

Nonsense. It's just a different kind of finish that doesn't require the addition/application of any material. Think of it as an "organic, Earth-friendly" neck  :laughing7:

 

[bagman67]

Look who's goin' all crunchy-granola!  Must be awfully cold wearin' them Birkenstocks in Michigan.  Just sayin'.

 

[Cagey]

Save your breath, elgravos.  Cagey's not a man for whom shame is a frequently felt emotion.  :icon_jokercolor:

I was ashamed once. Once!​

 

[Cagey]

Look who's goin' all crunchy-granola!  Must be awfully cold wearin' them Birkenstocks in Michigan.  Just sayin'.

Gotta wear more than Birkenstocks if you wanna live in Michigan. We keep quilts on the beds even during the summer  :icon_biggrin:

 

[elgravos]

Going to have to grow my hair long and start playing guitar or something now... oh, wait a minute. 

The real bummer here is that I still really want to get a PRS at some stage and now I won't be able to get any option other than the rosewood neck so that I can have at it with my micromesh...  there goes another thousand bucks down the unfinished route; and I'm also plotting on finding a big enough rosewood blank to go to Precision Guitars folk to get them to build me a "raw" set neck LP as well.  Just hope Juszkiewicz won't have shut those guys down before I find the right chunk of wood / cash.  I seem to have a problem here.

 

[NovasScootYa]

On the other hand...Most anyone capable of building a "raw" Rosewood set-neck for a LP will follow the dimensions of a finished applied LP set neck. The thickness of the finish on an average LP neck should be around .008" which would make the neck .016" wider. Of course if the temporary, mesmerizing feel of most raw wood is all it takes to float your boat then such things as dimensions shouldn't matter.

 

[stubhead]

It's O-Kay for necks to feel different.... occasionally you find it taken to the absolute extreme, as in

"The neck on my very first Indonesian Squier strat turned out to be EXACTLY the perfect size for my hand and playing "style", and I need to find a luthier to duplicate it because I can't play any other guitar!"

Well, um.... no. The temptation to make certain inferences on these is almost overwhelming, like:

A) You don't even have a "style";
B) You'll make any guitar sound equally awful;
C) Yo Mama; etc.

But that would be mean. However, if different necks make you play differently, that's a GOOD thing.



I like "BIG" necks for a couple or reasons, tone & comfort, but there's still a bit of variation contained within the category "BIG."

 

[jackpax]

Can the polishing/burnishing treatment that Tonar does on his raw maple necks be done on Mahogany? I'm planning a Lester or SG type of build and was thinking of a classic mahogany neck. I've played a raw neck and couldn't believe how amazing it felt (It was a Rosewood neck short scale bass). I've only got one build in the budget and I'm torn between doing a classic Gibson all mahogany fiddle (which probably requires a neck finish) and throwing tradition out the window for a raw exotic. Can I have my cake and eat it too by polishing raw mahogany like Tonar's raw maple necks?

 

[Cagey]

It would be risky. Mahogany is like Maple in that it needs a hard finish or it's liable to warp/twist on you.

A very good replacement for Mahogany if you want a raw neck would be Goncalo Alves. Doesn't look quite the same, but it's very nice stuff. You could also do an Indian Rosewood part to similar effect and a closer match to the look.

It's also worth keeping in mind that the sound of Gibson LPs and SGs probably had as much to do with their neck attachment schemes as it did the wood species. LP necks are short, thick, and largely buried in the body, while SG necks were barely attached. In both cases they were glued on, which isn't exactly a tight joint even if it is strong.

 

[jackpax]

Thanks, Cagey. I was starting to lean towards giving up the devotion to a "classic" style for the sake of getting a raw neck. Your thoughts are helpful. And I was looking at Goncalo Alves.

 

[elgravos]

And here's some polished roasted quarter sawn maple... for science.

Took me a while to figure out that the green spot on the headstock in the second shot is a reflection of the diode on the speaker.  Thought it was some weird lens artifact.

 

[bagman67]

That's a handsome bit of work. THanks for sharing!