I am "ruining" my raw wenge neck

[Danuda]

I have finally decided enough is enough.  After having my new telecaster with a raw Wenge neck for almost a year I just don't like it.  I have found myself no longer playing the guitar and always grabbing my old one.  I just like the stick you get from a finished neck.  So I am finishing the Wenge.

I am not going to do grain filler.  I want to keep some of the character of the Wenge and a part of that is its open grain look.  So far I have just finished putting on the sanding sealer, but already I have to say it looks amazing.  The 'wet' look you get really deepens the color of the wood and makes it look nice.

The one thing I did do is mask off the face of the headstock.  So from the front you will still see that raw look which I really thought matched the guitar well.  I will take some pictures and post progress as I go along.  I am sure there has to be at least one other person who doesn't like the raw feel...maybe  :toothy11:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I dislike my Wenge neck too.  The feel is fine, but I don't like the sound.  I've had it on 2 different body woods with different pickups, and while they sounded different, the neck wood definitely asserted itself.  Yes, my amp has knobs, but if that alone could compensate for everything, all guitars would/could sound the same.

 

[croquet hoop]

I am really interested in seeing pictures of the work in progress.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

:icon_thumright: Fight the Tyranny of the majority! And while you do - show us some pics.

 

[BlueTalon]

I have finally decided enough is enough.  After having my new telecaster with a raw Wenge neck for almost a year I just don't like it.  I have found myself no longer playing the guitar and always grabbing my old one.  I just like the stick you get from a finished neck.  So I am finishing the Wenge.

I am not going to do grain filler.  I want to keep some of the character of the Wenge and a part of that is its open grain look.  So far I have just finished putting on the sanding sealer, but already I have to say it looks amazing.  The 'wet' look you get really deepens the color of the wood and makes it look nice.

The one thing I did do is mask off the face of the headstock.  So from the front you will still see that raw look which I really thought matched the guitar well.  I will take some pictures and post progress as I go along.  I am sure there has to be at least one other person who doesn't like the raw feel...maybe  :toothy11:

Interesting.  I'm doing exactly the opposite with my bubinga neck (with wenge fretboard) -- leaving the neck raw and shining up the headstock.

I dislike my Wenge neck too.  The feel is fine, but I don't like the sound.  I've had it on 2 different body woods with different pickups, and while they sounded different, the neck wood definitely asserted itself.

I'm curious, can you describe the effect it had that you didn't like?  And what kind of guitar(s) was it mounted to?

:icon_thumright: Fight the Tyranny of the majority! And while you do - show us some pics.

Absolutely agree with this!  I hate groupthink.  And even though I think he's crazy for wanting to stickify wenge, I support his willingness to go against the grain (bad pun intended).

 

[DangerousR6]

That's crazy, I have 2 wenge necks, would never entertain the thought of putting a finish on them. Just slick them up with sandpaper or #0000 steel wool... A finish is just blaspheme... :doh:

 

[hannaugh]

Is it harder to gloss finish exotic woods?  Just curious.  I personally wouldn't do it.  I don't like gloss necks for the same reason I don't like leather couches during the summer.  But I still want to see what it looks like finished, so please go for it!  :icon_thumright:

 

[BlueTalon]

Is it harder to gloss finish exotic woods?  Just curious.  I personally wouldn't do it.  I don't like gloss necks for the same reason I don't like leather couches during the summer.  But I still want to see what it looks like finished, so please go for it!  :icon_thumright:

You know what pen turning is?  People turning wood blanks about 5" x 3/4" x 3/4" to make pens.  It's apparently a hobby that has gotten a lot of traction.  Why is this relevant?  Because those wood blanks come in ALL kinds of wood now. 


I have been wanting to try finishing some stuff on my own, and I figured it was better to experiment on a $2 piece of wood than a $400 body or neck.


I got a bunch of different ones: bubinga, black korina, purple heart, bloodwood, zebra wood, wenge, & paduak.  I applied Formby's Tung Oil (varnish) by hand to the pen blanks with mostly positive results, but the wenge was easily the worst of the bunch.  It the finish looked ok where the grain was tight and one color and nondescipt -- but where the pattern opened up into that nice two-tone pattern, the finish didn't look good at all.  Instead of bringing out the contrasting grains the way it did in the other woods, it obscured them on the wenge.  Whereas before it was easy to see the pattern, with the finish on I had to look closely to see where the pattern was.


But as a result of my experiment, I decided to go ahead and finish the headstock on my bubinga neck.  It's not quite a full gloss, but it looks really nice, and will complement my bass build very well.  I only did the headstock, though, I'm not touching the neck itself.


The finish instantly added depth to all the woods except for the wenge and purple heart.  The purple heart looks nice, but it didn't have the same spectacular instant 3D response the others did.


BTW, I'll be posting pictures of the headstock and neck soon, so you can see for yourself how it turned out.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I dislike my Wenge neck too.  The feel is fine, but I don't like the sound.  I've had it on 2 different body woods with different pickups, and while they sounded different, the neck wood definitely asserted itself.

I'm curious, can you describe the effect it had that you didn't like?  And what kind of guitar(s) was it mounted to?

Originally, the Wenge/Ebony neck was on a chambered swamp ash body with EMG active Jazz pickups.  It is currently on a mahogany bodied Iceman with 2 passive MM style pickups with passive tone controls.

First off, I like my basses to sound flat or even bright before EQ'ing begins.  I find it leaves options in either direction to tweak mids; either boost or cut.  Maple seems to fit my needs for this.  Maple may be one of the most overdone and blandly appealing woods out there.  Supposedly, it was originally chosen for cost and availability.  If that's the case, then Leo lucked out.

Now, with amp EQ set flat and tone knob rolled all the way off and volume all the way up on the instrument, there is an extreme mid and low mid presence.  If you like the mid heavy, distorted, farty, modern bass tone, this is it, but trying to get that out is difficult.

 

[Cagey]

First off, I like my basses to sound flat or even bright before EQ'ing begins.  I find it leaves options in either direction to tweak mids; either boost or cut.  Maple seems to fit my needs for this.  Maple may be one of the most overdone and blandly appealing woods out there.  Supposedly, it was originally chosen for cost and availability.  If that's the case, then Leo lucked out.

I'm the same way with guitars. Let them produce the entire spectrum, and you can deal with the results after the fact. But, if they can't do something, you're stuck. EQ isn't likely to produce usable tones that barely or don't exist to start with.

 

[Danuda]

I took some pictures, but I will have to post them up later.  I am spraying the lacquer coats at the moment.

As far as sound.  I think matching the pickups to the overall sound the wood has on the guitar is the best option rather than trying to match wood to existing pickups.  Everything just sounds so slightly different.  With most modern day production pickups they are basically exactly the same everytime.  Something you can control.  A piece of wood has general characteristics, but they are inherently random.

 

[hannaugh]

Is it harder to gloss finish exotic woods?  Just curious.  I personally wouldn't do it.  I don't like gloss necks for the same reason I don't like leather couches during the summer.  But I still want to see what it looks like finished, so please go for it!  :icon_thumright:

You know what pen turning is?  People turning wood blanks about 5" x 3/4" x 3/4" to make pens.  It's apparently a hobby that has gotten a lot of traction.  Why is this relevant?  Because those wood blanks come in ALL kinds of wood now. 

My husband does that.  He just uses a tiny bit of oil on exotic stuff though, he hates high gloss finishes.  Purpleheart is probably the only one you've mentioned that I have ever seen in high gloss, and yeah I agree, it doesn't do that much for that particular wood. 

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I took some pictures, but I will have to post them up later.  I am spraying the lacquer coats at the moment.

As far as sound.  I think matching the pickups to the overall sound the wood has on the guitar is the best option rather than trying to match wood to existing pickups.  Everything just sounds so slightly different.  With most modern day production pickups they are basically exactly the same everytime.  Something you can control.  A piece of wood has general characteristics, but they are inherently random.

A lot of truth in there.  Although I had completely different pickups and body woods to compare, I can't infer necessarily that those choices are bad, just that particular body didn't work.  Also, it's arguing preferences.  While I didn't like the way it sounded, I let a friend play it at a jam, and he loved the sound.  Then again, his sound leans on boosted mids big time.

 

[Ddbltrbl]

That's crazy, I have 2 wenge necks, would never entertain the thought of putting a finish on them. Just slick them up with sandpaper or #0000 steel wool... A finish is just blaspheme... :doh:

+1  ???

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

That would make them slicker.  The original reasoning was that it was already too slick.

 

[Danuda]

Yep, that is the basic reasoning.  I just don't like the slick neck.  I find it gives me really bad hand cramps.  I have a tendency to anchor my thumb against the back of the neck.  The slick feel makes me feel unstable.  Like I am standing on an ice rink in shoes.  I end up gripping harder to keep my thumb planted and then my hand cramps up. With a finished neck I just feel solid and I can relax.  I thought I would be able to get over it, but a year of playing with it and not improvement made me come to this decision.

 

[Danuda]

Finally had time to upload a couple of pictures.

This first one is with just a sanding sealer on.



This second picture is with 3 coats of deft lacquer.



The lighting is pretty poor, but you can see the effect I am getting.  I like that I didn't completely fill the grain.  I could have, but something about keeping a little of that deep open grain look appealed to me.  The "wet" look you get I think looks amazing.  I will have to get some better, in the sunlight, pictures when I finish.

 

[Cagey]

I sure hope that ends up returning the results you're looking for.

 

[AutoBat]

If it doesn't turn out well you could always find an aspiring art major to paint on some binding.

 

[Danuda]

Yeah, using latex paint and a 3 inch brush.