back of neck sanding

[jaco]

I know somefolks subscribe to this to avoid slipping around behind the neck. I believe quite a few fiddle/violins are set up this way as well. What are the pros and cons? I'm a bit nervous about having this done.

[rlw]

My best guess would be.

Pro - slick smooth as silk action with finish removed

Con - a neck more sensitive to humidity, contraction,
expansion and possibly warping.

[skippy]

If you don't like the sand paper idea.... you could just loan it to me for a year... My mandolin has the laquer warn off the back of the neck through a more organic process... my hands.

[twaaang]

Jaco, the idea isn't about "avoiding slipping around". On the contrary, some people find the stock lacquer finish too sticky against their hand, and have the lacquer removed in order to make it easier to slide the hand from one position to another. I had it done and haven't regretted it at all, they did a good job staining the revised area to blend in. -- Paul

[Michael H Geimer]

I bought mine used with an already stripped down neck. I like the feel, but I re-did the sanding to get better looking edges.

All-in-all, I like the feel and even the look now that it's done clean.

The neck is sealed with commercial tung oil, applied in moderation.

- Benig

[Steven]

Yup I cant play a mando if it doesnt have the naked neck routine done to it.Just by letting the mando sit in my left hand without gripping it at all I can pull the instument away from my body,its like a vacume to my hand and I hate it.I did both the necks on my Webers and left them completly bare but for a small bit of lemon oil to silken things up even more.The down side of all of this is you loose alot of resale value to most folks because too much is put on looking at these mandos than actually playing them.Maybe for some folks this is not a problem,lucky them because scraping off the finish with a razor blade then sanding it down is a real pain.

[montgomeryi]

Weber is debating making a tung-oil finish on the back of the neck an option. I'm having them do this to mine.

As far as "neck warping", the tung-oil "seals" the neck from moisture. It is part of maintaining the mando, you have to reapply lemon or tung oil (think: hardware store) every so often. Go to Carvin and download one of their bass or guitar manuals to see the procedure for maintaining a tung-oil finish. It should be steel-wooled to remove excess and then reapplied every now and then.

--Ian

[Stephen Perry]

The violin finishing sequence I use is 150 220 400 600 paper, then steel wool, then stain & linseed oil. On my own violins I'll go down through about 1500 grit.

[lloydlore]

I think it was on this site 80 years ago everyone was complaining about their oiled or unfinished necks and the new craze was nitrocellulose lacquer, smooth fast action kept the dirt and grime out, easy to clean and was low maintenance. Of course the downside was it ruined the value of the instrument.

[Philip Halcomb]

I had the same thing done, I sanded the finish off the neck then had a friend who is handy at finish work stain the sunburst back on there. Then I sealed it with tung-oil. Seems to work just fine and I haven't regretted it either.

-Philip

[katje]

I had it done to my Collings (my stomach did sink a bit when the process got started!) but have been really happy with it. I did it in part so that my left hand would move more smoothly, but also cause I was finding the 'V' at the back of the neck to be too sharp, and was giving me a really sore spot at the base of my index finger. I have no regrets! I was told to use Tru-Oil on it, which is for gunstocks.

[Jeffrey Lewis]

I did it to my Morgan Monroe about six monthes ago. It used microscope slides to get the thick laquer off, then fine sandpaper and steel wool. Then, I put about five coats of lemon oil on it, and it is great. The lemon oil don't get hard like Tung, Linseed, and Rue oils, but it keeps the wood nice and I have had no problems.