Thinking I might have to do a speed neck

[B381]

Having hard time doing slides more than one fret, but those are clean. Glossy finish on the neck seems to equal a sticky neck.

Not thinking to bare wood though. Would steel wool down to a matte finish suffice?

Post some pictures, tell some experiences before I do this.....

[JeffD]

One of my mandolins has been speed necked (before I got it) and I love it. I am skeptical that it solves any specific problems, but it sure makes a few things easier.

[Marty Jacobson]

I speednecked my mandolin. The next day, my boss offered me a 30% raise.

Ok, for real, a speed neck does feel nice. Unless you do it to bare wood and then re-seal, it is not really a speed neck. It's just a roughed-up varnish. Which can be OK. If you're on the fence, try Micro-Mesh at 2400 grit (black) and see how that goes. You can, from there, go down to bare wood, or polish back up to gloss with no problems either way.

[foldedpath]

A light scrubbing with steel wool to a matte finish will help avoid "stiction" from a glossy neck finish.* It gets you about halfway to what a bare neck feels like, and that might be enough to avoid any trouble you're having. Bare wood, or wood with a small amount of sealant to avoid dirt, will give you the most smooth and "satin" feel.

I removed the finish from my mandolin neck years ago, with just a bit of Tung oil to seal against dirt and with an added drop of amber stain to boost the process of the neck yellowing down from bare white. I like the way it feels. It was also a way of committing to ownership, because I wouldn't have done that on a mandolin I wasn't pretty sure was a keeper.

* Sometimes an instrument is sold with a neck finish that hasn't completely cured, and is always a little sticky no matter how old it is. I had a guitar like that. Nothing you can do except remove the finish or re-do with a new finish.

[dang]

Do it, I am having a speed neck put on my oval hole Collings MT2 right now. I have 2 other mandos with speed necks and I felt the oval needed it too, because I liked the feel so much less then the others.

[lflngpicker]

It does depend on the finish, I would think, also. Depending on which mandolin you are doing this with, it would be more feasible in one case or another. Nitro is much easier to remove than poly. Not that I am an expert; I just thought I would caution you as an MC friend.

[Cary Fagan]

I just did a speed neck for the first time on my travel mandolin and it came out very well and is easier to play. I just used masking tape to mark the area, then used a safety razor to draw a light line along the tape. Then scraped the finish off with the razor carefully so as to do a neat job. Get down to the wood. There is some nice stain left in the wood to give the neck character. Then I used fine sandpaper and just one coat of true oil to seal it. Possible that I'll have to do another coat eventually but we'll see. If you're careful it isn't hard to do. Plays and looks better both.

[Astro]

Do it.

I had a beautiful matching burst finish on my Gibson's neck and so after much trepidation, I finally grew tired of sticking to the back of the neck so I had it professionally speed necked.
So glad I did. Plays way easier for me. And, although it no longer matches in finish, it still looks cool. Maybe cooler.

[stevojack665]

I would first try knocking down the gloss and seeing how that works for you. You may not need a speed-neck, though you could go that route after trying a sanded finish first. You can't try it the other way around!
Tape off the heel and headstock and then knock down the gloss finish with 3M scotch-brite. I like the green pads #08293 (medium duty) that you can get at any hardware store.
Over time, the neck may shine back up from playing. Just tape it and hit it again with the scotch-brite.
This has worked better for me on guitars and mandolin than going to bare wood. Even if treated with oil after exposing the wood, depending on your personal chemistry, it can get gummy & sticky from hand oils and it can be damaging to the wood to clean.
Best, Stevo

[Astro]

I would first try knocking down the gloss and seeing how that works for you. You may not need a speed-neck, though you could go that route after trying a sanded finish first. You can't try it the other way around!
Tape off the heel and headstock and then knock down the gloss finish with 3M scotch-brite. I like the green pads #08293 (medium duty) that you can get at any hardware store.
Over time, the neck may shine back up from playing. Just tape it and hit it again with the scotch-brite.
This has worked better for me on guitars and mandolin than going to bare wood. Even if treated with oil after exposing the wood, depending on your personal chemistry, it can get gummy & sticky from hand oils and it can be damaging to the wood to clean.
Best, Stevo

Actually, I think thats what I have. Mine is not down to bare wood. It retains the stains, just not gloss. And after 2 years its still pretty slick.

[B381]

It does depend on the finish, I would think, also. Depending on which mandolin you are doing this with, it would be more feasible in one case or another. Nitro is much easier to remove than poly. Not that I am an expert; I just thought I would caution you as an MC friend.

It's a River RM75 that plays very well.

[CES]

My Silverangel came to me with a speed neck, and I love the feel of it, but haven't felt compelled to have my Kelley speed necked yet. I did my own on a Kentucky that I was done with and eventually gave away, but never really finished it. Got it stripped without issue with a sharp pocket knife, but never got around to finding really fine grit sandpaper to really get it smooth, and never tung oiled it. It was an improvement, but not done to the perfection of the SA, for sure.

[dhergert]

Two years ago at Grass Valley Father's Day Bluegrass Festival there were a group of luthiers available in the "Barn" to work on instruments. I had mandolin luthier Austin Clark refret (Gold Evo), re-profile, speed-neck and setup my Gibson F-9. The original frets were rutted, I had worn most of the finish off of the back of the neck and the original Gibson V-profile was causing my thumb to ache, so I had actually been thinking about replacing the mandolin. His work on my F-9 has made a huge difference -- it has become a lifetime instrument for me.

During the speed-neck process Austin also French-polished the back of the neck so it isn't bare wood. The feel is great, and movement is smooth and free.

I probably wouldn't have thought about a speed-neck if I didn't need work on the back of the neck anyway, but by itself the speed-neck makes a big difference in playing comfort and convenience.

[rcc56]

This subject just came up on the banjo forum. The prevailing sentiment there was that a majority said they would be reluctant or un-willing to purchase a "speed-necked" instrument. In any case, I think many of us would agree that speed necks reduce the potential resale value of an instrument.

Since yours is a Rover, resale value is not of any concern. But for a professional grade instrument, the owner should take the effect on later resale value into account.

If you decide to proceed, I would encourage you to first dull the existing finish rather than strip it off, and see if that produces a result that is pleasing to you. On something like a Rover, you can start with 400 sandpaper [320 if it's really stubborn] and work your way up to 800 or 1000 grit, using a little bit of mineral spirits for a lubricant. If that's not enough, you'll have to go to a higher grit, or try the scotch-brite pads. On poly finishes, I have no problems with 0000 steel wool.

On a varnish or nitro finish, I would start with 1000 sandpaper [600 if it's tough] and work up from there. I generally avoid steel wool on varnish and nitro.

If you do strip the finish to bare wood, the wood should be sealed. There are several ways to go about it. My preferred method is thin French polished shellac.

[dhergert]

This subject just came up on the banjo forum. The prevailing sentiment there was that a majority said they would be reluctant or un-willing to purchase a "speed-necked" instrument. In any case, I think many of us would agree that speed necks reduce the potential resale value of an instrument. ...

I think I agree with that sentiment for pristine collectable instruments' necks -- for example I'd really hesitate to speed-neck any of my vintage Gibson and Vega banjos and especially those that have perfect finishes... But these are not daily-players and I tend to keep them out of circulation in order to avoid normal playing wear-and-tear.

But, for non-collectable instruments, or even for better daily-player instruments whose back-of-the-neck finishes are already in serious trouble, a well-done speed-neck with a French-polish might actually look better and be a maintenance and playability improvement. As long as the circumstances about this kind of work are clearly communicated during a sale, it wouldn't put me off -- I'd consider it more required maintenance, like a re-fret.

There is also something aesthetically different with mandolins because of their violin family connection... A speed neck on a mandolin just seems to be more acceptable because speed necks on good violins are so prevalent.

As always, YMMV...

[foldedpath]

Here's what my Lebeda looks like. I haven't had to do anything else in the 7 or so years since I stripped it, and used a very thin Tung Oil coat. I just clean it occasionally with StewMac Preservation Polish like the rest of the instrument:



I tried to feather in the transition as much as possible, but this is a very hard lacquer finish. It's the best I could do.

Note that if you do take your neck down to bare wood, it will be very white until UV exposure mellows it down over time. I added a couple of drops of "vintage amber" ColorTone stain from StewMac to the Tung oil when I did the original stripping, and that gave it a head start. Most of the color now is natural darkening/ambering-up of the maple over time.

[kurth83]

I got a speed neck for free without touching the finish when I put a sof-nek guitar neck-pad on. It might be a nice way to try it before you remove finish.

[lenf12]

I speed necked my '56 F-12 shortly after getting it about 18 years ago. After scraping off the sticky black finish, I sanded to the bare wood and then let it build up a "natural" patina by playing it a lot. . Sorry if the sequence of pix is out of order

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[Charles E.]

Here is a thread about a speed neck I did on an Eastman mandolin back in 2013......

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...d+neck+eastman

[lenf12]

Looks really nice Charles E. although I see you got your pix out of order too

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[Charles E.]

Yep, funny how that happened.

[B381]

"Since yours is a Rover, resale value is not of any concern."

Ouch....lol. It's really a good player, plus if something happens it's not the end of the world.

[Mike Scott]

I had an MK Firefly that had a thick sticky poly finish on the neck. Very hard to play. I tried roughing it up with steel wool which worked for a time. Finally I swallowed hard and carefully scraped all the finish off the neck. Then sanded and steel wooled it smooth. Wetted it down slightly to raise the grain - repeated the smoothing process and then rubbed in some linseed oil. Result was a very “speedy” (pun intended) neck. Worked out for me even though I had no clue what I was doing. That poly finish was thick and was tough to get off!

Good luck!

[onassis]

I did a Jade by just hitting it with a ScotchBrite pad, never did anything to seal it. It still feels great, and the lacquer came off very easily. My Northfield came with the speed neck (not sure if that's standard or an option), and I liked it so much that I had David Houchens do it on the Bryce A he built for me. I'm definitely sold on the speed neck. And it's such a common thing in the mando world that I would assume that only collectors would care about it's effect on resale value. I don't know anyone who's had one that didn't prefer it.

[Bill McCall]

It begs the question of what finishes can be used to avoid the problem. Don’t see many guitars ‘speed necked’.