MD315 speedneck
After six months with this MD315, deciding that I'll never sell it has been a liberating experience, lol. Now I'm not afraid to try some mods and won't worry about resale. (And it helps that the MD315 isn't all that expensive. I would probably not have the nerve to do this on a $5000 mandolin! The good thing is that the $5000 mandolins I've been looking at already have speed necks.)
I started a speedneck on Wednesday night, using 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. After my first round (dry sanding), the speedneck was very subtle, with just a little less shine than the factory matte finish. The neck did feel smoother and faster. It would have been a great place to stop if my goal was just a bit faster neck, but I decided that if I were going to do a speedneck, I wanted to go all the way, and I wanted it to be visible.
So, I continued working, trying to get down to bare wood. Unfortunately, 1000 grit paper was too fine to make progress in any reasonable time (well, reasonable to me, at least). Last night I bought a 10-sheet pack of 800 grit and worked through all 10 sheets. That worked better, but it was still VERY slow going. I have a fairly large area of bare wood and could get by with the look now, but I'd really like the bare area to extend more closely to the nut and heel.
Tonight I'll buy some 600 grit as well as some more 800 grit. If the 600 grit is too aggressive, I'll just continue with the 800 grit. I'll finish with finer grit (I have up to 2500 grit), but the feel of the wood after 800 grit seems pretty nice.
I'm wondering if I should have used the paper wet, and kept washing off the dust from the sandpaper. Maybe that would have worked better. I didn't try it, just because of the mess, and not really wanting to put water on the bare wood. Suggestions on using the sandpaper wet?
Doug Brock
2018 Kimble 2 point (#259), Eastman MD315, Eastman MDA315, some guitars, banjos, and fiddles
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