DIY Speed Neck? Advice Needed

[TJe153]

Hello!

As a sweaty handed feller, the gloss on my Weber Coyote gets a bit sticky at times. Looking for some advice about a speed neck process. Is it just a sand down (gently) with super fine (or wet) sandpaper and a linseed oil finish?

Thinking I might take it to a professional, but I'm genuinely curious about the process and how difficult it is. Thank you!

[MikeEdgerton]

While you're waiting for an answer thumb through these threads. A whole lot of people have done their own over the years.

[Doug Brock]

I recently did a speed neck on my MD315. I taped off areas I didn't want to affect, then used sandpaper to work down to the maple. I tried True Oil on the bare wood but decided I preferred the feel of the bare wood and sanded back down again. The neck feels fabulous now!

If I had a nicer mandolin with good flame on the neck but the neck was sticky, I would probably just sand down a little bit to remove the gloss, but not go all the way to bare wood. (When I started sanding on the MD315, some 600 grit sandpaper did make the neck feel better, but since I had a relatively cheap mandolin to experiment on, I decided to go all in! )

[spufman]

I'd start slow and just sand down the gloss to see how that feels. No guarantee that the full speed neck will work better for you when you sweat. And you'd likely lose some stability, though perhaps not on a little mandolin neck. I'm really a bass player and in the summer months I tend to play out with a glossy-necked instrument instead of my normally-favored oiled neckers.

[John Bertotti]

Cut the fingers out of a latex glove liner then put a bit of talc on it every time you play.

[Mandobart]

0000 steel wool works good to remove the gloss without taking off a lot of stain or any wood. On a thick finish both steel wool and fine sandpaper plug up pretty quick.

I speed-necked all my keeper guitars and mandos. Natural oils from skin will still gloss them up so every couple years I have to steel wool them again.

[thistle3585]

I strip down to bare wood then apply a coat of shellac to seal the pores then rub it out with 0000 steel wool.