Thumb wear on the neck

[Joed]

I'm using an unfinished, roasted maple neck on my strat type guitar which I play allot. It's by far my favorite neck surface. No stickyness. Clean it with a 3M pad.

[CBFrench]

Has this happened to others?

since the beginning of time on all instruments...relic's for those wanting to look old

[RobP]

Thanks everyone! Thanks for the balanced discussion... I will just play on, and consider a speed neck one of these days. Or alternatively, if I play up the neck more maybe I'll also do my own. Hopefully this pandemic is winding down - I haven't been getting together with my band at all, and when I play at home it's mostly fiddle tunes and not breaks in B and Bb.

[ralph johansson]

On the neck of my mandolin there are two areas of wear. From the thumb there’s a spot below the 2nd and 3rd frets, which is where the thumb will land in 1st and 2nd positions.

Going higher up the neck the thumb will trail behind (I have almost no control over my left thumb because one tendon is missing.) I hardly ever go beyond 3rd position.

The other area is on the floor side of the neck, from the root of my index finger. It’s a fairly narrow area, extending from the first to the fifth frets, quite naturally since the fifth fret is the base of third position. There is no wear on the middle of the back of the neck,since there is no contact whatever between that area and my fretting hand.

By contrast one of my guitars with a satin finished neck today exhibits a high gloss across the width of the neck, and all the way from the headstock to the heel . The reason seems to be that the position of my playing hand varies greatly with the shape of the chord forms, e.g., barreing pulls the thumb towards the middle of the neck.

[ColdBeerGoCubs]

Consider that wear spot a badge of honor. Speed neck done the old fashioned way, below. This is my 20 year old Nugget.

I'm more impressed by the fact that your mandolin is surfing the web.

[T.D.Nydn]

[QUOTE=ralph johansson;1821207] There is no wear on the middle of the back of the neck,since there is no contact whatever between that area and my fretting hand.
This is why I've never needed a speed neck...