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tung oil on guitar neck?


paintkilz

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can i get it at home depot or lowes?

 

 

and how many coats are you using? im just about to finish the final sand on my RG neck with some 400 and its feeling really smooth...

 

think tomorrow ill go get the Tung oil, as i had previously gave it a rough sand to take off some of the finish, but i removed the neck today and completely removed any and all finish...now i need to tung oil it...

 

 

also, will it get ugly real bad or will the tung help? my neck had started to get dark from oils from my hands over the last few years its been "rough" sanded...

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I refinished my Jackson neck a while ago... it was super easy :) just get an old t-shirt or rag or something and put some tung oil on it (don't soak it, less is more) and rub it into the neck. Then let it dry overnight, rinse repeat. The brand I used was Formby's... I think I did four coats total (all quite thin coats, so it still feels like wood). Anyway it was very simple.

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right on...

 

speakin of jackson-

 

at the pawn shop today they had a jackson pro dinky with a jackson floyd and HSH config for $119....im a little short on cash otherwise i would of bought it..neck felt REALLY good...almost ibanezish in contour and fret radius..

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try tru-oil.

 

protects better than tung oil, cures faster, feels way smoother but still feels like wood, lasts longer, even looks better. wipes on just as easily with a rag, only it doesn't stink nearly as much so you can apply it just about anywhere.

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at the pawn shop today they had a jackson pro dinky with a jackson floyd and HSH config for $119....im a little short on cash otherwise i would of bought it..neck felt REALLY good...almost ibanezish in contour and fret radius..

 

{censored} that's an awesome deal! You should try to grab that if you can, flip it on CL or the 'bay for some profit :rawk:

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try tru-oil.


protects better than tung oil, cures faster, feels way smoother but still feels like wood, lasts longer, even looks better. wipes on just as easily with a rag, only it doesn't stink nearly as much so you can apply it just about anywhere.

 

Haven't used tru-oil but Tung Oil was about as easy as it gets, not even particularly smelly :idk:

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Haven't used tru-oil but Tung Oil was about as easy as it gets, not even particularly smelly
:idk:

 

gotta wait a lot longer between coats with tung oil.

 

i've used both, and tru-oil is seriously like a miracle finish for necks. i'll never bother with tung oil again. it feels like silky smooth wood and was ridiculously easy to apply.

 

enough coats and it can even rival lacquer for gloss... check out this guy's neck with tru-oil on it.

 

neckpolished1.jpg

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yep, tru-oil is suppose to be a little higher quality/user friendly tung-oil.

 

 

 

the stuff i like is the Gun Stock Wax from the same people who make the tru-oil. after your oil drys, soak the finest steel wool you can get with the wax and sand it down like that and the neck will be just crazy smooth.

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What does tru-oil do, exactly? :confused:

I used 0000 steel wool to remove some of the glossy/sticky clear coat on the back of my SG's neck, and it feels great, but I think it can be a bit smoother.

It sounds to me like tru-oil gives that satin-ish, smooth, fast feeling, but maintains gloss like poly clear coats? Am I on the right page?

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gotta wait a lot longer between coats with tung oil.


i've used both, and tru-oil is seriously like a miracle finish for necks. i'll never bother with tung oil again. it feels like silky smooth wood and was ridiculously easy to apply.


enough coats and it can even rival lacquer for gloss... check out this guy's neck with tru-oil on it.


neckpolished1.jpg

 

Damn, that's purdy :love: although it looks way glossier than I would want it to... there's no way in hell that neck feels like wood.

 

But thanks for the tip, I'll definitely try Tru-Oil if/when I do my next refinish! All I can say is, Tung Oil worked great for me so that's what I'm recommending. :)

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More like..

 

What does tru-oil do, exactly?
:confused:
I used 0000 steel wool to remove some of the glossy/sticky clear coat on the back of my SG's neck, and it feels great, but I think it can be a bit smoother.

It sounds to me like tru-oil gives that satin-ish, smooth, fast feeling, but maintains gloss like poly clear coats? Am I on the right page?

 

And I'm not trying to be a bother, but I feel that this is on-topic with the thread! Thought I'd get some info out there. :p

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Probably can't go wrong either way. I can speak from experience that tung oil is awesome, but I bet tru-oil is great too.

 

Oh and to answer your question Lee, basically it gives the wood a coating so that it's protected from dirt getting in the grain, etc... also gives it a slight golden coloring. And so I've heard the more you put on there the glossier it can get and can essentially act like a lacquer finish. You can read up on it on teh Wikipedia...

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But, it stays true to the 'feel' of the wood, right? Still emulates smoothness?


Because I'd love to have the back of my neck protected from grime and stuff, but, I want to retain the smooth satin-like feeling I've gotten.
:p

 

Yep, should do it :) The Jackson neck I did feels essentially like bare wood...

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Nice. How many coats should I rub on? And should I sand/steel wool my neck to the bare wood, or just stack the tru-oil on top of whatever clear coat may be remaining, from the couple of runs I've done with the 0000 steel wool already?

 

I didn't do any steel wool, just sanded down the wood to the point where the old finish was gone, and then got under way... anyway I think I did like 3 or 4 coats over the course of 3 days or something. (overnight, overnight, during the day, and one final overnight). For each coat I just used enough oil to get a nice shine going; not too much that it was thick. I used an old T-shirt that I didn't care about any more, dribbled some tung oil on it and got down to business. :)

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Huh. I think I could get to the bare wood if I used this steel wool enough. :p But what type of sand paper did you use? (I don't know the right word to use.. is it grit? Or level?) You can do something like that by hand, right?

I'd like to get a bit of gloss going, so it'll match the rest of the guitar's glossy look. Is this possible with the tru-oil, but be able to STILL keep that satin feel I'm speaking of? :D

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tru-oil is a very thin oil based varnish, much like most of the finishes out there that say "tung oil" on them. it's sold as a gun stock finish, but it happens to be an especially good finish for guitar necks.

 

true tung oil is not a very durable finish at all. it's nice for wood that never gets touched or exposed to elements, but it's not durable and won't even stop your sweat from absorbing into the wood. it also requires several days of curing between coats to avoid spotting. if you use a tung oil that doesn't require a couple days between coats, it's not really tung oil... it's a thin varnish.

 

that high-gloss neck pictured probably had 20-30 coats or so on it. i've got about 10 coats on my tele neck and it's still extremely thin. at the edges of the fretboard, where the finish stops and the bare rosewood starts, it is imperceptible. my neck feels naked, but slicker and smoother. win win.

 

just sayin' ... i've been through the whole tung-oil rigamarole on a couple necks and tru-oil cured me of that forever.

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