Members Jimmy25 Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 I just softly used 1000 grit sandpaper with a little bit of water and sanded a very very small area (around the underneath part of fret 7-8 on the back of my poly maple fretboard), I did it extremely careful and slowly going in the motion from left to right (or should I go in circular motion?). Making sure I'm not pressing down to hard with too much preasure and taking too much finish off. Now, I compare the whole fretboard to the little part I sanded at the buttom of the neck, I must say, it definately felt much much more comfortable and smooth for me. I tried using my left hand sliding up and down the fretboard, and everytime I get to the sanded part, it just felt so much better with great playability. I didn't even have to sand down too much to get it smooth enough for me to play, and even the gloss seems to decreased by only a bit but it's still there, also the color changed by a tiny bit of more whilte, but really, I look at the part where I sanded then look at the whole fretboard, I can barely tell any difference in terms of look, but plays much much more comfortable. Better than I expected. At least my easily sweaty hands barely gets stuck now at the part where I sanded. I was thinking maybe I could just repeat what I did to that tiny part of the fretboard to the whole fretboard extremely slow and careful? Might take me some time, but I'm willing to spend all the time in the world and do it slow and safe since I have no experience. And I thought as long as I go slow and very carefully, it might be better to do it myself instead of taking it to a pro tech, because even though know the right way of getting the job done, but they don't know how smooth I personally want, they could go too far with sanding when it could have already been smooth to me. If I do it myself, I can sand a little, try playing, then sand more if needed. Question is, is there anything else I need to do after the process of sanding? do I need to add-in any product/spray afterwards? Because I heard a sanded poly maple neck can get dirty and becomes black extremely fast and easily? My apologize for the long respond. But I was surprised it worked out really really well in terms of playability and the appearance change is even barely noticable! (well, if I've sanded a bit more it might be, but I only sanded a tiny little bit and somehow it's smooth enough to get me playing just fine.) what do you think.. In the case, should I do the same thing to the whole back part of the poly maple fretboard? at least this way the smoothness is permanent / last longer. CHEERS : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Canadian Jeff Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 If you're sanding on a poly finish with 1000 grit you can just go ape {censored}. You won't be able to go through the finish with that fine a grit. Ok, maybe you could, but you'd be at it a while and likely go through many thousand square feet's worth of sand paper. After you've sanded just take a slightly moist rag to wipe the dust off and voila, enjoy your de-glossed neck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaleH Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Go straight up and down the centre of the back. if that's where your hand sticks. Your hand postion playing up the neck should only touch the centre line anyhow.. Maybe you have bad technique,that's making things worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Steadfastly Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Just make sure you sand it all evenly. I used extra fine steel wood for mine. About a dozen passes generally works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ashtray Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Up and down the back of the neck. Don't use water. No need for it, and you're just introducing moisture in a place you really don't want it. (if it does get beneath the finish, the wood could soak it up and SWELL under the finish - leaving a nice bump in your neck). Go slow, go even, but don't worry too much bc 1000 grit is pretty fine stuff. It'll eat through the finish if you want it to - but I think you'd know if you went too far. As for the neck getting dirty - yeah it could. Go through the finish to open grain and it could trap dirty in there and turn black over time. If that happens, just sand it down and apply a finish. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nicholai Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Too funny, my maple neck just lost a chink of poly just from the string hitting it. Minus 1 cv, easy repair though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimmy25 Posted February 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 So after I sand the guitar neck can I use Lemon oil instead of Tung Oil? or what do I need to use to make sure a sanded neck doesn't turn dark and gets dirty easily? I want my maple to age well and turn yellowish overtime not gray... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members larryguitar Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 If you leave finish on it (and with 1000 grit you should be) just wipe it with a damp rag when it gets grungy. No need to 'lemon oil' or tung oil what is, essentially, a plastic surface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fretless Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 I wouldn't worry too much . I would tape off "mask" the fret ends and board and sand that crap right off . Usually necks get a sealer first and that sinks into the wood a little and for me is enough finish just by itself , so you can sand that thick poly right off and not worry about it . Steel wool will bring back a nice smooth feel , I'll sometimes use a beeswax to buff it out for a smoother finish . Chances are it won't really yellow all that much , this is more common with old nitro finishes . IMO maple looks best dirty Rock that thang ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jimmy25 Posted February 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 perhaps a car polisher would work better than tung oil in terms of keeping the sanded neck from getting dirty and turning gray easily? is there a specific car polisher brand that's safe and you would suggest for guitar maple neck? or any car polisher would be fine? and I was wondering, if we use a car polisher, isn't it going to be less smooth again? or not... also since I'm just sanding a little tiny bit with 1000/2000 grit, not all the way down, ppl said it's going to be a "matt" finish (I don't know what exactly that means by "matt" finish), and in this case, they say it doesn't require any polish or spray and the guitar won't get dirty or gray easily, they say just use a cotton rag and wipe it then it would be fine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 perhaps a car polisher would work better than tung oil in terms of keeping the sanded neck from getting dirty and turning gray easily? is there a specific car polisher brand that's safe and you would suggest for guitar maple neck? or any car polisher would be fine? and I was wondering, if we use a car polisher, isn't it going to be less smooth again? or not...also since I'm just sanding a little tiny bit with 1000/2000 grit, not all the way down, ppl said it's going to be a "matt" finish (I don't know what exactly that means by "matt" finish), and in this case, they say it doesn't require any polish or spray and the guitar won't get dirty or gray easily, they say just use a cotton rag and wipe it then it would be fine? Car polish contains silicone and should never be used of a guitar. Tung oil is for stripped or new necks and cannot be used over poly. You dont even have to sand a neck if you use talcum powder on your hand. For polishing the neck, just use furniture polish. Poly is plastic. No dirt is going to stick to a poly neck and more than it does to a plastic bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HanSolo Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 I would just use a dry, green scotchbrite pad and run it up and down the neck. You can curve it around the neck right up to the frets. Whether you sand it or scotchbrite it, It will eventually polish back up all by itself from playing and you will have to hit it again. I would not use any product on the neck at all once you have it knocked down to a satin finish. With a poly finish, nothing penetrates and it just lays on the surface and eventually becomes sticky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members awd83 Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Car polish contains silicone and should never be used of a guitar. Not entirely true, many car polishes are silicone free, in fact, I would wager that most are, because as any car painter will tell you, if you ever get silicone on a finish, you'll never be able to paint or do touch-up work. Also, nearly all of the guitar builders that I have been paying attention to lately (I just finished building a kit) use car polish to get the high gloss sheen. My kit that I built, I used high gloss lacquer on the top, and satin on the back, sides, and neck, finished up with 800 or 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper on the satin parts (went up to 2500 grit on the gloss, then Meguiar's polishes to get the nice super slick gloss). I couldn't be happier with it, of course, I used a dark red mahogany stain as opposed to natural maple, but it doesn't seem to get any dirtier than the other parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flump Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Car polish contains silicone and should never be used of a guitar. Tung oil is for stripped or new necks and cannot be used over poly. You dont even have to sand a neck if you use talcum powder on your hand. For polishing the neck, just use furniture polish. Poly is plastic. No dirt is going to stick to a poly neck and more than it does to a plastic bottle. I pretty much disagree with this. Although polyester isn't necessarily the polyurethane they use on cars it is very similar and I use automotive swirl remover and wax on my guitars I've built myself. Also, it has nothing to do with being a plastic as to why it gets dirty when sanded. Its because of the micro cracks that are put into it and dirt kind of nests in there. Just like if you have a maple neck with an ebony fingerboard and sand it the ebony can make its way into the very small crevices in the maple and make it look dark and dirty. A plastic bottle does not have those imperfections (unless you sand the outside). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaleH Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 So after I sand the guitar neck can I use Lemon oil instead of Tung Oil? or what do I need to use to make sure a sanded neck doesn't turn dark and gets dirty easily? I want my maple to age well and turn yellowish overtime not gray... Don't put lemon oil on poly, Just sand it and play. Your not going to get through the poly with 1000 grit.Lemon oil is only for fret boards, so forget about it will ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaleH Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Sanding with 1000 grit if you don't like the outcome you can use a buffer and buff it back to gloss no problem. Just your hands playing it will buff it back to gloss soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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