Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

[dgreen97]

Hey guys,

I have an ola englund washburn V guitar that has a satin back neck on it and ever since after a month I got it like a year 1/2 ago, the back of the neck is semi-sticky like in between gloss and satin finish because of my hand moving up and down it a lot. My hand polished the satin finish to like a semi-gloss one so my hand sticks to it now more than I want it to with a satin/matte finish guitar. Is there a way to fix this? I've already tried 0000 steel wool but that didn't work very well. If it brought back the satin a little bit, then playing it for one session it would go back to the semi-gloss again.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Sandpaper. Try 800 or 600 and only enough to get it comfy. You don't want to go through finish.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Forget the steel wool (it's evil, anyway) and the sandpaper. Get some Scotchbrite (light gray or maroon is fine). Simply scuff up and down the neck a few times with the stuff until the shiny goes away. VIOLA!

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

This is correct. Fine scotchbrite: Magic!

 

[Jacew]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Forget the steel wool (it's evil, anyway) and the sandpaper. Get some Scotchbrite (light gray or maroon is fine). Simply scuff up and down the neck a few times with the stuff until the shiny goes away. VIOLA!

So what's better/different in scotchbrite than in sandpaper?

I've never used it so I'm genuinely interested.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

I've found that 400 grit gives a much nicer satin feel that the higher grit ones . . . but it depends on how thick the finish is I suppose.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

So what's better/different in scotchbrite than in sandpaper? I've never used it so I'm genuinely interested.

It doesn't leave gouges or heavy marks that will fill up with dirt from your hand. Also, won't remove the finish from the guitar (unless it's already very thin). Proper finishes protect the wood from moisture, and protect it from direct harm.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

It doesn't leave gouges or heavy marks that will fill up with dirt from your hand. Also, won't remove the finish from the guitar (unless it's already very thin). Proper finishes protect the wood from moisture, and protect it from direct harm.

Neither does smooth sandpaper...

 

[Hsb]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Sand paper is gonna be harder than the finish on the neck, so it will start taking off finish, not just the residue left behind from your hands. The Scotchbrite pads arent harder than your guitar finish, so it wont take off the finish nearly as easily.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Sand paper is gonna be harder than the finish on the neck, so it will start taking off finish, not just the residue left behind from your hands. The Scotchbrite pads arent harder than your guitar finish, so it wont take off the finish nearly as easily.

If they're not harder than the finish, then how are they going to rough up the finish? Surely they're harder than the finish if they're effective.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Ever seen sandpaper load up? That will scratch the hell out of whatever you are sanding. We are not trying to rough up the neck, as much as polish it a bit.

What we are doing with Scotchbrite is polishing off the finish just enough to reduce the surface tension induced by the moisture in our hands. If you do it long enough, you probably can completely remove the finish from the neck...… But I don't think anyone is dumb to sit there that long.

 

[donaldr]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Tried Scotchbrite on the back of my Squier VM Jazz V, didn't work. Tried 600 (or 800) grit sandpaper, 3-4 pass, worked like a charm.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

His guitar neck doesn't have crap on it from his hand. It's a satin finish that's gotten polished from playing.

Every satin finished instrument I've ever owned has done this. What I always end up doing is stripping the finish down to bare wood, then applying several coats of tung oil. After that, I use whatever the finest steel wool is to knock off the little bit of gloss, and it'll stay crazy smooth for a very long time.

For whatever reason, I've had great luck using steel wool to get a gloss poly finish nice and smooth until it polishes back up, but the satin ones just get stickier. If it's a neck thru, getting a nice clean line between the finished body and stripped neck is a little tricky, but it's worth the effort. $20 says if you try it on this guitar, you'll wind up doing the same thing to the rest of them.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

The different grades of scotch brite have grits just like sandpaper. I'm a 220s man, but 320s and up will take off very little finish at a time.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Ever seen sandpaper load up? That will scratch the hell out of whatever you are sanding. We are not trying to rough up the neck, as much as polish it a bit.

What we are doing with Scotchbrite is polishing off the finish just enough to reduce the surface tension induced by the moisture in our hands. If you do it long enough, you probably can completely remove the finish from the neck...… But I don't think anyone is dumb to sit there that long.

Yep, I've loaded up sandpaper many times.

But I thought the problem was that the neck was polished, and we were trying to rough it up again. My Epiphone Dot has a thick poly finish on the neck. It's ultra smooth, which ended up being really sticky. Years ago I ran over it lightly (you don't want to sand through the finish, just rough it up evenly) with some 400 grit sandpaper to fix the problem. The neck took on a nice satin-y finish and wasn't sticky any more. It has been great ever since. I've tried using both steel wool and scotch bright on other necks . . . I found that they polished back to being really smooth in much less time.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

The goal is to bring the sticky polished finish to a rougher but still smooth grit. Either sand paper or scotch brite will work. Anything from 320 - 1000s depending on your preference.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

The goal is to bring the sticky polished finish to a rougher but still smooth grit. Either sand paper or scotch brite will work. Anything from 320 - 1000s depending on your preference.

Probably worth noting that depending on where you buy your sandpaper the grits numbers refer to different things. I used CAMI 400 grit, which is about where a P600 or P800 grit would be.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

Probably worth noting that depending on where you buy your sandpaper the grits numbers refer to different things. I used CAMI 400 grit, which is about where a P600 or P800 grit would be.

I did not know that. Most of the time, I buy multi-packs of 3M from work, but I also go buy single sheets from Rural King or the local hardware store. I'll have to make sure to pay attention to the grit nomenclature.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

I'm sure both work just the same. Just depends who's doing the sanding what the result will be.

I use sandpaper because it's cheap and I always have a stock of it at hand.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Back of stain guitar neck sticky after playing a lot

800 grit (and higher) sandpaper is what’s used when rubbing out a lacquer finish.

You want to wet sand. Soak the paper in some soapy water over night. The water stops the paper from clogging.

And don’t press very hard!

I go all the way up to 2000 grit when polishing a finish.

Also consider some kind of polish or wax on the neck.


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