Best finish for Fast Playing guitar necks?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DoomBuggi
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DoomBuggi

DoomBuggi

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I'm putting together a custom strat with one humbucker, one volume pot. I am trying to figure out which finish will provide a smooth, reduced friction neck. I am leaning more on the side of an oil finish, like gun stock. But the satin nitro finish is another option. For give my ignorance. I am limited to mostly painted necks of a sort or another. So any advice would be appreciated.
 
Definitely oil. Doesn't get any smoother than that IMO.
 
D'Jams,

Is this statement a good or bad thing?

What I want is, a smooth finish. A finish that protects the wood properly. A finish that is not high gloss. I like satin finish for this particular thing. I don't know shit about neck finishes.
 
Can't possibly get any faster :rock:

metallicCarWax.jpg
 
+1 for the oil finish necks. Only going by my experience playing them in the store. They seem really smooth and fast. All of my guitars however have either a thick lacquer or satin finish. They feel fine but I'm not fast.
 
The best thing I've used for playing fast was a non caloric silicon based kitchen lubricant that Clark W Griswold's company has been working on. It did wonders for my les paul. ;)
 
I really like satin necks. I think actually better than oil finish necks. Seem smoother to me.

That being said, the painted neck on my BRJ is wicked fast.
 
I have oil and satin both. Both are insanely fast but satin is my preference on neck speed alone. Player efficiency, i am more efficient on a thinner oiled neck though due to my playing style.

IMHO you cannot beat a natural rosewood neck though in terms of speed, agility, and accuracy. Rosewood necks are just all around amazing.
 
Ah Via Musicom":2iwp2w6y said:
The best thing I've used for playing fast was a non caloric silicon based kitchen lubricant that Clark W Griswold's company has been working on. It did wonders for my les paul. ;)
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Thanks guys. Thats allot of input. I'm going to let all of that settle. Especially the Turtle Wax, and the Kitchen Lubricant, though I am now leaning on the side of the satin nitro finish.
 
I prefer a light oil finish and to feel the "hair" on the neck. Think old school Charvels. Because it's not a hard (lacquer) finish, they get dirty very easy (look at old pics of EVH's strats). One thing to consider with oil finish is the type of wood. Heavy birdseye maple tends to be a bit unstable, especially in environments that swing from humidity to dry (e.g., New England). Satin finish would be preferred here.
 
oil / aged oil

just built a frankenstrat (no hardcore relic'ing) with a musikraft neck with aged oil finish. It is a fast playing neck.
 
Best neck on any guitar ive played is my jem bsb......by miles. Its fuckin deadly
 
JackTripper":34ol9s4c said:
I prefer a light oil finish and to feel the "hair" on the neck. Think old school Charvels. Because it's not a hard (lacquer) finish, they get dirty very easy (look at old pics of EVH's strats). One thing to consider with oil finish is the type of wood. Heavy birdseye maple tends to be a bit unstable, especially in environments that swing from humidity to dry (e.g., New England). Satin finish would be preferred here.
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This is my preference as well. As for Eddie, he used no finish at all...just raw, bare wood which gets dirty much quicker (although oil finishes will get dirty over time). I have two necks on parts mutts that I've taken a hybrid approach with...they are raw wood treated with a conditioning oil (Fret Doctor in my case). This does very little to seal the wood (it is much more of a feel thing) so you run a much greater risk of warpage due to humidity/environmental issues, but the feel cannot be beat IMO. A true oil finish (tung, linseed, danish, etc) is an actual hard finish that seals the wood to a large degree much like a varnish of sorts. It's not as protective as a hard finish but much better than raw wood.
 
Tung Oil here. I have a Suhr Modern w/ a satin mahogany neck thats wicked fast but I played a buddys carvin with a tung oil finish and loved it. I did the neck on my strat the next week with it and loved it. I've been tempted to do my modern too but I don't know what affect it will have on mahogany. Any body have a mahogany tung oil neck?
 
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