Stripping polyester finish from neck

[ketot]

So I plan on stripping the polyester finish on the back of the neck of my epiphone sheraton, down to bare wood.

The most recommended way of doing this seems to be the heat gun and a scraper thing.

Anyway, I have a few questions.

1. Do i HAVE to use a heat gun? would a hair dryer be sufficient? Not really willing to buy a heat gun for something im only gonna use once or something.

2. I've chipped off a few chunks of finish off the back of the neck, out of boredom. The finish is really thick. About slightly thicker than a fingernail. the thing is, i dont think i'll be peeling off the finish at the side of the neck (the part with the binding and fret markers at the side, if thats what we call it). this would mean there'd be a jump in the thickness in the neck between the binding and the rest of the neck. Same goes with the headstock, I doubt i'll be unfinishing the headstock, so i'll just stop where the neck meets the headstock (theres some triangle-y bit that connects the headstock and the neck). that leaves a jump from the neck to headstock. the only way i can see a way around this is if i sand the finish on the binding and headstock-connecting-part down so that it's more subtle

3. once i have a bare neck (and i will have a bare neck, eventually), do i need to finish it somehow in some oil or something? some sort of lemon oil or whatnot to prevent warping and humidity and the other demons out to get us? plus, i live in malaysia, but study overseas (new zealand/australia), so its really REALLY humid and hot in malaysia, but dry and cold in new zealand. just afraid that might mess up the bow of the neck or something.

any thoughts?

 

[Muzzy]

I would remove the finish by sanding it off. I've done it many times and have had great results. It's easy to control where you want to stop by sanding. Start with course paper like 150 grit and work your way to 320 or so. Then hand rub in 4-5 coats of Tung oil. Let the oil dry between coats (24 hours) is good. You don't need a lot of oil. Rub it in vigorously and wipe off the excess. This makes for a very nice natural feeling neck. The oil won't harm the polyester so, don't worry about that. Just wipe it off. It's pretty easy to do, Good luck.

Rick.

 

[johnh]

Can I ask why you would want to do this? Everyone likes different things, but this sounds like a quick way to ruin your guitar.

 

[ketot]

thanks for the tip.

i dont really like the sticky feel of poly behind the neck. i know, some people say you can use scotch brite to dull the gloss or something, but the thought of bare wood at the neck makes me grin with joy

also, its a little bit fat, the neck. and, like i said the finish is pretty damn thick (well, relatively). so taking it off will make the neck thinner, even if its by just a bit. not too fond of sanding down the whole neck though, just wanna get the finish off, as priority number 1

 

[Bazaboy33]

Sanding won't take too long, you will have better control & be less likely to royally screw up your guitar. I just refinished the headplate on my acoustic & sanded the old finish off with 600 grit, then wet sanded with 600 followed by 1500 micromesh. It took no time at all. After you get the finish off, you may want to Tru oil the neck. It feels super nice...

 

[Cymbaline]

Heat gun on a body = OK. Heat gun on a neck = no-no.

 

[baimun]

I sand the finish off my necks all the time.... I much prefer Tru-Oil or Tung oil for a smoother, warmer, less "plastic-y" feel when i'm playing.

PRS Flame maple neck after sanding (before Tru-Oil refinish)

Same neck pre-sanding

 

[Jon Silberman]

i dont really like the sticky feel of poly behind the neck. i know, some people say you can use scotch brite to dull the gloss or something, but the thought of bare wood at the neck makes me grin with joy

I know exactly how you feel.

Tape the top and bottom of the neck with masking tape (so when you're done, you have a clean line between where you've sanded and not). Then, using scoth-brite or high grit sand paper and moving very slowly (even one stroke at a time), just barely roughen/dull the poly. What you end up with will look like this (my Jerrycaster) and feel like heaven.

On this first pic, just below the headstock, you can see the line dividing the gloss original finish and satin sanded remainder of the neck:

On this next pic, compare the end of the neck (satin) to the side of the body (gloss):

 

[RockStarNick]

Sand, sand, sand. I've stripped a poly body once, and it just turns into a horrific mess.

 

[Muzzy]

But, We're talking about a neck here not a body. I can hand sand the finish off the back of a neck in the playing area to perfection in an hour or so. No big mess at all.

 

[Jon Silberman]

I believe he means "sanding good," "stripping bad."

 

[vds5000]

Sand, sand, sand. I've stripped a poly body once, and it just turns into a horrific mess.

I agree. One problem with a heat gun is that it could leave burn marks on the neck.

 

[ketot]

I know exactly how you feel.

Tape the top and bottom of the neck with masking tape (so when you're done, you have a clean line between where you've sanded and not). Then, using scoth-brite or high grit sand paper and moving very slowly (even one stroke at a time), just barely roughen/dull the poly. What you end up with will look like this (my Jerrycaster) and feel like heaven.

On this first pic, just below the headstock, you can see the line dividing the gloss original finish and satin sanded remainder of the neck:

On this next pic, compare the end of the neck (satin) to the side of the body (gloss):

very nice!

thanks for the heads up, about heat guns and necks too, guys.

so i guess it'll be sanding for me.

one more thing about Tung-oil. Not bashing anyone or their methods here, but I read in another post, (correct me if I'm wrong) that Mr Suhr himself said that Tung-oil deadens the sound of the guitar. Now this opens up another can of worms, about different finishes affecting tone and all that, and lets not stray into that area, as I'm sanding it down mainly for feel, and not for a change in tone.

However, if there is some truth to this statement, then i might as well leave it as bare wood, which saves me the hassle of having to find Tung-oil and applying it to the neck and all that.

On the other hand, would the Tung-oil help preserve the wood (as in, might it help prevent it from warping or any other temperature/humidity related after-effects)?

And if I were to oil the back of the neck, would lemon oil (the stuff we use for fretboards) work? read in another post as well that it could substitute Tung-oil.

 

[scottkahn]

Sand paper. Not heat. It's been said enough now. No more debate. Should take you less than an hour with 3 different grades of sandpaper to be down to sweet unfinished wood. I like tung oil finishes, too. Enjoy it.

 

[MikeVB]

very nice!

thanks for the heads up, about heat guns and necks too, guys.

so i guess it'll be sanding for me.

one more thing about Tung-oil. Not bashing anyone or their methods here, but I read in another post, (correct me if I'm wrong) that Mr Suhr himself said that Tung-oil deadens the sound of the guitar. Now this opens up another can of worms, about different finishes affecting tone and all that, and lets not stray into that area, as I'm sanding it down mainly for feel, and not for a change in tone.

However, if there is some truth to this statement, then i might as well leave it as bare wood, which saves me the hassle of having to find Tung-oil and applying it to the neck and all that.

On the other hand, would the Tung-oil help preserve the wood (as in, might it help prevent it from warping or any other temperature/humidity related after-effects)?

And if I were to oil the back of the neck, would lemon oil (the stuff we use for fretboards) work? read in another post as well that it could substitute Tung-oil.

Forget tung-oil please. Do yourself a HUGE favor and use Tru-Oil. Thousands of acoustic instruments have been finished with it and sound excellent. It's actually an idiot-proof varnish that leaves the nicest feeling neck you'll ever play.

 

[ketot]

hi, sorry for bringing this post back from the dead, but just out of curiousity, would an unfinished neck (so lets say, i sand it down and then i dont finish it in tru oil, i just leave it with bare wood) have negative effects?

like, would humidity and sweat and all that mess the neck up?

 

[dspellman]

hi, sorry for bringing this post back from the dead, but just out of curiousity, would an unfinished neck (so lets say, i sand it down and then i dont finish it in tru oil, i just leave it with bare wood) have negative effects?

like, would humidity and sweat and all that mess the neck up?

In a word, yes. Tru-Oil or tung oil finish (which often has no tung oil in it at all) will do fine as a finish for the neck. Tru-Oil is little more than linseed oil, which has been used on axe and broom handles down through the years (it's also seen a lot of use on gun stocks, etc.). Quite a few manufacturers use tung oil finish for necks when the purchaser doesn't want to deal with a gloss finish (most satin finishes will eventually "polish" and have glossy patches). Tung oil finish is essentially a wiping varnish. You'll want to apply it very thinned for the first few coats, with light sanding in between (0000 steel or brass wool works fine), with the third or fourth coat diluted at least 1:1. Best not to ever use it full strength if you want a wood-feeling finish. Three or four coats should do it. Don't use it on fretboards, however -- it's not really an oil. Linseed oil will take some time to dry -- you'll also want to put on initial coats that are quite thinned if you want to retain the wood feel and not begin to build up a gloss. There's at least one builder of lap steels out there that manages to get a nice gloss on his guitars using Tru-Oil (linseed oil), but then you're back where you started.

You should know that neither tung oil finish nor linseed oil is considered a "thin" finish, even if you end up with what feels like raw wood in the end. Because it soaks in and polymerizes in the wood, it can actually be fairly thick, which may be part of the reason that Suhr's not too famous on it. He prefers thin finishes (a polyester finish can be applied very thin and still be very glossy), believing that it's the thin finishes (and not whether it's nitro or poly) that really make a difference in the tonality of the wood. I don't mean to be putting words in his mouth, here, but it seems to me that I've seen him write that very thing regarding finish thickness in at least one thread in this forum.

 

[musicofanatic5]

Sand paper. Not heat. It's been said enough now. No more debate. .

As a professional luthier of nearly thirty years, I have to chuckle at what I am reading, especially the self-appointed arbiter-of-the-ultimate-truth above. I have seen more botch jobs from amateurs sanding to remove finish as opposed to stripping. Contours lost, wood inadvertently removed, tons of dust created; dunno of a single pro who employs this method. Burning or otherwise doing damage to a neck while employing a heat gun?!? Yeah, maybe, if the heat gun is pointing at one spot while the operator is trying to light the bong at the same time! The trick is to keep the sucker moving so heat is never concentrated at any one spot, with the heat evenly distributed. The desire is to get in there and quickly super-heat and break down the finish, and not to heat the wood. Further, I rarely employ heat for this purpose. I prefer chemical stripper. Chemical-proof gloves and goggles for my personal protection, and fan to ventilate the fumes, and I'm done, with the easily contained mess cleaned up, in about a half-hour. To each his own I guess. I am just speaking from the viewpoint of a pro who has had unauthorized personnel bring me their damaged goods asking for some miracle fix.

How do you "sanding only" guys remove the poly finish from between the frets on a one-piece maple neck without disturbing the wood surface?

 

[mc5nrg]

The easiest approach would be using 0000 steel wool to knock back the shine and finish. Mask the pickups and body- even covering it with the common retail checkout plastic bag will probably do fine. You can grab the stray sw particles that seem to scare people with a fridge magnet and avoid most fallout by how you hold the guitar.

 

[ketot]

thanks for the methods on removing the finish.

but one question still bugging me is whether or not an unfinished neck will have negative effects. would it warp and whatnot if i dont finish it?