Sanding back of nitro neck?

[Juniorkimbrough]

I love the feel of satin necks and I was wondering will it be fine to lightly sand the back of the neck on my 62RI Jazz since it's nitro?

thanks

[John Wentzien]

I use 0000 steel wool.. makes it smooth witout taking too much off..

[PaulMacCnj]

I'll 2nd this advice. Just be careful with the steel wool around pickups. The "droppings" from the pads love to nestle up with magnets.

Originally Posted by John Wentzien

I use 0000 steel wool.. makes it smooth witout taking too much off..

[bassman10096]

If you have a fine woodworking store or auto parts store around, you can substitute 1000 grit sandpaper. Wet sand lightly and you'll get a nice satin finish without risk of getting metal filings into your pickup mags. Nitro's soft, so it won't take much to get the shine off. The downside, is also that nitro's soft -- after playing a while, your hand will polish it back to a nice gloss. There's really no way to avoid that happening. Just sand lightly again.

[Juniorkimbrough]

thanks for chiming in!

I worked a little bit on it last night with some steel wool, the gloss came off pretty easy BUT it still feels sticky. Any advice?

everyone says not to sand all the way down to the bare wood but why? they say it will get moisture in the neck, etc. but there are plenty of other basses (i.e. my lakland JO4) that don't have any finish on their necks. anyone have any insight to offer on this?

thanks so much!

[PaulMacCnj]

Did you keep using a clean section of steel wool? Once the pad gets loaded with gunk it's just going to get redeposited. Try cleaning the neck first with a wood cleaner. A mild solution of something like Murphy's Oil Soap will remove the sweat and dirt. Immediately dry the neck throughly with a clean(!), soft cloth. Then repeat the steel wool procedure and follow up by lightly rubbing the neck down with dry, clean(!), soft cloth --- Not the one that's damp from drying.

Also, you have to judge how much applied pressure is enough when using the steel wool. Start with light pressure and keep feeling the surface, which should be smooth and allow your fretting hand to glide easily. Apply more pressure as needed but you should not be digging into the finish itself.

[Jo6Pak]

Will either of these techniques (wool/sand) also work on a poly neck (CIJ Jaguar)??? THANKS!

[PaulMacCnj]

It'll work on poly also. However, if the finish is glossy then it'll look dull afterwards.

[Juniorkimbrough]

yes I just barely applied any pressure til I saw that they gloss was coming off.....it's fine now though. I let it sit for a day after working on it and cleaned it again and played it for a while and it felt fine.

[Geezerman]

Use a brilo pad one of those green ones next time. Awesome for taking the finish off.

[Mrdak]

Hey Junior! I just got that 62-RI from Mal last week, and it's so aggravating to have such a killer bass, but every time your hands sweat a little, the nitro gooks up.
With this sand paper, you can barely tell you sanded it at all. It's for automotive bondo\paint sanding, but it does the trick for this sort of thing.
It's 3M #413Q Wet or dry 400 Tri-M-lite. A super fine sand paper. You need to keep using a fresh area of the paper to keep the nitro from balling up. But the neck gets smooth as a sanded poly finish, only the color seems to stay the same. It won't look like the finish has been sanded off, but the stickiness will be gone for sure. It'll take just the sticky surface off. Put some painters tape down the edge of the fingerboard so you won't sand the gloss away from that little area. Then sand away on the back, always changing to fresh unused sections of the paper. Sand it some, and clean it off with a dry cloth. Repeat that over and over until the surface gloss is gone. You'll know if it's totally gone or not when you play for a while, and it stays smooth. If it gets a little sticky again under the thumb, sand it some more. Just a little at a time. The best thing about this stuff is you won't see any lines at all where you sanded. It worked great for me. No more sticky finish.
Good Luck

[Zooberwerx]

Originally Posted by Geezerman

Use a brilo pad one of those green ones next time. Awesome for taking the finish off.

Roger that. ScotchBrite pads work particularly well when smoothing out raised grain on wenge or wenge / laminate necks. I use a bit of Briwax during the process.

Riis

[portaflexer]

Originally Posted by Geezerman

Use a brilo pad one of those green ones next time. Awesome for taking the finish off.

I'm looking to do the same thing on my Geddy Lee Jazz. I might try the Brillo pad route.

[Turnaround]

Originally Posted by Juniorkimbrough

everyone says not to sand all the way down to the bare wood but why? they say it will get moisture in the neck, etc. but there are plenty of other basses (i.e. my lakland JO4) that don't have any finish on their necks. anyone have any insight to offer on this?

thanks so much!

The Laklands do have a finish on their necks - yes even the JO4. It's a flat or low-gloss finish and it looks like no finish at all, but it's there. Pretty well essential on a maple neck. Maple is more likely to absorb and lose moisture with changes in relative humidity than a number of other hardwoods that are oily by nature. And if you don't put a finish on maple it will go grey fairly quickly - check out the neck on an old instrument or a well-done relic.

So what's the big deal about the wood absorbing/losing moisture? That's the leading cause of warping.

[portaflexer]

Wow! I had no idea it was that easy or I would've done that a long time ago. It literally takes about a minute with a Brillo pad. A couple strokes and it's silky smooth. Thanks for the idea Geezerman.