Painted necks on basses- love them or hate them?

[Maxdusty]

The survey question here is a real bait-and-switch from the thread title.

Not really meant to be, I have to admit it's essentially a two part question. I've pretty much already decided to leave it as is.
Basically the question is whether people are bothered by painted necks, like them or don't particularly care even if there is a possibility of the paint wearing away and what would you do if it does? Keep it original, strip the rest of the paint off the neck or let time and wear take it's course?

 

[Element Zero]

Meh. Leave it.

 

[Clef_de_fa]

Don't care

I have a bass with the neck painted and two with satin finish ( which is not bare wood )

If you don't like, just strip it.

Well with the price of a SUB brand new, it may not have the most epic finish ever and of course some people do have acid sweat or just don't care whatever.

 

[Bassist Jay]

I hate painted necks. The funny thing is I love Bongo basses but every one I have is a limited one off with either a roasted maple neck or an all rosewood neck. I’ve had 2 with painted necks but sold them off because the painted necks annoyed me but I will admit that Music Man does a good job with theirs. I love the feel of an all natural neck but the painted necks on Music Man basses feels very smooth.

With your SUB bass, I guess it depends on what you like. If you like the road worn look, leave the neck alone and let it brag about the hours played on it by the wear of the neck telling the story of its history. If you are like me and dislike painted necks, that bass would look awesome with an all natural neck look.
With your last option of repainting over the worn area, in my personal opinion, I would not do that. Unless you have it professionally done to match the entire neck or know how to professionally match the paint on the neck, the paint job will not look good. Plus the warn look I think actually looks cool. It tells the Bass has been played a lot and was probably played a lot because it was a reliable bass. Painting over the wear kind of erases the story it tells of its playing history.

 

[bassgrackle]

I hate hi gloss and painted necks.

 

[PWRL]

I'd play it as-is and not worry about it. To use old Ricks as an example, I used to see a lot of them with with the paint worn off the necks.

 

[Lo-E]

I don't really have strong feelings one way or another regarding painted necks, glossy or not.

Potato chips, on the other hand.... I love potato chips!

 

[James Collins]

I voted to just leave it be, but what I did with it would depend on how it felt. If I can feel the ding it drives me nuts. In that case, I would sand down the edges of the chipped spot smooth more than likely and then finish the spot with oil or something similar.

 

[rocu]

Eat a lot of potato chips and the rest of the paint should come right off.

Or, you could probably fix that with a sharpie.

These are probably not the best ideas in this thread.

 

[tlc1976]

I'd sand it all off and oil finish it, but I would have done that initially. I don't like paint or any glossy finish on the back of the neck. It slows me down and messes with my grip if my hands start to sweat. I sanded and oiled the Ibanez neck shortly after I got it.

 

[sleepyme666]

Smelling like potato chips and greasy...ok that made me cringe a bit lol.

 

[klejst]

Leave it. The back of the neck on my main player is maple however it has become a more darkish brown in most areas of it from being played a lot. I dig it and would never sand it and redo/restore it.

 

[dmt]

Aren’t all necks, besides oil-finished necks, painted? I mean, a clear coat is a type of paint as far as I’m concerned, though I’ll freely admit I’m no "Mr. Paint". Also, I’m not familiar with the bass in question — do you mean it is painted and no clear coat is over it so that you are just touching raw paint?

Anyone who knows about this stuff, I’d be interested to learn how it works. I always figured the basic idea was:
grain filler if needed, possibly sanding sealer, primer, paint of desired color, clear coat finish (with a ridiculous amount of sanding within and after each step)

Or, with no color,...hmm. Not sure about a primer there. Well, like I said, I’d be interested in learning

 

[sikamikanico]

Had a SUB, one of my least favorite neck finishes to date. It got very sticky playing for extended periods of time. I'm usually in the "leave it alone" camp, but I'd jump on the opportunity to strip that finish. Plus, I'd want to remove all crud from the previous owner...

Good bass otherwise. I have a love-hate relationship with Stingrays and it's clones (tilting towards hate), but for $160 I'd give it another try.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I’m in the final stages of buffing and polishing my Ric Build, which has a high gloss painted neck. My first bass was a 79’ 4001, and the “sticky” painted neck finish used to drive me nuts, guess I had sweaty hormonal teenage hands or something. Now that I’m a dry, scaly middle aged guy with callused hands, it doesn’t bother me. Given the choice on future builds, I’ll probably go satin oil finish.

 

[EZJA]

I have a MM SUB in teal rocking the same wear on the treble side of the neck. Since i am the first owner I know for sure it's not just ringrash. I wear no rings, never did too. What I always thought is that the paint failed to adhere properly on the treble side of the neck. I had it in mint state for about five years (it was my only bass so did some gigs every now and then). It started wearing between 2nd and 8th frets ever so slightly, just a fine stripe of wear right on the transition from neck to fretboard. One band later, I started playing it more often and took it on mini tours (max12days). And then things sped up quickly, it was on tour that I noticed it left some paint on my fingers so probably the strings too, I used a guitarpick to see how far the paint would flake. Not very far. I've thought about stripping the neck and giving it the standard MM neckfinish but I'm more concerned with the original finish of the bass. I don't like the texture and the teal colour changed too much over time.
Since it's my actual first bass if I would refinish I think I'd miss the wear I've put it through, I keep thinking about a refin but can't pull the trigger.
In general I don't mind glossy necks but I prefer the satin or matte feel more.

ps: damn you've got an absolute steal for that money! Mine is REALLY heavy but than again soundd real nice and especially loud for a passive!

 

[Fender_Bender]

I like to be able to see the grain of the wood. Why?, because if the grain is not really nice and straight it can effect its overall strength and stiffness as well as its stability.

 

[James Collins]

I have a MM SUB in teal rocking the same wear on the treble side of the neck. Since i am the first owner I know for sure it's not just ringrash. I wear no rings, never did too. What I always thought is that the paint failed to adhere properly on the treble side of the neck. I had it in mint state for about five years (it was my only bass so did some gigs every now and then). It started wearing between 2nd and 8th frets ever so slightly, just a fine stripe of wear right on the transition from neck to fretboard. One band later, I started playing it more often and took it on mini tours (max12days). And then things sped up quickly, it was on tour that I noticed it left some paint on my fingers so probably the strings too, I used a guitarpick to see how far the paint would flake. Not very far. I've thought about stripping the neck and giving it the standard MM neckfinish but I'm more concerned with the original finish of the bass. I don't like the texture and the teal colour changed too much over time.
Since it's my actual first bass if I would refinish I think I'd miss the wear I've put it through, I keep thinking about a refin but can't pull the trigger.
In general I don't mind glossy necks but I prefer the satin or matte feel more.

ps: damn you've got an absolute steal for that money! Mine is REALLY heavy but than again soundd real nice and especially loud for a passive!

I'm betting the time frame when things really sped up and you noticed paint on your finger tips had to do with the clear coat wearing out.

 

[Maxdusty]

I have a MM SUB in teal rocking the same wear on the treble side of the neck. Since i am the first owner I know for sure it's not just ringrash. I wear no rings, never did too. What I always thought is that the paint failed to adhere properly on the treble side of the neck. I had it in mint state for about five years (it was my only bass so did some gigs every now and then). It started wearing between 2nd and 8th frets ever so slightly, just a fine stripe of wear right on the transition from neck to fretboard. One band later, I started playing it more often and took it on mini tours (max12days). And then things sped up quickly, it was on tour that I noticed it left some paint on my fingers so probably the strings too, I used a guitarpick to see how far the paint would flake. Not very far. I've thought about stripping the neck and giving it the standard MM neckfinish but I'm more concerned with the original finish of the bass. I don't like the texture and the teal colour changed too much over time.
Since it's my actual first bass if I would refinish I think I'd miss the wear I've put it through, I keep thinking about a refin but can't pull the trigger.
In general I don't mind glossy necks but I prefer the satin or matte feel more.

ps: damn you've got an absolute steal for that money! Mine is REALLY heavy but than again soundd real nice and especially loud for a passive!

Very interesting! The wear marks look almost identical. Even though I'm leaving mine as it is and let time remove the paint on it's own, from what mdogs mentioned and from other people who have stripped it, it doesn't sound like it's all too hard to remove the paint should you want to do so. There is a clear coat varnish in between the bare wood and the paint layer so as mdogs mentioned earlier 20 minutes to scrub it off with a magic eraser. I think it's possible to remove the paint from the back of the headstock and sides so it matches the neck.
Prior to this, painted necks didn't really bother me as I've never worn the finish off any of my other ones, but this wearing out is something I haven't seen before.

 

[EZJA]

I'm betting the time frame when things really sped up and you noticed paint on your finger tips had to do with the clear coat wearing out.

Well I'm not sure it has a clear coat, I can see three layers through the wear: outside layer is Black glossy paint (used to be matte but playing it seems to polish it to a gloss), under that a layer of black paint that looks more like a primer (pretty rough, yet shiny), and under it all just a clear coat which i'm also beginning to wear through (black paint dust is creeping in the bare wood now)