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Sanded/unfinished Jazz Neck?

BiggieSmalls

BiggieSmalls

Aug 26, 2007
57
5
Dallas.TX
#1
I'm thinking of sanding my Jazz's neck to get more of an unfinished feel to it. I know that bassists like Geddy Lee do this and also I've played a PRS guitar that had an unfinished neck and it felt a great deal more comfortable to play than the finished necks.

My question is whether anyone has done this? If so, how did you do it? I guess another option is to just buy a new unfinished neck and replace my current one.

Of course, any additional suggestions are welcomed.
 
#4
I have an unfinished neck on my '87 P-Bass and a very finished neck on my '02 SR4... very different but I like them both. If the feel of one or the other is inhibiting your playing, do something about it. If it is a semantics question, go to GC and play everything on the wall & see what feels right.
 
#6
Generally speaking, "unfinished" necks are usually finished with oil to give them some protection from the elements/humidity. If your bass has a shiny, gloss-finished neck, a green Scotch Brite pad (found at any grocery store) will knock the shine off and give you a satin feel pretty easily. If you want to go all the way down to the wood, do a little research about oil finishes.
 
#10
I've taken the gloss finish off every bass neck I've owned for the last 25 years. I tend to perspire and gloss gets sticky.
I get paint remover, let it do it's job, scrape(careful...use a plastic scraper), and then patiently sand by hand. I then use lemon oil and rub lightly. This may not qualify as "unfinished" but it has a great natural wood feel and you can work with it. When I change strings I gently rub the back of the neck with steel wool and add a little more lemon oil. Between the oil and my natural "funk" my necks feel great and wonderfully natural.
 
#11
Its really simple just get some 1500-2000 grit wet sand paper from your auto parts store and a cup of water...
The plan is to lightly wet sand the neck just like they do in body shops on cars...Dip the sand paper and than go up and down the neck with a light and even pressure you will start to see a white foamy material coming off which is fine...Keep the paper wet at all times...
every 2 minutes wipe the neck with a dry rag and look for shiny spots...
You have just done a matt finish which is still fully protecting your neck but feels silky smooth...
 
#13
You can use masking tape to give a nice clean line between what you've satinized and what you haven't.

Mask off the sides of the finger board (to save your dots) at the very least. Scotch Brite is great stuff for this little project.
 
#14
billfoss said:
I've taken the gloss finish off every bass neck I've owned for the last 25 years. I tend to perspire and gloss gets sticky.
I get paint remover, let it do it's job, scrape(careful...use a plastic scraper), and then patiently sand by hand. I then use lemon oil and rub lightly. This may not qualify as "unfinished" but it has a great natural wood feel and you can work with it. When I change strings I gently rub the back of the neck with steel wool and add a little more lemon oil. Between the oil and my natural "funk" my necks feel great and wonderfully natural.
Click to expand...

One questions about this... if you go to the wood will the paint remover damage the neck in any way?
 
#15
I've done this to basses in the past and the general consensus I found on various forums (both guitar and bass related), was to use either an ultra fine grit sandpaper (like 2000) or #0000 grade steel wool. I like the steel wool, personally. It'll take some time and effort, but it's far better than risking scratching the neck or body with something that'll do damage. If you use steel wool make sure to put masking tape over the pickup magnets or else you'll wind up with tiny bits of steel all over your pickups.
 
#17
Well.. just got finished doing this. I used the wet sandpaper method and started small, testing it then finished and didn't have any hickups.

I have to say that everything went perfect... no complaints. My bass neck now feels awesome... very smmmooth and comfortable. Honestly, I'm surprised that everything went so well. Very glad I did it though.

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments. Much appreciated.
 

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