Finishing a Guitar neck. Total Noob question?

Creed_Clicks

Hi guys. I have a rockinger strat maple guitar neck with a maple fretboard. 100% Unfinished. No hardware or nut on it yet. I'd like to apply some kind of finish to it. e.g. some coats of linseed oil or similar would be fine. My question is do I put the same amount of finish on the fretboard as well? How many coats would you recommend giving a neck? I would guess there is no need to apply anything in the tuning peg holes or where the neck will be fixed to the body?

Roland

There are two reasons to finish a neck. The first is to help the wood remain stable by limiting water uptake and loss as air humidity changes. The second is to help keep it clean.

I don’t like heavy finishes, so I’d wipe it with three coats of an oil/wax finish. Osmo 3032 is my favourite. If you want a thicker finish then you can add more to the back of the neck.

Creed_Clicks

@Roland ok thanks for the info. Should I sand and coat, as I would with a body? Should I leave the heel alone, e.g. anything that will be covered by the body once bolted on?

Roland

I’d do the heel too, otherwise it will shrink and swell as humidity changes.

Creed_Clicks

Rainy day project started. So linseed oil would be the WRONG thing to use in this case?

pickerg

Slight hijack - I use a bit of tru oil on the back of my bare wood maple neck but was thinking of using wax too.

Was thinking of the stuff from Monty’s but guessing it’s something that’s just pre-packaged with a markup for the fancy packaging

Anyone know what that is or what Fender CS or Music Man use on their ‘unfinished’ necks?

Would that Osmo 3230 be the stuff to try?

Cheers

WezV

I like natural bri wax.


You can find the recipe for the musicman stuff online.  I think its equal parts beeswax and mineral oil.  Briwax is pretty similar to that.

paulnb57

I use two coats of Tru Oil, seals the wood, silky smooth

WezV

For me the wax is used as well as oil, not instead of

pickerg

WezV said:

I like natural bri wax.


You can find the recipe for the musicman stuff online.  I think its equal parts beeswax and mineral oil.  Briwax is pretty similar to that.

Thanks, that’s really useful. Had a look online and it does seem Music Man use the gun stock oil then wax, which does look the pretty much the same blend as the bri wax you mentioned. I’ll give that a go this week.

paulnb57 said:

I use two coats of Tru Oil, seals the wood, silky smooth

Cheers, that’s what I’ve been doing, gonna give the wax a go too.

Flip

I prefer the fretboard untreated except for a few drops of D'addario fingerboard conditioner. On the neck I use a very light dressing of boiled linseed oil, nothing else. Gun oil if you wish but boiled linseed oil is less expensive and the finish is beautiful.

Creed_Clicks

@Flip I already have the linseed oil so will check out the fretboard conditioner 

Flip

Creed_Clicks said:

@Flip I already have the linseed oil so will check out the fretboard conditioner 

Sorry, offlline for a couple of days. I'm sure you'll be happy with the result.

Creed_Clicks

@Flip Hopefully. I might do the same to a body I have lying around. (Guitar body that is!) A dark brown stain would be nice.

victorludorum

Osmo is good

Creed_Clicks

victorludorum said:

Osmo is good

Will check it out. Just a few coats?

Roland

Two or three

Flip

Creed_Clicks said:

@Flip Hopefully. I might do the same to a body I have lying around. (Guitar body that is!) A dark brown stain would be nice.

I wouldn't use oil on the body. My gut instinct is that even after several rub downs there's a chance that the il will come off on the player's clothes. I prefer to clear coat. I've used acrylic spray and severely thinned wipe on poly successfully though the spray's not as hard work.

Creed_Clicks

@Flip good advice thanks. I didn't think about the oil coming off on my clothes.

TTony

Creed_Clicks said:

@Flip good advice thanks. I didn't think about the oil coming off on my clothes.

It doesn't.

I've oiled many (guitar) bodies, sometimes over stain, sometimes just over the wood.  It doesn't "come off" unless you're picking up the body up when it's still wet!

Through time, an oil finish will wear, but then so will most finishes.

WezV

If you rubbed it down with olive oil it might come off on your clothes.... but lets assume we are talking about finishing oils rather than cooking ones.