Official Luthiers Forum!

At my request the customer sent the neck back. He's RIGHT! It is sort of "tacky" or slightly "sticky". Now not like tape or anything... just Not Hard and smooth like normal. Almost feels like you can stick your finger nail into it easily. Your hand sort of sticks or grabs on as you move along the neck. It is particularly noticable if you are trying to move from the 5th position to say the twelvth quickly ( or vice versa). I wiped it down with a clean paper towel...nothing else and it semmed to improve for a second then seemed gummy or sticky again. Not like chewing gum just a light light tack...ANY SUGGESTIONS?

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

I read your other post and I didn't see it mentioned if you were overspraying the old finish or if you stripped the old finish and then refinished the neck. I had the same problem many years ago with an old banjo neck that the customer wanted oversprayed to blend in some repairs. I sprayed it with Deft spray can lacquer. The new finish never did harden. It was so soft I could imprint my thumb print into the finish. I finally tried overspraying the new finish with Guardsman lacquer through a spray gun. Luckily, the Guardsman lacquer hardened everything up nicely. I believe the problem was the old original lacquer reacting with the thin Deft from the spray can. I've used Guardsman lacquer ever since. Valspar bought Guardsman and sells the same water white lacquer under their own brand name. I'm not sure what to recommend to you other than to try overspraying with another high solids lacquer through a spray gun. If you can find it try Valspar, but I would think that other lacquers would work too. It's worth a try to avoid having to strip the whole neck.Neil38482.6464467593

I strongly recommend that you do not overspray (three different kinds of
lacquer on a neck that is having problems with finish curing?). Strip the
back of the neck (if the board is good leave it alone and mask it, letting
your new finish overlap the edge just a tad) and start from wood with a
reliable lacquer like Behlens.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I did not strip the back of the neck finish off since it was in good condition. I sprayed over the old Fender Laquer. Perhaps that's the problem. I guess I will have to strip it back and re-spray. The fingerboard is fine. So I'll mask it and go from there. THANKS EVERYONE!

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

I was very happy that overspraying with the Guardsman lacquer worked for me on that old banjo neck. My next step would have been to strip the neck and refinish the whole thing so it didn't hurt to try. I was able to save the nice patena of the old finish since it worked out. I would like to know more about why it worked, though. At the time, I thought that the Deft was just not very good finish. But I have a friend who is a world leading harp maker who uses it exclusively and swears by it. He uses a high solids version through a spray gun. The spray can version, no doubt,has more solvent content. It would be interesting to know more about the chemistry of lacquer. I have a lot of good finish reference books, but this problem is beyond their scope. I am glad I have never run into this problem again in the 12 years I have been doing repair work for a living. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Thanks Neil and Howard,
I have seen this before on both Gibsons and Fenders and always after someone else has done a repair and re-sprayed. I too was trying to preserve the patina and that's why I switched from my tinted Gun Nitro( used on fretboard) to the clear can nitro for the back of the neck. I just don't know what caused this. I have a customer that has been ailing with this problem on an old L.P. and he puts up with it rather than re-finishing the neck. I think I may try some new Behlens and see if that cures the problem...if not I am striping it down...what else can I do?

_________________
Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"