Oiled neck or painted ?

[pmag55]

Help! should I order my new Jackson with an oiled or painted neck. What are the pros and cons of each? Thanks.

 

[chuckelator]

Oiled necks will be faster, but more susceptible to warping and the like. A hard finish will help prevent damage to the neck, but will have more drag when moving up and down the neck. I find a great medium between the two is a nitro finish. Nice and slick (though not quite as fast as an oiled neck), and it's still a hard finish.

 

[dreyn77]

paint sits on top and blocks the wood from drying quickly causing giant splits in maple.
you have to keep replacing the paint that comes off/ wears down.


Oil soaks in and layer apon layer needs to be applied until a surface sheen is made. then this wears ofF or disappears over time. SO you have to keep replaceing the oil regularly.

warping it due to twisted wood grain or uneven wet/dry wood drying/evapourating.
the guitars bridge has some room for adjustments to compensate.
A slight twist towards the treble side is OK.

the paint/clear type does have an effect on playing feel. Poly seems to 'grip' your hand and nitro seems to slip better but it can't get wet. rapid polishing and colour change happens. it's actually melting and re hardening and comming off.
poly finish with paint defects (like orange peeling) is a really slippery feeling finish. it lasts for a long time and could be the best finish for a neck.
it looks strange and so factories don't want it present when the customer comes to buy.

if you want to slow the paint wear or the oil wear/evapouration, you need to coat a small layer of melted paste wax on the guitar.

 

[dreyn77]

to slow chrome corrosion you need wax sitting on top of the chrome.

 

[EL 34]

i sanded down one of my necks and it got saturated with oils in my hand. it's very fast and smooth playing. a better neck i've played which was just as fast, if not faster, was a G&L with satin finish. gloss finishes really slow down the hand.

what kind of paint does jackson offer for the neck?

 

[hbucker]

I love oiled necks. All of my guitars would have oiled necks if I bad it my way.

 

[Marshall Art]

Oil if you ask me. I hate painted necks.

 

[hellride]

Oiled for sure. On my guitars with painted necks, I have either sanded the finish of and oiled them or matted the paint down a bit with a scotch-brite (and that's just because I've been to lazy to sand it of)

 

[Barfly]

without a doubt, oil! Big difference. I have oiled, satin (which are good) and painted. Oiled necks are wonderful.

 

[guitargoalie]

Oiled for sure. My LP has a satin nitro that is real fast too, but my oiled peaveys are the fastest.

 

[Stringjunkie]

As long as its not a gloss finish paint it doesn't bother me. That stuff is sticky

 

[BobPeabody67]

Unfinished, with natural oils worked in through playing.

Not really the same thing as oiled, but it feels the best to me.

 

[dreyn77]

Natural oils?
I love it!
put your finger on a black piece of paper in a book.
notice the finger print?
is it dripping with oil?

it's BS!
your face would be covered in pimpells if you made enough oil to oil a neck!
You'd be eating a 20kg bag on nuts every week to make oil come out your hands.

90% of what comes out of your body is toxins and acid. that why the metal bridges corrode super quick!

Oh by the way, if you want a nice black oil finish on that neck, then use beef fat/lard. it mixes with the sweat toxins/acid and goes black. checkout old wooden handplane tools.

 

[hbucker]

Through use and cleaning (with lemon oil) oiled necks do develop a protective patina. Necks of mine that were once very susceptible to room humidity are no longer vulnerable in the same ways. This has taken years, but yes, a variety of "oils" do build up and get rubbed/absorbed into the neck. The result is a neck that is protected from any elements a responsible guitar owner would need to concern themselves with.

And people's skin does generate oils, and they do tend to be oily and smelly if they don't shower fairly often.

 

[sinner 13]

I've got One thats nitro over maple, and another maple neck that is finished with a combo of Formby's, BLO, and beeswax that I treated and polished out with micromesh.

the nitro is nice but in humid weather it gets sticky. I am planning to strip it and refinish it like my oiled.

the oiled one is like glass, super smooth and wicked fast.

raw / polished /oiled is the way to go.. Just MHO, YMMV.

 

[pmag55]

Hey, you guys are hilarious, with that being said ,is the speed of a neck that important say for a rhythm, second guitar type of player. I'll be honest with you , a shredder I ain't but I like shredder type guitars. I have a painted neck lower end Ibanez and the paint is very slick on it, but I have tried some Jacksons and Gibsons and they seemed stickier.

 

[alhayesmusic]

Oiled

 

[pmag55]

Geeze , that reply was so short, I almost didn`t see it. But with all the great ( and some humorous ) recommendations, It seems like oiled is the way to go. Thanks guys.

 

[hbucker]

Fast or not (I'm not a shredder either) it just feels nice and my hand glides up and down the neck much more smoothly. And if the neck has tung oil on it, it is sealed from the elements and maintains it's wood feel.

 

[guitargoalie]

thanks Edward.