Neck shave

[quiksilver]

Thin neck lover that I am, I'm thinking of getting the necks on a couple of my guitars shaved. Has anyone had this done, and how was the experience (i.e., any problems with neck instability afterward, hard to find someone to do it, etc.)?

[noodlesatf]

Re: Neck shave



Use one of these, your neck will come out nice and smooth, no bumps or nicks! Sorry, couldn't resist...

[quiksilver]

Re: Neck shave

[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I should've expected that.

[sully]

Re: Neck shave

i've done it. you can use either a cabinet scraper (you can get them at stewmac), a spokeshave, or plain ol' sandpaper. i'd recommend sandpaper, as it takes a bit longer, which is a good thing. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] the neck i shaved down was very thick to begin with, and i only took a 16th of an inch off. i wouldn't take off a ton of wood, b/c you can't put it back on, if ya know what i mean.

since it's a permanent mod, have you thought about a replacement neck instead?

sully

[zeegler]

Re: Neck shave

I have done it myself. I used a palm sander. It's much easier to control than a belt sander. Make sure you have enough material behind the truss rod before you start. I took 1/8" off the neck. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it sure felt thinner. The neck was just as stable after I shaved it.

[quiksilver]

Re: Neck shave

Actually, these are neck-throughs. That's why I was thinking of taking it to a pro (if I can find one). I did sand & then oil the neck on my MusicYo-era Steinberger, which improved it greatly IMO.

[noodlesatf]

Re: Neck shave

I took about 1/16th of an inch off a Washburn set neck I had, and I did it the same way: sandpaper. Pick up the sanding disks with adehesive on one side, designed for use with orbital sanders. Stick it to your hand, then grip the neck like you are playing, sanding the full length of the neck with each pass (you want to remove a uniform amount of material with each pass). This had the added benifit of fitting the neck to my hand perfectly. Go a little at a time, stopping periodicaly to check the feel. Like Sully said, you don't want to remove too much. I started with something around 180 grit, and went up from there for finish sanding.

[quiksilver]

Re: Neck shave

Cool idea, Noodles. My main concern is to do an even job up and down the neck, and your method should help with that. I like the idea of fitting it to your hand, too. Sounds cool. Maybe that's how EVH came up with his asymmetric neck backshape for the Wolfgangs?

[noodlesatf]

Re: Neck shave

With custom neck profiles, it all starts at some point off of a known baseline. You just shave a little at a time, then play it and note the positive differences and remaining negative deficiencies. The Wolfgang neck was based off an old neck EVH had been playing for years and had "broken in" just the way he liked. Peavey just mapped it in CAD and CNC'ed the sucker.

The sanding discs are much more expensive than a regular sheet of sandpaper, but that is a small tradeoff in control to me. It doesn't move in your hand, you have a much better "feel" of what you're doing to the material, and you're fine tuning it to you. The drawback is this guitar will probably play like crap for other people, but you're not intending on selling it, right?

This little trick came from my bass player, who worked for Taylor for a while. He knows all kinds of cool little finishing tricks. Just remember to go slow, and rotate your hand as required for what you're trying to accomplish. I like to rool my hand as I go up the neck, to account for the different hand position used when I play lead versus rhythm. Once you begin to think outside of the box, you can start shaping it however you please. Good luck! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[delt]

Re: Neck shave

What i'd like to do is shave off the stupid "heel" from bolt-on necks, so that instead of looking like this:



it would look like this: