Questions about roasted maple necks

[wproffitt]

Hello All!
I’m ordering a new neck from Musikraft for my JM in the next month or so and I’ve got a couple of questions for those of you in the know:

1) does a roasted neck with a sealer coat of nitro “finished”? That is, would it get grimy over time without further treatment or is it good to go? I ask because I like the idea of a very smooth, satiny feel to the back of a guitar’s neck and think this could achieve that.
2) musikraft offers 4 different truss rod options. People seem to have strong feelings about having a truss rod hat adjusts at the headstock, but why would I want one that adjusts at the heel?

Thanks for your help!

[thegumbootman]

Hello All!
I’m ordering a new neck from Musikraft for my JM in the next month or so and I’ve got a couple of questions for those of you in the know:

1) does a roasted neck with a sealer coat of nitro “finished”? That is, would it get grimy over time without further treatment or is it good to go? I ask because I like the idea of a very smooth, satiny feel to the back of a guitar’s neck and think this could achieve that.
2) musikraft offers 4 different truss rod options. People seem to have strong feelings about having a truss rod hat adjusts at the headstock, but why would I want one that adjusts at the heel?

Thanks for your help!

I have a Musikraft roasted maple Jazzmaster neck with the $20 thin laquer sealer - it has a super smooth satiny feel to it.

I've owned two guitars with nitro necks (Johnny Marr Jag and Eric Johnson Strat) and I have found the nitro necks to have a bit of a sticky feel to them. Not super keen on nitro necks after that, but other people seem to love them.

[kdanie]

I have several necks finished in nitro lacquer and acrylic lacquer, done right they are all smooth and slick. My favorite (I wont be using any type lacquer again) is 3 coats of Tru-oil and buff it down with 0000 steel wool. Slicker than snot on a brass doorknob but sealed "enough". That should work wonderfully on a roasted maple neck. I haven't tried roasted maple yet but that's coming soon for my telemaster/jazzcaster.

ken

[bacca51]

I haven't played a roasted maple neck, so I'll chime in on your second question. The truss rod placement is all about aesthetics. People who want the truss rod at the heel want that classic 60s clean headstock.

[hpr_hpr]

1. I have a roasted maple neck finished with OSMO poly-X oil (an oil finish with a high wax content, was recommended to me as the best thing ever the people who built the neck had found for an oil finish ... don't know about best ever but I'm darn happy with it). It's smooth as silk and after a year+ still looks brand new, the advantage of an oil finish over nitro is that it's very easily touched up once it wears (also gives you as much of the 'wood' feel as possible). On my neck it's completely smooth without the 'sticky' feel that a buffed out poly or lacquer finish has. I don't know how 'thick' a nitro sealer is but I imagine it will wear through faster than a full thickness finish and once it's worn through the wood will start to accumulate 'grime'. I'm not sure how easy it is to 'touch up' once that happens, I'm sure there are other people on the forum who can tell you, it may be fairly easy. I do not think applying oil after a lacquer sealer will 'work' (never tried it, and I wouldn't take the risk). Applying an oil finish is dead simple ... keep the neck at at room temperature (not in a garage or cold shop), wipe it on, wait 5 minutes or so and wipe it off, repeat after 6+ hours and repeat until the wood won't absorb any more (which for roasted maple is probably 3 or 4 coats, additional coats may - depending on the oil used - build a thicker finish), wait at least 48 hr (better a week or 2) then give the back of the neck a light sanding with 800-1000 grit sandpaper and optionally finish with a light coat of paste wax (the wax when buffed out with a rag will give you more gloss on the areas of the neck you do not frequently handle, oil finishes alone are - unless you apply A LOT of coats of a polymerizing oil - satin.

2. truss rods . . . heel adjustment = (for what it's worth) vintage correct and will give you a 'cleaner' look at the headstock, headstock adjustment . . . you don't have to disassemble your neck pickup to get at it . . . single acting rods let you adjust only against the pull of the strings, dual acting let you adjust both with and against the string pull . . . single acting have one rod and thus are (generally) lighter than dual acting rods which have 2 rods.

It all depends on how you are using the guitar in the end, i.e. how often you expect to adjust the truss rod . . . if you are a casual player who doesn't take frequent (large) trips and plays with a medium action setup you'll be fine with a single heal adjustable rod, on the other hand if you do a lot of traveling, don't have time to let the guitar acclimatize and like super low action you will quite probably be better off with a dual action headstock adjustable rod . . . .

[Ayrton]

With sealed roasted maple, you could just burnish the neck, and that gives it a great feel. However, if it were me, a few coats of Tru Oil followed up with some wax is the way to go. The neck still has a "wood" feel, but smooth and protects against moisture.

Truss rod location is about aesthetics and access. I like single "vintage" style rods for the minimal amount of wood removal it takes to install them, and on vintage style builds I chose a heel adjust.

Some players are constantly adjusting the rod on their guitars, and others very rarely. I set up my guitars the same and almost never have to make rod adjustments. That does not mean I am somehow special, just that the small amount of seasonal movement does not affect how the instrument plays to me.

Choose what you think works best for you.

[wproffitt]

Thanks for the replies!
It sounds like tru oil and wax could be a winning combination here. Okay, now a couple of follow up questions:
1) I would like to have a warranty for the Musikraft neck and in order to do that, they make you pay for the nitro sealer coat. It sounds like if I wanted to go the tru oil route that this could be problematic. Should I just take the risk and order it without a sealer?
2) what kind of wax are we talking about putting over the tru oil? Meguiars?

Thanks again!

P.S. does anyone have pictures of a roasted neck with a tru oil finish?

[Ayrton]

Tru Oil over the sealer is totally fine. You can always knock back the sealer coat with 320 paper.

The wax comes from Birchwood Casey

https://www.birchwoodcasey.com/Refinish ... k-Wax.aspx

This is Tru Oil/wax on roasted birdseye

http://davanzoguitars.com/da004

[JVG]

I've bought 2 roasted maple necks from Musikraft. Both times I took the $20 nitro sealer option, and they're good to go - no other finishing required. Totally recommended. The smell of roasted maple is awesome too

Cheers!
J.