A lot of people complain that low end guitars have thick blocky necks. I've also heard that some necks are smoother if you sand them to remove the lacquer finish.

I'm wondering... could it be possible to sand a neck down so much that it would actually become noticabley thinner and more playable? I may be buying some generic noname brand axe from a friend soon that has some cool features but I think the neck might be thick(I haven't played it though). Could I possibly sand it down so much to make it more playable? Has anyone tried this? Any tips on how to do it to get it symmetrical or do you just simply sand the thing like crazy until you're happy? Should I use some sort of oil afterwards?

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yes its possible, thats how a guitar builder would do it too if u ask him to make the neck smaller.

sanded down neck play much nicer imo, they dont get sticky when ur hands are starting to sweat.

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Don't worry too much about getting a guitar neck lopsided ... even the smallest increment of wood taken off can make a huge difference in feel to your hands. In other words, what I'm saying is that your hands will have to be damned near numb and nerveless to make a significant mistake. You'd have to sand, and sand, and sand to make it feel 'lopsided'. Ive sanded down two necks, and in both instances I just took the paint off and sanded straight down the middle and it gave me exactly the feel I wanted. Keep in mind that the lower-quality build of the guitar you have, the shorter it will take. I used to have a B.C. Rich NJ Warlock ( don't laugh ) and it seriously took about 30 minutes to get it to where I wanted it, as opposed to my Schecter C-1 Classic ( don't cringe! ), which took a few days to get where I wanted it.

I assume it took longer because of the quality of the maple neckwood.

Right down the middle only? Shouldn't it be done with a sandpaper bent over the whole neck to get it more symmetrical? I dunno but I have the impression that if I sand it only down the center the neck may end up like a trapezoid sort of shape, lol. I dunno how big the neck is, but I want to make it uber thin. In fact I think I might give a shot at fret-scalloping later on.

What kind of sandpaper should I use? Fine or coarse paper?
How did you clean it afterwards? Did you apply lemon oil or something?

Heh, it's going to kick ass, as I'm going to spend very little on the guitar, and it already has a licensed floyd rose so I don't need to route it, if it really sucks I'll keep it blocked until I can buy a new Floyd bridge or wait til the Kahler adjustment plates come out. The locking nut it has looks pretty cheap, so I might get a graphite one and a string retainer bar. I'm also going to rewire and insulate it and get a coil-tapable volume pot with an X2N or Invader, depending on the tonal qualities(if any) of the body "Elmwood".

I'll also get a decal of a blasphagram(inverted cross/pentagram like the Morbid Angel logo) on the headstock and my last name on the truss rod cover for shits. It's a no name brand knockoff btw, doesn't even have a brand name on the headstock. It's an Ironbird style body with a pointy Dean style headstock, like Vogg's from Decapitated or Mauser's from Vader, it looks like the Ran I've always dreamed of.

What is elmwood exactly? A lot of manufacturers give different names to wood... like Nato is supposedly cheaper mahogany, basswood is given a different name too. Agathis I think is the same name given to alder but I'm not sure. Anyone know if what elmwood sounds like? If it's a weak thin plywood sounding piece of crap I'll just get an Invader to slam it with some mid low growl. Or if it's bassy I'll get an X2N to avoid muddiness. I don't really want an EMG...

Well if I win the auction I'll post some pics before and after the heavy modding.

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Sounds like a good idea. If you're patient enough, I'll do it to my old guitar when I go home next week and get pictures etc for you. It's one of the old warlocks that has been painted really badly and excessively. It hasn't got wiring in either, but is often used as a prop in films, the last being a psychadelic violin played with a knife

Anyway the neck is quite thick and could do with sanding. On another notem, this warlock I speak of was the guitar I scalloped myself - I actually prefered the scallops on this neck to those on the dissapointing YJM strat I owned

I'd put Tung oil on the neck if I were you, I played a bass with a Tung oil finish and it was the smoothest neck i've ever played....

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Hmm... well in the end I didn't end up buying that no-name brand guitar, I got myself an NJ Ironbird for 150$, so I'm not sure if I wanna do this now. :P But I'll keep it in mind for some guitar project I'll try someday. Thanks for the tips.

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Hmm... well in the end I didn't end up buying that no-name brand guitar, I got myself an NJ Ironbird for 150$, so I'm not sure if I wanna do this now. :P But I'll keep it in mind for some guitar project I'll try someday. Thanks for the tips.

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I prefer just the smooth wood on necks, I hate the glossy plastic feeling finish everywhere on a guitar. Makes it sound so quiet and bassy. Wood necks are the shit. Plasticy gloss finish crap is sticky and hard to move around on.

^ +1

Well, after realizing just how thick the neck is on my NJ Ironbird, last night I decided to sand that motherfucker down. I used fine sandpaper, so I really didn't make the neck noticably thinner. It's smoother and easier to play on now, but still not thin-as-fuck like my Jackson. Should I get some tougher sandpaper and sand it down to the point that the neck becomes thinner? I'm thinking that it would do no damage to the guitar's neck, less I expose the truss rod. :P How low can you go when sanding a neck down?

Edit: Ok, so I bought some more assorted sandpaper and sanded for like 2 and a half hours straight. The neck is a bit thinner now. I sort of fucked up 2 of the frets because the masking/electrical tape I used to protect the beginning of the fingerboard left some gooey shit there so I had to sand it a bit til I realized I was fucking up the fingerboard. Luckily only 2 frets are scratched, I used q-tips to clean the rest of the guitars frets and fingerboard spaces(for a used guitar it was dirty as fuck).

Can't wait to get those parts I need for the tremolo, it's going to kick ass.

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What you're gonna wanna do is use the most gritty sand paper first to take off all the bulk and then once its thin enough you're gonna wanna use the really fine sand paper to make it all nice and silky smooth.

Exactly what I did. I think I'm going to use the fine sandpaper a bit more though but the Ironbird plays a lot better now. I'd use the fine one on my Jackson Kelly but I'm too afraid of hurting the guitar. :P

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