Ax40 neck refinish

[Eric O'Reilly]

Ive refinished my ax40 neck two weeks ago and it looks and feels great. I used a few different products. Ill post some pics.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

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[TNT]

Eric, was that the first time you did a neck?? What line of procedure did you follow?

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

I stripped the neck and fretboard down to bare wood, then rubbed it down with naptha,allowed a day for drying,applied a few thin coats of watco danish oil(natural) color, rubbed it in with a clean rag. When I read that ebmm used birchwood casey tru oil I was going to use that, but I tried it on some spare wood and liked the danish oil better, I was going for a neck tint. Then finally i used some howards feed n wax, wich consists of orange oil and beeswax, mainly beeswax for its more of a paste. And yes this was my first neck, I think it feels great you can still feel some of the grain but its protected by the oil wax finish.

 

[TNT]

yeah, there's "nothing" like THE neck of your dreams. Nice to know that you had something to do with it. Glad it worked out, because sometimes it just doesn't.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

This is the thread I did on the neck refinish, like i said start sanding with 600 grit then 800 grit, use your mind and do it to taste, but like the ebmm necks it will be smooth but still retain the natural wood feel, and as an update its been almost a year of everyday playing and it feels even better! Do this refinish and you will love it!

 

[ozzyrules]

Eric,
How does it feel? When I did my Emerald Green BFR Ass neck, it felt like silk. I love a brand new neck, or a newly refinished one.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

It feels great! Like an old baseball bat. Wicked smooth but still wood grainy, a pleasure to play, turned out to be a killer axe! With the real axis pups, refinished neck, its almost like an axis, an axis special if you will. Lol.

 

[dlettau]

Did you remove the neck when you re-finished the neck?

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

I did not, you can however, I taped off the parts near the body and used sandpaper very carefully, i also did the fret board, the entire surface, front, back.

 

[dlettau]

Cool. I think I am going to do the back of the neck to start. Is there a finish on the back of the neck? It doesn't feel like there is much of a finish on it.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

They use a parifin oil treatment for one day, let it dry then they use a light spray of poly, (a maple necks worst enemy)imo, lol, but dont worry its very easy to get off with the steps I listed above, you can get it down to bare wood in no time, youl be able to tell when the finish is off by blowing off and rubbing all the white dust that will be coming off as you sand, when you can feel the grain of the wood in your hands your good to go, make sure you remove all finish evenly from bottom all the way to right under the back of the locking nut and drill holes on the back of the neck, sand evenly right up to that line, then start rubbing in your oil, really hard and fast with a clean rag, friction is the key and heat, after the wood has drank up the first coat repeat one or two more times, then wait a day, the next night see how it feels, if it need extra fine sanding? With like 1000 grit paper? Or not? Now start the wax, same process fast and hard with a clean rag, but repeat this process a few more times than the oil, I STRONGLY recommend the products i used for ive use the others and these are much better. But if any more questions just post them, cant wait to see!