Check out this sterling neck

[Eric O'Reilly]

Pretty nice figuring for sterling! I have sanded and oiled it to have the real finish, but is this one of Brians examples of "insane" once a blue moon sterling highly figured necks? If anyone here has a sterling with a neck even close or better please post i would love to see some great sterling examples.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Forgive the upside down photos, they always do that here, could one of the mods help me out and maybe blow up the pic? I am working from an iphone6 plus and dont think i can make the photos big, but if you can show me how please do, thanks!

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Heres a better lighting shot

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

I would love to see some other examples of a great sterling neck, most ive seen were just no figure at all, but this ones great, any others?

 

[Tollywood]

That is a sweet neck. Is that the new one?

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Yes it is, and for an import isnt it crazy? It didnt look like that when i got it, i sanded and oiled it, and WOW!

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

It looks like some flame in there?

 

[Tollywood]

Yeah, you really made it pop. It looks amazing.

I wonder if that is something they might consider doing at the factory?

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

Honestly i think they should! It dramaticly improves playability and and feel and texture, and looks amazing! Ive noticed that with maple, no matter what, there is at least some figuring hiding in there that needs to be oiled and sanded and caressed out,
Seriously if Brian is interested i will talk with him about my exact recipe, because this neck look NOTHING like it does now, and if plays like a dream, i would love to help sbmm add that to their line. I love sbmm and are such a spokesperson in the Boston area, i have turned on so many people to them, and Ebmm for that matter!

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

It would be so cool to be able to help the company i love, im sure they could do it great themselves, but there are a few tricks, its not just sand, oil, wipe. Like with ebmm. What I did was a few days of sanding and then mineral oils , more sanding, wax, more sanding then ..... Well needless to say it took a few days, but its fun and easy. I would love to help if i can, anyone who wants to know , hit me up! Thanks.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

I know sterling is a budget guitar but i think a figured neck would be key. I think a figured neck and real maple top would garner an extra $100. And i know people are gonna say " thats almost an axis!" But it would still have the sterling bridge and tuners, but here are my suggestions.

1) maple top

2) figured oil wax neck,


3) chrome toggle switch.
That would be key! And of course colors made to order, tribute colors, special run of tribute colors,
Maybe a BFR sterling? But the most important key is the unfinished highly figrued neck, i know that figured wood is more money, but totally worth it, if just one of my requests is met i wish it to be the unfinished figured birdseye flame necks.
Please Brian!!!!! Figured necks, give a taste of th best to us with shallower pockets.
Everytime i get to play an ebmm, i go home and try my best to make my sbmm neck feel like it. I finally have it really really close! And i wish you guys did the birdseye! Its such a touch of class that sets a guitar apart from the rest, as you can see the pics above of my new neck from you guys, I got it to look GREAT, and it did not have hardly any figure, until i sanded and oiled and re sanded and re oiled and waxed and so forth and so on. Now it looks and feels incredible, now imagine a neck that already had figure and then got that treatment? It would be stunning! maybe do a special run of sterling ax40s that have my suggestions, i would bet people would see the value, and people who already one , would get the new one because of its special features! What do you guys think?

 

[MajtasticVoyage]

I'm not seeing what you're seeing, but as long as you're happy

 

[Bob123]

That particular neck doesn't strike me as anything out of the ordinary personally.

Ironically, that one has about as much figure as my legitimate axis (irritating honestly), but more than that it appears to be slightly quarter sawn, which is far more important than any figure.


Unless it looks like this, I wouldn't have cause for alarm on a sterling model

 

[ksandvik]

I just got a used Axis and I must say, 10+ years of neck use makes the neck feel nice. Time to start working on my newer models to get that same neck nirvana feeling.

 

[Bob123]

take the round edge of a screw driver and run it between the frets. Collapses the wood fibers (Same as your fingers do over time), and gives that "worn in feel" that you're looking for. Takes some time to do this properly. Don't be sanding it, that's just removing wood and is only temporary. First mod I do on any guitar that comes into my possession.

 

[Eric O'Reilly]

I just thought it to be cool because every other sterling ive seen has ZERO grain or figure period, just a blank maple neck. So im glad mine is decent.