Tung oil on maple neck - Tele.

[blackcat]

I had the luthier here in our village ( France ) strip the maple neck ( factory finished by Fender with the sticky ( to my hands ) golden syrup spec' ) of my Tele with tung oil which I love. Just a question about durability/longevity and/or maintenace. Mikaël has moved from the area so contact is not an option.

Does anyone have expertise in this area? Would be grateful for any input. Thanks in advance.

David

[pcjazz]

I had the luthier here in our village ( France ) strip the maple neck ( factory finished by Fender with the sticky ( to my hands ) golden syrup spec' ) of my Tele with tung oil which I love. Just a question about durability/longevity and/or maintenace. Mikaël has moved from the area so contact is not an option.

Does anyone have expertise in this area? Would be grateful for any input. Thanks in advance.
David

I think you can just rub in a little more oil when the current coat begins to wear out. It doesn’t take much.

[sgosnell]

It's durable. I have a guitar on which I used Tru-Oil on the neck, and it's been holding up for years. If the finish does start to wear off the neck, just put some more oil on it. That's the beauty of an oil finish, it's easily repaired, and done properly it's impossible to tell it's not original. Multiple very thin coats are better than trying to do one thick one. A little at a time, drying between coats.

[GuyBoden]

In my opinion, Maple is such a very hard wood, you don't really need an oil finish, just an occasional light wipe of pure mineral oil to clean/lubricate. The same technique as you do with an unfinished fretboard.

That's all I do to my unfinished hard wood Wenge and Maple necks.

[blackcat]

Thanks to all. Just concerned to use a compatible type not knowing what was used first time around.

Thanks again.

David

[sgosnell]

Yes, much better to use the same oil. My (admittedly somewhat limited) experience with maple, and any other light-colored wood, is that it does need some sort of finish to prevent discoloration. With no finish to protect it, it becomes rather ugly very quickly, from being rubbed by hands. It's not necessarily harmful, it just looks terrible to me. That's why Fender uses a hard finish, I suspect. YMMV.

[ruger9]

Yes, much better to use the same oil. My (admittedly somewhat limited) experience with maple, and any other light-colored wood, is that it does need some sort of finish to prevent discoloration. With no finish to protect it, it becomes rather ugly very quickly, from being rubbed by hands. It's not necessarily harmful, it just looks terrible to me. That's why Fender uses a hard finish, I suspect. YMMV.

Yes... this WAS plain maple at one time...

[Cunamara]

Yikes!

I wouldn't really worry about it. People have been wearing the finish off of maple necks for years, decades, maybe centuries, without any particular untoward problems. I have a roasted maple neck on one of my guitars and I didn't bother to finish it at all. Feels wonderful. it's been on the guitar for eight or nine years with no problems whatsoever, despite living in Minnesota with a climate that goes from very cold and dry in the winter to hot and sticky in the summer.

[Crm114]

LI have an ES5 switch master type guitar that Aaron Cowles made back in the late 80s for a customer in Denver. He took his west coast model and put custom inlays for the customer who was in Denver so it is a rocky mountain special. Very sweet guitar with Lindy Frailyn P 90's in it now. The guy was changing things on it like crazy and fell on L health and sold it and I sent it to Phil at CME and he got it working really great, it's got a tung oil finish on the neck and I love it .Big

[Jimmy Smith]

Absolutely nothing happens if the wood is exposed beyond it's more prone to getting dirty. What do people think will happen?

[jazzshrink]

Absolutely nothing happens if the wood is exposed beyond it's more prone to getting dirty. What do people think will happen?

I'm only guessing, but perhaps some people fear it would be more susceptible to changes in temperature, humidity, etc.? I'm not concerned. I have a 1980 Schecter Strat, hand-rubbed teak body and 1-piece rosewood neck, that's just fine after all these years.