Cleaning a neck pocket, or, how I spent Labor Day/My Anniversary

[marnold]

Since we've all got colds/upper respiratory infections at Casa Rawk, we decided to postpone any anniversary celebrations. Actually my wife said, "Oh yeah, it's our anniversary."

Anyway, some folks at the Floyd Rose Club forum talked about how their neck pockets had excess paint in them. Thus I decided to take the neck of my Floyd and assess the damage. There was extra paint, mainly around the outside edges of the pocket, as I figured. Here's a before shot:

Larger version

And after:

Larger version

There was a particularly large glob of both paint and primer on the northeast corner of the bottom of the pocket (as you look at it in the pictures). I found that there is a fine line between "chipping paint off" and "chipping wood off." We'll see if there's an improvement in sustain, tone, or neck stability.

Oh, and getting a floating Floyd floating properly after total dismantling is still a PITA. You take the good with the bad. While it was disassembled I gave the fretboard a good cleaning/oiling.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

Happy Anniversary...tomorrow perhaps yeah?

How did you get the paint off the pocket then? You mentioned chipping?

 

[marnold]

Happy Anniversary...tomorrow perhaps yeah?

Thanks! 12 years and she hasn't murdered me yet! Tomorrow probably won't work either because it's my homebrew club meeting Maybe next weekend.

How did you get the paint off the pocket then? You mentioned chipping?

The folks on the Floyd forum said that they used X-Acto knives. I ended up using a utility knife. It took probably > an hour of careful scraping and chipping followed up by gentle sanding to get it this way.

I could tell that the paint had at least some effect because the neck came right off. I didn't have to tap it at all. It does seem like I'm feeling more vibrations in the neck now, but I don't know if it is placebo effect or not. I haven't had much of a chance to put it through its paces.

 

[Tone2TheBone]

I suggest that you keep playing the instrument until you're completely sure you've eradicated the offending paint smear.

Have you noticed any change in neck angle or anything now that the paint's been taken off? I've been guilty of removing the paper shims under some of the Fender necks of mine. Felt guilty too. Paint's a different thing altogether though my friend.

 

[M29]

I would take some sandpaper on a flat wooden block and sand into the pocket from the outside being (very very careful) not to lower the outer edge at all, just get the paint off nice and slow and level with the rest of the pocket. Scraping or chipping will do just that. You will end up chipping around the outside edge.

IMHO or course

M29

 

[marnold]

I suggest that you keep playing the instrument until you're completely sure you've eradicated the offending paint smear.

Have you noticed any change in neck angle or anything now that the paint's been taken off? I've been guilty of removing the paper shims under some of the Fender necks of mine. Felt guilty too. Paint's a different thing altogether though my friend.

I have not noticed an extreme change of angle. Maybe the tiniest amount, but that would have been a Good Thing in this guitar's case. I briefly considered shimming it and then thought better of it.

M29, in retrospect, that might have been a better idea, although I know from personal experience that trying to sand a poly finish is beyond a PITA.

 

[luvmyshiner]

Happy anniversary Marnold! And cool project.

 

[Jimi75]

Congrats on your anniversary. I am in the 7th year - but it's a good year so far

You have done a good job on cleaning the pocket. I think I should do it ,too. if the angle really changes afterwards I think it's essential.

 

[marnold]

This "problem" could have been eliminated with more careful masking at the painting stage. Given how little the margin is on each of these, I'm sure they didn't spend a lot of time on it. I'm also sure that the rounded pocket would have made it harder.

 

[marnold]

As I've been thinking about it more, I wonder if just sanding it would've taken off more wood than I wanted from the neck pocket. That poly finish is very hard and very difficult to sand through. Conversely, basswood is very soft. I feat that by time I actually got through the paint, the wood in the neck would have been sanded down substantially.