StSpider
Active member
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2002
- Messages
- 2,148
I have a 2006 Les Paul Oxblood that I bought in mint conditions in 2008 and played A LOT in the past 12 years. It is to this day my main guitar for everything tuned to E flat, I've had to refret it in the past and all that.
In the past 4 or 5 months I started noticing some spots on the neck where, after trying to rub off the sweat, I could feel the wood underneath the final coat of paint. By scraping the gunk with a fingernail I ended up exposing some small spots on the neck, and the process has expanded somewhat over the past few months. Not that I'm trying to "relic" my guitar, it's just that the more I play the more this phenomenon seems to progress: neck gets sweaty and sticky, I rub it off, the exposed area expands.
You can't actually see the natural mahogany underneath, because the back of the Oxblood is finished in the same dark brown color as the top, and the color isn't coming off as of now.
At first I thought this was just normal neck wear from playing the guitar a lot, but yesterday I noticed the same thing happening in a small area just behind the nut in the center of the neck. It's not an area where I would normally rub off my finger, even when playing full chords, my thumb just doesn't go there. So I've ruled out that this is simply playwear.
Can someone explain what is happening? I find it strange that the finish is acting weird after so many years. I haven't changed home, humidity condition or anything of the like recently either, so I have no idea what could have triggered this. I'll also add that the guitar has always had a somewhat thin finish, I could see the seamline in the top under the right light even back when I bought it (no gap between the maple pieces, just a small sink in the finish).
As of now I don't have a better picture. It's quite hard to photograph because the color is so dark, but I hope you can still see what I'm talking about.
In the past 4 or 5 months I started noticing some spots on the neck where, after trying to rub off the sweat, I could feel the wood underneath the final coat of paint. By scraping the gunk with a fingernail I ended up exposing some small spots on the neck, and the process has expanded somewhat over the past few months. Not that I'm trying to "relic" my guitar, it's just that the more I play the more this phenomenon seems to progress: neck gets sweaty and sticky, I rub it off, the exposed area expands.
You can't actually see the natural mahogany underneath, because the back of the Oxblood is finished in the same dark brown color as the top, and the color isn't coming off as of now.
At first I thought this was just normal neck wear from playing the guitar a lot, but yesterday I noticed the same thing happening in a small area just behind the nut in the center of the neck. It's not an area where I would normally rub off my finger, even when playing full chords, my thumb just doesn't go there. So I've ruled out that this is simply playwear.
Can someone explain what is happening? I find it strange that the finish is acting weird after so many years. I haven't changed home, humidity condition or anything of the like recently either, so I have no idea what could have triggered this. I'll also add that the guitar has always had a somewhat thin finish, I could see the seamline in the top under the right light even back when I bought it (no gap between the maple pieces, just a small sink in the finish).
As of now I don't have a better picture. It's quite hard to photograph because the color is so dark, but I hope you can still see what I'm talking about.
