Martin HD28 gunky neck issue

xscaramanga · February 2021

The neck on my Martin goes gunky. Apparently this is a thing: in a percentage of Martin necks (at least from my era) the neck lacquer never goes off properly, and then it's prone to developing a tacky quality. It gets to the point where I can scrape some of it off with a fingernail. It's not a lack of cleanliness though: polishing the neck doesn't seem to help.

A couple of techs have sorted it out, but it comes back. The last one I used said he didn't know of any permanent cure.

Is there a way to fix this so it won't come back?

If not, how much am I looking at for a pro neck refinish?

TheMadMick · February 2021

Not come across that before. If it were me, I'd try fine steel wool and remove as much sticky as possible. Then take a little talc in the palm of you hand and rub it up and down the neck, Play away. You really haven't much to loose.

Don't polish the neck, That makes it worse as it's never completely non tacky.

Otherwise, take the guitar back to where you bought it and get them to fix it. It really shouldn't do that unless you've done something really out of the ordinary?

pjf · February 2021

Micro mesh pads might help.

ICBM · February 2021

jonnyscaramanga said:

It's not a lack of cleanliness though: polishing the neck doesn't seem to help.

What do you mean by polishing - with polish, or just by rubbing it hard?

If you're using polish, don't - the solvents in it are probably part of the problem even if they're something fairly benign. The problem with nitro is that it doesn't chemically cure into something inert like more modern finishes do, so it's prone to absorbing other materials such as solvents, dyes, plasticisers etc.

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Martin HD28 gunky neck issue

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