Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

so i have had my rick for about 7 months now. been playing it for a few hours everyday. the stickyness of the neck has bothered me some. how can i smooth it down? my friend has a japanese fender with a similar finished neck and he used a sponge (green scouring side of those yello/green dishwasher sponges) on the back of his neck and he said it helped. anyone hear of a similar method? does it work?

My neck no longer "glos", The fellow before me must have roughed it up a bit. You don't see scratches but it is not as shiny as the rest of the bass!

Sticky neck is a common enough problem and is sometimes fixable. The cause is said to be a softening of the finish after exposure to chlorine-bearing substances (like vinyl). I have addressed the problem this way. First, I clean the neck with naptha (or a product like Goo Gone which is mostly naptha). Pure naptha is the better choice. Once the neck is clean, I give it the 3 step Meguires treatment. Some people prefer Turtle Wax. Any non-silicone wax/polish system should work. The stickies have not returned on any of the instruments I have cleaned this way.

I played a c64s the McCartney model with the satin finish the neck felt soo good ,i told my buddy he told me he rubs emery cloth down the necks of all his basses he says you can alway buff it back out???

I too suffer from the sticky neck problem. I've just started using talcum powder on my hands in that I have really sweaty hands and I thought that was the culprit. Also, I was hesitant to take anything abrasive to the finish

will it get better naturally from hands rubbing it?

I second the Turtle Wax treatment.

The Meguires treatment and the Turtle Wax treatment both work very well.

No, it won't get better on it's own. I have an '80 460 that was sticky for more than 10 years until I tried naptha and car wax.

I use a very small amount of 'KwikFret' lemon oil on the back of the neck and wipe it thoroughly with a cotton cloth. Comes up beautifully each time and when I next play it it's a dream. I use the lemon oil after each session even if it's a short one and I haven't had sweaty hands. The lemon oil is great for the strings also.

I got this tip on the forum - thanks, Paul!

I have a clear satin finish on the back of all of my necks which makes them play much better.

What do you do to get the satin finish, Dane? Do you coat it with a varnish or something?

The guy who does my refins does it at my request. I noticed that it used to be done on the old Ampeg scroll top basses which my luthier restores so I decided it was the way to go on mine. I don't know the technique though. My refinisher is in Van Nuys,Ca. and his name is Pat Wilkins.

So far I've had pretty good results from a bottle of Dunlop guitar cleaner and polish. It's relatively cheap and if I clean he neck every month or so I don'thave a sticky neck problem at all.This might be a more agreeable alternative to scuffing up your finish.