Nitro neck is gummy and sticky!

[cbass]

I hate coated strings.I guess they last longer cause they already sound dead when you get them.

[Reeltarded]

I like stainless strings, but they are noisy like a finger saw! zzzzz zzzzzZZzt... and such.

I play with a super light touch and .008s though. I have stainless strings on 50+ year old guitars with original frets. Modern fret material won't do that though. Gone in 60 seconds. I wear out modern frets inside 24 months, easy.

Your pic looks like a naked supermodel to the shoulders.

[bcmatt]

I appreciate this post, seeing as I am also a sweaty handed 2006 EJ Strat player as well...
I've run into my hand getting stuck on the neck mid phrase and getting quite embarrassed/angry. My quick emergency solution has been to drop some sort of oil on my palm and rub it around before I need to perform "Superstition"... I don't even know what sort of oil it was... Lakota or something. I was worried about what it would do to the guitar... but also angry enough at the neck in the moment each time to not care too much....
I remember hearing some old blues player saying his method was to eat a bologna sandwich before a gig to grease things up, so I figured this would be a little less smelly.

Anyways, I'll have to try some of these other methods.

By the way, quite unrelated, I did this mod to my EJ in order to give it Humbucker options and was actually quite impressed by how nice these EJ single-coils sound in series as humbuckers... I've gone through a lot of humbuckers in my other guitars and most don't turn out as nice to my ear as on this strat when I use a push/push pot to engage humbucker mode.
http://deaf-eddie.net/drawings/strat-all-series.jpg
I still use the strat as a single-coil machine 90% of the time, but now I don't need to switch guitars for certain songs....unless I need a break from the neck.

Be warned if you try this wiring, that it switches the second tone control to the middle pickup instead of the bridge (as EJ has it) I miss that tone control for the bridge, but I haven't yet thought through which wire to swap to get it back...

[brentm]

I appreciate this post, seeing as I am also a sweaty handed 2006 EJ Strat player as well...
I've run into my hand getting stuck on the neck mid phrase and getting quite embarrassed/angry. My quick emergency solution has been to drop some sort of oil on my palm and rub it around before I need to perform "Superstition"... I don't even know what sort of oil it was... Lakota or something. I was worried about what it would do to the guitar... but also angry enough at the neck in the moment each time to not care too much....
I remember hearing some old blues player saying his method was to eat a bologna sandwich before a gig to grease things up, so I figured this would be a little less smelly.

Anyways, I'll have to try some of these other methods.

By the way, quite unrelated, I did this mod to my EJ in order to give it Humbucker options and was actually quite impressed by how nice these EJ single-coils sound in series as humbuckers... I've gone through a lot of humbuckers in my other guitars and most don't turn out as nice to my ear as on this strat when I use a push/push pot to engage humbucker mode.
http://deaf-eddie.net/drawings/strat-all-series.jpg
I still use the strat as a single-coil machine 90% of the time, but now I don't need to switch guitars for certain songs....unless I need a break from the neck.

Be warned if you try this wiring, that it switches the second tone control to the middle pickup instead of the bridge (as EJ has it) I miss that tone control for the bridge, but I haven't yet thought through which wire to swap to get it back...

I wish I had some more scientific information o understand what's happening... my theories are as follows.

1. The surface is TOO smooth and some sweat may cause some type of a vacuum when moving skin across the surface.

2. The nitro-ish surface reacts with the acid in the sweat creating a microfilm layer of cement.

Then #2 causes a build-up of skin cells, debris, to mix in with the finish itself creating nitro-cement.

Funny thing is that sanding the neck with a light abrasive would probably fix both #1 and #2.

[cbass]

Did youplay your gig yet?Did anything help?

[Reeltarded]

Surface tension and the warming of the neck makes the plastics sticky!

[Cygnus X1]

BBQ'd bologna sounds like a good tasty solution though.

[brentm]

Did youplay your gig yet?Did anything help?

Ya, we were at 11:45 - 1pm... but our set was cut short by technical difficulties at the begining (power issues). So maybe 8 or 9 out of 14 songs were played. It was a pretty sticky neck today... I just tried to keep my palm off the back of the neck as much as possible and use my thumb.. the strings were slippery enough with the coating. I really run into trouble when the neck gets sticky and the strings are corroded.

Brady also mentioned using a bit of vaseline...

"A thought on why the neck gums up more now is that you got your guitar in February and probably wasn’t sweating as much. My guitar necks get a lot stickier in the Summer and warmer weather. Sometimes I put just a smidge of Vaseline on my left hand to keep things slippery and not sticky. You have to experiment with the amount though because you can overdo it very easy. Wiping off your neck and strings frequently helps."

[Structo]

You might just be blessed with very corrosive sweat.

Some people's chemistry is out of whack.
You might want to get a check up and have your blood acidity tested.

Normal pH is 7.4

[passfan]

Glossy necks cause your hand to stick. Some manufacturers are going to satin necks which eliminates this problem and causes the neck to actually become really fast and slippery. I have used fine paper on just the neck back to rough it up but playing turns it back polished again. You can get satin nitro which eliminates the problem for good and is my standard now on guitars that I shoot. Gloss on everything but the neckback and then satin.

[vibratoking]

I have tried baby powder as a quick fix. Didn't like it so much. I now carry some dryer sheets. I can reach over and get a quick rub. Really slippery, not messy, and they don't gum up - at least for me.

[skyboltone]

I use a stiff felt pad and 0000 pumice to make the neck slick, the finish the polishing with rottenstone. That what the furniture people use for a mirror finish...

This is a terrific technique for all kinds of finish repair. Did you leave a cold beer on grandmas antique lacquer finished end table? This is the way to do it. I use lemon oil on a microfiber cloth, dip it in the pumice then take the ring off. Finish with the rotten stone.

On your guitar neck, skip the lemon oil, maybe try a little H2O or dry.

The stuff is available at ACE or you big box store in the paint department. Ask the helper person if you dare. They come in a green and white box kinda thingy.

Good luck

[brentm]

Ya, I thought about the baby powder... or pool chalk. But unlike pool, where you can wipe it off after your shot, I think it would just build up and make a sticky mess later.

I'll probably hit it with some sand paper or something around 1000 grit or up to start. Appreciate the tip on the gloss finish causing the issue!!!