What's the difference between a fiddle and a uke?

Nickie

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Has anyone ever done this to their neck? The finish was all removed, so the neck could be re-sized smaller to fit my hand better, then I asked the luthier to apply only tru oil and lemon oil to it, like a fiddle or cello....it came out looking like this. Once the slight roughness is gone, it should be easier to move about on, than a neck with finish....good enough for a fiddler, good enough for me.....DSCN2235.jpg
 
Removing the finish on the neck is very fairly common in the mandolin community-- sometimes called a "speed neck." Bluegrass-style playing requires a lot of fast movement up and down the neck, and some players feel a shiny finish slows them down.
 
Has anyone ever done this to their neck? The finish was all removed, so the neck could be re-sized smaller to fit my hand better, then I asked the luthier to apply only tru oil and lemon oil to it, like a fiddle or cello....it came out looking like this. Once the slight roughness is gone, it should be easier to move about on, than a neck with finish....good enough for a fiddler, good enough for me.....View attachment 73962

I tort I taw a puddy tat ???
 
Cee Jay, that's my puddy tat Mrs. Hudson. She's a calico Hemingway....very unusual, sleeps with us most every night, is very cuddly....her step-sister Goofball is behind her...she's a miniature....

DSCN0081.jpg
 
Cee Jay, that's my puddy tat Mrs. Hudson. She's a calico Hemingway....very unusual, sleeps with us most every night, is very cuddly....her step-sister Goofball is behind her...she's a miniature....

View attachment 73963

Well , this has totally derailed the thread ....what a gorgeous pair of moggies ....Mrs Hudson looks similar to our Biscuit ,who is a tabby tortoiseshell very similarly marked colourwise to Mrs H, but with the tabby stripes and tortoiseshell patches here and there.....actually you know she may be Calico Tabby ..hmmmmm...Goofball...there has to be a good reason for that monicker (name !!) and I suspect it may not be entirely flattering but she is cute as well.......Uku what s??.......I'll have to ferret around the hard drive for a picture of Biscuit .....Cats Rule...

SAM_0162.JPG
 
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Removing the finish on the neck is very fairly common in the mandolin community-- sometimes called a "speed neck." Bluegrass-style playing requires a lot of fast movement up and down the neck, and some players feel a shiny finish slows them down.

I prefer a satin finished neck to a gloss neck ...in fact the fastest neck I own is a Deering Goodtime Banjo with a bare maple neck ...I can't play it well but you feel less friction than on a "finished" .....

ps Cats still Rool......
 
I'd like to have this done to my Kelii concert. It could use a faster neck.
 
I'd like to have this done to my Kelii concert. It could use a faster neck.

An old trick that I learned years ago when I played electric guitar all the time, is that if the neck is finished with nitrocellulose, you can take one of those Scotch-Brite sponges that has the abrasive green plasticky part that is bonded to the foam sponge, and with the sponge DRY, right out of the package, use the green part very gently up and down the neck until is produces a nice sheen, you do this very gently but with a few deliberate strokes, and not hard enough to remove the finish down to the wood, and it changes the surface texture so that it is more like a satin finish than a gloss finish.

You can then buff it with a shami or other cloth to remove the dust particles. I did this on two guitars and it improved the play-feel significantly...

You can do this yourself in like 5 mins without involving the cost/time of a luthier - the main thing is that you have to be patient and use finesse.

Somewhere on youtube there is at least one video I saw of a luthier doing this and demonstrating the technique - I'll have to see if I saved it in my bookmarks.
 
I just Wish I was fast enough so that I needed to do this :music:
 
An old trick that I learned years ago when I played electric guitar all the time, is that if the neck is finished with nitrocellulose, you can take one of those Scotch-Brite sponges that has the abrasive green plasticky part that is bonded to the foam sponge, and with the sponge DRY, right out of the package, use the green part very gently up and down the neck until is produces a nice sheen, you do this very gently but with a few deliberate strokes, and not hard enough to remove the finish down to the wood, and it changes the surface texture so that it is more like a satin finish than a gloss finish.

You can then buff it with a shami or other cloth to remove the dust particles. I did this on two guitars and it improved the play-feel significantly...

You can do this yourself in like 5 mins without involving the cost/time of a luthier - the main thing is that you have to be patient and use finesse.

Somewhere on youtube there is at least one video I saw of a luthier doing this and demonstrating the technique - I'll have to see if I saved it in my bookmarks.

It is a nitro finish. I'll have to check this out. Thanks!
 
I hate to say it, but playing a fiddle must be more relaxing than playing a ukulele.
When playing a fiddle, one has no frets.
 
I hate to say it, but playing a fiddle must be more relaxing than playing a ukulele.
When playing a fiddle, one has no frets.

But when fretting a Uke one has no worries!!



Or

" What's the difference between a fiddle and a uke? "

Bowed if I know.

........sorry ....*cringe*:p
 
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LOL....this thread has gone all wonky, I love it....and there's still some awesome info. The main reason it went to the shop was because the neck was way too fat, it's been hurting my hand for 3 years. I finally wised up. I took him another uke with a better shaped neck, and he duplicated that. Much much nicer to play now!

Yes,

Cats Rule (the dog just had a nightmare and yelped....sheesh)
 
It is a nitro finish. I'll have to check this out. Thanks!

I could not find the link in my bookmarks, but here are a few threads on, OMG - dare I say it (shhh, a 6-string GUITAR forum) OHH the blasphemy! ha ha :) where they discuss this procedure and also a few other, more aggressive DIY solutions:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=955386

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/epi...-neck-mod-how-do-i-de-gloss-satin-finish.html

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/epi...-dulling-poly-finished-guitars-pic-heavy.html

and you can find more discussions on this topic in these search results:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=abrasive+pad+guitar+neck
 
I could not find the link in my bookmarks, but here are a few threads on, OMG - dare I say it (shhh, a 6-string GUITAR forum) OHH the blasphemy! ha ha :) where they discuss this procedure and also a few other, more aggressive DIY solutions:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=955386

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/epi...-neck-mod-how-do-i-de-gloss-satin-finish.html

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/epi...-dulling-poly-finished-guitars-pic-heavy.html

and you can find more discussions on this topic in these search results:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=abrasive+pad+guitar+neck

Thank you!
 
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