I swore up and down I would stick with my “beginner” bass for a long time, and my Squier 70s CV Jazz is a beautiful instrument that plays really well, but I made the fateful mistake of going to the local music shop to pick up my new rumble cab and decided to play some more expensive guitars.
I can honestly say that I didn’t feel much difference between my “budget” Squier and Fenders 4x the price, with ONE exception — and that exception is starting to really grate on me:
The matte neck!
As soon as I got home I found myself instantly dissatisfied with the glossy finish on my Squier’s neck. It is literally the same guitar I was overjoyed to be playing day until an hour ago, but suddenly I have this nagging dissatisfaction based on something I played for less than twenty minutes. My hands are clean and yet I can feel them catching on the gloss finish. Even slight friction is starting to drive me bonkers.
Anyway, I’m in no danger of spending more money on guitars right now, but I guess my warning is that if you’re not ready to shell out for expensive stuff and you’re happy with what you have, do yourself a favour and don’t start picking up equipment that’s likely been engineered to have more creature comforts
It is common to take the gloss off with a bit of very fine sandpaper or abrasive. I just googled it and there some videos and things about how to do it
Oh, excellent! I’ll have to research this a little before I’m remotely confident thatI want to start stripping anything from my guitar but I just can’t get the smooth slide on the matte necks out of my head. Great info, thanks everyone
Glossy necks suck, IMO. No idea why Fender still does that.
Apparently the 3M kitchen pads work as well as steel wool for this. Also with steel wool, take care to not get any near the pups, or you’ll never get it out.
There are plenty of good reasons to buy another bass, but this isn’t one of them. As others have mentioned, there is an easy fix. I personally use 1000 grit sandpaper, but fine steel wool should also work. It only takes a few minutes.
I sand all my basses necks, even the ones that already have a satin finish. I just like a really smooth neck.
There is really no way to screw this up, unless you got it done and then decided that you really preferred the glossy neck.
When I chose my Cort Artisan A4 I was playing the bass regularly for about 6 months and it felt incredibly light and comfortable in my hands. Its neck is kinda narrow and probably that is why they say that it has a “fast neck”… It was not cheap at all (at least for me) but I fell in love with the looks and feel. Tried out also the Sire V7 2nd generation which would have been a cheaper alternative but it felt too bulky with too many whistles and bells at the time.
A couple of months ago I went to a shop with mostly used stuff, to try out an amp and just because I had an active bass (not with me at the time) they gave me a Music Man Stingray to test it with…
Oh my oh my! I felt like a child given a “real bass” for the first time. Heavy as hell with a wide neck… I think it had steel wounds as well.
Wow, two minutes taping off the neck and pickups (for metal shaving safety), five minutes with some 0000 steel wool and this feels like a completely different instrument. Running my thumb up the neck to the headstock it’s crystal clear where the matte ends and the gloss starts. Almost feels like I’ve got a hand covered in talc, it’s that smooth. Had to go back and double-check that I wasn’t just feeling some poly powder I perhaps missed wiping off but – nope, it’s just that good. Thanks for the great advice everyone!
