[Eric]

Hello. I haven't ever sanded a neck before and I was considering sanding the neck down a bit on my 7620 to make it a little thinner. Would doing so compromise the structural integrity of the neck? How far could I go without screwing it up? I just don't want to end up with a neck that resembles a half-pipe if I sand it down.... Thanks for your help!

[Ryan]

Sounds like an accident waiting to happen to me...

[Donnie]

First off, isn't the neck thin enough?
Secondly, if you don't have much experience with something like this, I would advise not doing it yourself. I've done it with a palm sander but I have a ton of sanding experience. Your best bet would be to start off with a nice block sander and some 100-150 grit paper. That should keep it nice and even. Then finish it off with a soft block to smooth it out with 220-400 grit. It'll take a while but if you have the patience, it can be done. Of course, on a Wizard neck, I don't know if you want to take it down to far as I'm not sure how deep they carve the truss rod channel.

[Drew]

I did mine by hand on my old 7620. Start with fairly light sandpaper until you get through the finish, then go lighter and lighter and finish it off with fine-grade steel wool.

First, if you do it, tung oil it when you're done. You'll thank me.

Second, to be fair, in retrospect I kind of regret sanding it. The neck finish wasn't really that much of a hinderance or anything to playing, but what it did was "sealed" the wood. I noticed my 7620, even after I tung oiled the neck, was way more susceptable to climate shift related movement - in the spring and fall, when you're going back and forth between wide ranges of temperature and humidity, I found I had to set it up basically every time a new weatherfront went through. Same was true with my UV, which came with an unfinished neck. With my (sealed) CST, it seemed much more stable - it'd shift a LITTLE, but not enough to really impact playability.

[WarriorOfMetal]

thinner?

[Allen Garrow]

Buy some calipers and do it right. The sanding tips above are good. The bottom line is you should know what you started with so you'll know where you are when you get there....lol or not. Seriously I did the same with a Universe of mine. The neck profile was fat as hell and was hurting my hand. I took measurements using a digital set of calipers about every 3 inches or so just to get a visual of increase of thickness. I then started sanding. Once I broke though the finish I was then able use a marker to place light marks on the neck. I did this to have some reference to how much I was sanding off the neck. You see marker will soak in just a little less than 1/64" into maple. Then sanding would remove the marks thus removing about 1/64" each time. I'm totally anal on this sort of shit,,,,and at the time I was unemployed,,,lol.

Just make sure that when you done that you seal it with Tung oil, or boiled lin seed oil,,,or poly. Whatever,,just seal it.

~A

[Eric]

Thanks for all the help!