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Pretty cool! I do prefer lower gloss, open pored necks for the same reason of having less suction grip. But I'd have to feel the texture to see if I really like it. I hate scritchy satin feel.

I wonder how easily it cleans up after accumulating finger grunge for a while.

Interesting, to say the least.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

"The Z-Glide was also designed to trap moisture and sweat."

Yuck!

It is interesting. Innovative. But I agree with Clay... I wouldn't promote it's sweat and moisture trapping properties as a feature.

Well at least I have an excuse to charge triple for cleaning a guitar

The idea is novel, maybe even true, but no thanks. I think a stain or an oil finish or a light shellac finish with no build up, maybe even burnished, would feel just as fast.

You could achieve the same effect checkering a guitar neck like gun stocks... the checkering is designed to improve grip however.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Gimmick. The lessened surface area would reduce friction, but all the grooves would increase roughness which would likely counter any beneficial effect.

Exactly my thoughts, Barry.

Looks kinda ugly to me


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I wasn't aware that so many folks had problems with the thumb sticking to the back of the neck. Maybe next time they should wait until the varnish is actually dry.

Years ago I saw some high end classicals (can't recall the name) with ebony veneered to the back of the neck and no finish, the idea being to reduce the grab of high glass, which I think is why violins have no finish on the contact parts of the neck.

This appears to be manufactured by Dean, of Dean Guitars. The mailing address is in Northbrook, Illinois, if anyone in the Chicago area want to arrange to try one out and report to us. Years ago, I used to live one block from the original Dean shop.

I prefer the textured feel of an open pored satin or semi-gloss shellac finish myself but I can't say I ever notice it when I'm actually playing. A high gloss finish certainly doesn't slow my left hand down.

Maybe I'll paint some flames on my next neck and see if that makes it play faster.

Dean Guitars is headquartered in Tampa, which is where they also have their Custom Shop manufacturing facility.

The ones in the OP are imported by Dean Zalinsky, to his specs and designs, and has nothing to do with Dean Guitars the company anymore.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Yes, I know Dean Guitars sold out years ago. Is the subject of this posting operating out of Illinois? Does anyone know where to try one of these out?

Gimmick, it would do exactly the opposite of what is advertised. Besides I like high gloss necks. They are the fastest for me. YMMV

I bet it works, same principle as a golf ball or a santoku style knife. I don't think the texture on that is really like the knurling, diamond patter that you see on gun stocks which effectively raises sharp points of contact up from the surface to provide grip. This looks like the high points are all planar to the outside curved, carved section of the neck and are meant to reduce surface tension when an object with a light fluid, such as the oils or sweat on your hands moves across a smooth surface. It's like cutting a potato with a traditional chef knife, the potato sticks right to the blade. When you use a scalloped santoku style knife though, the reduced surface tension doesn't allow the potato to stick so it just slides right off. I haven't tried one, and I'm not sure it's as big a problem as the maker would have you believe, but I do bet that it works.

Guess that some are always trying to push the boundaries, rightly or wrongly. Not everyone succeeds so it looks like try and see, sure looks ugly though.

Steve

Will cause more friction as previously said. Golf balls dimples cause the ball to spin, the spin is what makes it fly better. Santoku knives have air cavities not so it is a smoother cut but so that the flesh separates and not stick to the blade.

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久保
美智え

Yep, ugly.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I believe that most folks would just use a satin finish or tru-oil finish if they don't like the gloss lacquer feel...
But what do I know?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

okay, I'll give you the aerodynamics on a golf ball, but I never said anything about a santoku making a smoother cut, I did say it was to reduce the surface tension of the knife to what you're cutting. Maybe a better comparison would be between machinists gage blocks of high quality versus those of low quality. You can wring together the gage blocks with a finer surface finish to a much greater adhesion than those with poorly machined surface finishes. It's because the finer surface finish allows for greater surface to surface contact, which is the same principle at work here. I'm not a proponent of these necks, and I think they're ugly too, but I disagree that it will actually have the reverse effect of what they're claiming. If anything the improvement may be overstated, but I have to say I don't agree that this is the same as putting a diamond finish or knurl onto a surface to increase friction. It would be pretty dumb to go through the trouble to design it, the added expense of making it, throwing more money into advertising it, for it to actually make it worse than a regular neck. Just doesn't make sense to me. If it was worse and stickier, just abandon doing them that way...

Actually the dimples on a golf ball reduce friction and allow it to travel further. They do not make the ball spin more.

I think they even tested it in mythbusters, they put dimples into a car and it improved fuel efficiency.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com