The Steel Guitar Forum

Just Curious if anyone has ever powder coated an aluminum neck?

Hi Stu,
Just my thoughts. Seems to me that doing that would greatly reduce ANY vibration or tone that would be involved with the neck. Kinda like putting a lot of pickguard on an acoustic guitar. Dampens the vibration of the top!
Not a good idea IMHO! However, I'm not an expert with that issue, but would never do it!
Thx, Pat

Isnt that what the Mullen Discovery has? Painted or powdered aluminum.

GFI powder coats the frame. Not sure about the neck.

I think Carter Magnums had all parts anodized. Is that the same as powder coating?

John,Good question,I'm pretty sure that anodizing is similar to chrome plating"I could also not know what I'm talking about"

Richard Lotspeich wrote:Isnt that what the Mullen Discovery has? Painted or powdered aluminum.

I believe the Mullen Discovery model has a wooden neck.

Ben,I believe that you are correct The Discovery has a wooden neck!

Hello Stu and John,

I to am wondering the differences between powdercoating and anodizing and found this artice that explains the two process.

https://www.cpperformance.com/t-ano_powder.aspx

I had to go back and look again. Yes the neck is Mica covered wood. On the powder coating thing,, it is electrically charged powder paint that is heated to melt and mold itself to the piece. If I remember correctly anodizing is a chemical process. And hard anodizing is similar but harder.

If you have ever left bare aluminum out in weather for a while, you might notice white clumps that form on the surface. This is aluminum oxide, and is analogous to iron (or steel which contains iron) rusting, which is the formation of iron oxide. Anodizing is an electrochemical process similar to what occurs in a battery. It is a controlled oxidation of the surface of aluminum, and is achieved by running an electrical current through the aluminum while it is immersed in acid. The evenly distributed layer of aluminum oxide on the surface of the aluminum effectively seals the aluminum and prevents further oxidation. The range of colors such as black, red, blue, etc., are from soaking the aluminum in a dye tank immediately after it is anodized.

There's been wrinkle coated necks since the 50s. My impression is that it's done to save labor in polishing. Maybe it's to keep from rounding off milled areas in polishing. I can't discern between painted and polished. Even some of the polished ones we're all familiar with have been clear coated or anodized and all wood necks are painted. If there is a difference, it's not as bad as it is on not black PPs.

I was thinking of using ceracoat, more durable then powder coat and only 1 or 2 mil thick.

I've been thinking about Cerakote too. I want to try a really thin clear on a wood neck. One concern is I've handled Spanish guitars with epoxy finishes and the epoxy locks them up worse than 1/4" of 70s Fender bar top.