Squeaky neck

I would disagree with the hand cream, although YMMV.  The dryer the hand, the more likely it will slide along the neck with LESS friction, therefore, less squeek.  Making your hands more moist will give them more grip which will cause more friction and therefore more squeek.

What you're looking for is a matte finish again.  So, what *I* would do is go one grade courser on the steel wool or use the green scotch pad stuff, or both.  Just gently, just until it starts to go matte again.

Just to put it into perspective, 0000 steel wool, or extra fine steel wool is just one of the many things we used to use to "polish" stainless steel.  Yes, it's THAT fine.  If you want to "matte" the finish, you need something just a bit more course.

Sounds like a job for WD40, stops all squeaks.

The squeak I experienced was from my thumb on back of neck. A little dab of Aveeno squelched the squeak!

My brother's 8 or 9 year old S&P is all glossed up on the neck up where the cowboy chords are played.  The rest of the neck is still satin.  So ya, use definitely will polish & gloss it up.

It doesn't bother him though so it's a non issue there.  The only real question is: "What" exactly is getting glossed up?  The wood or the finish.  My guess would be the finish.  I'm not sure you can polish bare wood to a gloss.  Could be wrong there though, I've never tried it.

What you could do, if you're worried about the finish on the neck there, is carefully ( mask everything else off ) re-finish the neck by spraying it with some clear, matte finishing stuff (you'd have to research what would work best ), then just rub it down once it's cured with the green or burgundy (courser) scotch pad and you should be good to go.  That's what I would do if this were my situation and it was preventing me from enjoying playing a guitar that I was not looking to upgrade into something else.

If you really, really, really love that particular guitar and don't want to try it yourself, then you could have a decent experienced tech, or a local luthier if there's one around do it for you.  I can't see just fixing up the back of the neck being that expensive.  Right?  I mean, how much could it possibly cost?

jamesM, Don't loose confidence, go on have a go, you know you can do it, just think of the pleasure you will get, every time you play the guitar, knowing that you did it. Think of all the money you will save. What ever you do will be reversible.

Ya, I agree, refinishing would worry me too.  That's why if it ever happened to me, I would not "refinish" it, I would add a finish on top of what exists, then sand it down to the matte I would like.  That way I'd know and have the original finish underneath and not worry as much about getting down to bare wood and possibly causing damage.

In that way I would not be too worried.  The key is masking.  If you make sure you mask the guitar off in a way that you're sure you won't get any spray on anything but the part of the neck you want to work on, you should be ok.