Necks: Finish and Unfinished

What is the difference? I know that one is finished and the other isn't, obviously, but what about playability? I know maple necks are usually finished with Nitro-something-or-other... But can you play an unfinished neck without getting splinters?

Thanks for the help... I hope you can understand why I am confused.

By the way:
http://www.rockinger.com/Media/Shop/n008rm.jpg

Maple has a finish, the rosewood board usually is masked off, and has no finish. You will not get splinters, if you dont finish the maple neck, but it will not feel good, and will get ugly, and grimy real fast.

There are natural oil rubbed finishes that some people use. I have no experience with that. Its not hard to aply the nitro finish yourself, but it takes a fews steps, sanding and polishing the lacquer, and scraping the lacquer off the frets. The lacquer can be found at most hardware stores, I use Deft, clear furniture lacquer, gloss. If you want an aged look, you need to tint the neck as well, the clear lacquer does not tint the neck.

Okay thanks for clearing that up. I will probably just get a Finished neck.

My favorite guitars have oil finished necks. One of my Teles and one Strat have necks finished with Formby's Formulated Tung Oil, and another Strat and my Wolfgang are finished in Lemon Oil. I don't sweat much from my hands, so my necks are still fairly clean. :)

I just finished using two slopped-on coats of Formby's low gloss tung oil (I wiped off the excess and hung three days to dry). This was on two maple on maple USA Custom Guitar necks. I LOVE the way they came out! No more laquer or poly on any more necks I fool with.

Next time I build a tele I'm going to look for a nice looking light body and use several coats of this oil. Long ago I finished a strat body of solid koa with about six coats of tung oil. Looked great when finished and not too heavy but never liked the tone of that body. The koa soaked up much more oil than these new maple necks did. They are fine and sealed with the two coats I applied.

+1 for the oiled neck: Danish oil or tru-oil here. A generous amount applied with a rag, leave to dry for 2 days then buff off with a scotchbrite pad. Silky smooth, no glossy sweat-stick, and the wood is protected against dirt, sweat, grime, most southern european insects and some species of wild reptiles.