In Australia Scotch Bright are scourer sponges for washing dishes (similar to the pic SC posted with sponge attached, and they are green (scourer bit) and yellow sponge).
Hey DR, wood is lovely to work with and hurts less than metal
, most necks are either sugar "rock" maple (beautiful white hardwood) or mahogany (there are a few varieties mostly affecting looks (e.g. sapelie (African) mahogany which has nice ribbon (slightly darker streaks) grain)). It's a medium hard wood, a bit softer and bigger grain than maple. But both are nice to work with. Maple is a bit harder so blunts things (chisel, plane, sandpaper) more quickly but isn't usually cranky (like Ebony can be...).
@SC, I'm curious why you'd sand off the lacquer/finish rather than use stripper then 320 grit to finish, use allot less sanding ?