Stripping a neck - advice?

meltedbuzzbox

Hello all,

I'm thinking about having a go at stripping the neck on my tele. it's a mim nitro neck, so I suspect it's got a poly undercoat. 
I want to strip the lot, fretboard too (maple) and refinish in oil.
Does anybody have any pointers?

mrkb

I’ve always just manually sanded the back of the necks (and retained the existing headstock and neck pocket end lacquer). Takes 30 mins or so but is more controllable that using a powered sander. Always sanding along the neck.

Start with 250ish grit then upto 600 once it’s just wood, then 1000 before lacquering. Haven’t tried a fretboard though, seems you need a scraper/blade to get around the frets carefully.

Roland

How about sanding and oiling the back, but leaving the fretboard as is? If I were going to sand a fretboard I’d remove the frets first, and then use a radiused sanding block before refretting. All doable, but a lot more work.

meltedbuzzbox

Initially I thought about working it back with 0000 grade wire wool. Seems a safer approach over sanding?

SteveRobinson

How long have you got? 0000 wire wool will take a lifetime!

The best (quickest, safest) way to strip is using a scraper. A Stanley knife blade works well between frets. 

Get most off with your scraper then finish with fine sandpaper, 320 grit.

If it's all nitro and no tough sealer then you can dissolve it off using thinners or MEK but watch the dots don't dissolve too.

meltedbuzzbox

thanks @SteveRobinson ;

I think I might have to man up and go in with the blade

lamf68

Jack, go with exactly what Steve advised mate. Give a bit of thinners a go first just in case it saves you the fear of getting a knife on it, every poly neck I’ve stripped has had to be bladed off though, there’s no easy way, just go slow and try not to hack into it, firmly anchor it into your gonad area on a bench and drag toward yourself on the back, as for the fretboard that’ll be a twat whatever way you do it, laborious and headache inducing but you’ll get it all off eventually. 

GoldenEraGuitars

Funnily enough I’ve just stripped a Vintage Strat neck. Nothing a nice sharp set of Stanley blades can’t sort out. Took a few hours but I’m onto the final stretch.

If I remember I’ll post pics tomorrow 

meltedbuzzbox

Cheers Rich @lamf68 I think I'll man up and have a go