lacquering a strat neck

munckee

I have a modified squier standard strat which has a very unlacquered feeling neck.  I realise it has some sort of satin finish but I don't love it, its also very white in appearance.  I have some polyurethane pine stained stuff which I used to lacquer a tweed amp with.

Am considering sanding the neck and then painting on with a sponge brush and then dressing the frets to remove whats on the frets and sanding the neck as much as required to feel smooth.  

Am I likely to get a smooth enough finish with a sponge brush, I have no way of spraying the stuff so its either apply with a sponge brush, normal paint brush or maybe wipe it on with rags.

Any suggestions?

victorludorum

You're entering a world of pain here... I imagine that the most common piece of advice you'll get here is to sell this neck and buy a lacquered one.

munckee

victorludorum said:

You're entering a world of pain here... I imagine that the most common piece of advice you'll get here is to sell this neck and buy a lacquered one.

I have considered buying a new neck.  The radius is 9.5 and I prefer the 7.25 on my roadworn tele.  So I think if I lacquer the neck it might be an improvement and do me for a while.  I had a classis player 50s strat which had a lacquered 9.5 neck which I preferred to this one, but didn't have the tele then.   My plan is to lacquer it and darken it and then sand back the neck so its a bit like the roadworn but leave the fretboard as smooth and lacquered as possible see how it goes.

Just wondered if it is likely to end up much worse than when I started!

Corvus

No chance of spraying outdoors? Cellulose (nitro) cans from Steve Robinson and others, tack-dries fast so you only need to be outside for a few mins on a not-cold & damp day, though it will smell when hanging indoors while it dries fully.

I doubt a sponge brush is going to be nice, I'd imagine build-up along frets for a start.

That finish, if it's what I think it is, is a catalysed polyurethane which sands off pretty easily. Scraping between frets with a blade can work well if you're careful not to dig in. Bit of light sanding to make smooth if needed.
An alternative to scraping the frets - I've done them with fineline masking tape on top of the frets, pull it while the lacquer is still soft. The lacquer edges become softer if you're quick enough, instead of hard/torn etc. You can get very narrow tape, 1.5mm - 2mm is about ideal, JammyDog is one source.

GoldenEraGuitars

I’d advise starting from scratch with a new neck. The neck is the interface between you and the instrument.. I’d never paint a finish onto it tbh. It’ll end up thick and uneven. And if the neck turns out badly then you’ll have a bigger mess on your hands (see what I did there )

munckee

Corvus said:

No chance of spraying outdoors? Cellulose (nitro) cans from Steve Robinson and others, tack-dries fast so you only need to be outside for a few mins on a not-cold & damp day, though it will smell when hanging indoors while it dries fully.

I doubt a sponge brush is going to be nice, I'd imagine build-up along frets for a start.

That finish, if it's what I think it is, is a catalysed polyurethane which sands off pretty easily. Scraping between frets with a blade can work well if you're careful not to dig in. Bit of light sanding to make smooth if needed.
An alternative to scraping the frets - I've done them with fineline masking tape on top of the frets, pull it while the lacquer is still soft. The lacquer edges become softer if you're quick enough, instead of hard/torn etc. You can get very narrow tape, 1.5mm - 2mm is about ideal, JammyDog is one source.

Useful stuff thanks.  Will check that tape out.