Horrible gloss neck that i would love to fix

jkgchristmas

I picked up an acryllic guitar a while back with LED's behind the fretboard inlays nad in the body, it was for a live performance i was doing and its really heavy and i hated to play it but it looked how i wanted it too.

have recently become infatuated with building and modding guitars and thought id have a look at what i hated about it, firstly the pickups are absolute garbage, probably worth about 30 quid for the whole set, but thats an easy fix

the more complicated fix is i noticed the neck AND fretboard are covered in gloss varnish, no wonder it was so horrible to play

I figure i could sand it down but i dont really know where to start with all the frets still on it, also the inlays are made of acryillic so that the light can shine through, i took some paper to it and scratched one inlay dot up and now its all misty (not sure i can fix that)

anyone got any ideas on how i should approach it, maybe could take the frets out but would know how to put any back in

thanks in advance for anyone will to engage with this mess!

J

Winny_Pooh

Not worth a refret unless you have £300 to spend freely. 

On the back of the neck you can rub it down to a more satin feel with 600-800 grit wet and dry or strip it all off and apply an oil finish. 

Re the inlay scuff, try 1500 then 1800-2000 grit paper and a polish compound, if you have no compound then try brasso for a budget fix. 

Roland

Any chance of some pictures?

jkgchristmas

Winny_Pooh said:

Not worth a refret unless you have £300 to spend freely. 

On the back of the neck you can rub it down to a more satin feel with 600-800 grit wet and dry or strip it all off and apply an oil finish. 

Re the inlay scuff, try 1500 then 1800-2000 grit paper and a polish compound, if you have no compound then try brasso for a budget fix. 

ok nice ill give that a go, what about the gloss all over the fretboard? nothing to be done without taking the frets out?

also ive only ever dry sanded thus far, what the added benefit of wet sanding? would you normally do both

jkgchristmas

Roland said:

Any chance of some pictures?

sure ill take some in the morning

prowla

I don't notice that my Ric basses are lacquered both neck and fretboard and my Warwick ones aren't on either; I just pick them up and play them.

One possibility for making the finish more satin would be to use wire wool; the finest grade can polish metal and glass to a shine.

Andyjr1515

I use a single edged razor blade (a new Stanley knife blade will also do) held vertically by finger and thumb in both hands and used like a scraper, drawn from fret to fret.

  Because the contact point is quite small, you need to move slowly from treble side to bass side so you don't create a flat spot.

Whlie I can't guarantee ref the acrylic of your led's I've done this OK with fret spaces containing mother of pearl dots, blocks, synthetic dots and blocks.

jkgchristmas

Roland said:

Any chance of some pictures?

here you go! https://imgur.com/a/tXwoZRb