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Neck Refinishing Question


Paradigm

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Hi, i've just recently signed up for the forums and i'm new to the world of finishing guitars. I'm planning to "customise" my first ever guitar which is a nice and cheap Fender Strat copy, i'm hoping i might be able to make something decent out of it and i have a question about finishing the neck. Is it possible and/or safe to use wood dye on the neck? You see i'm planning to do the body dark probably and i'd rather the neck was, or at least looked like, a darker wood, so im just wondering if it's wise to use a wood dye to save having to buy a different neck for the look i want.

all comments are appreciated as i'll need all the help i can get :D

I also have some questions in the general guitar tech forum if anyone wants to help me out even more!

thanks in advance for any and all comments

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I have heard it said that hard maple is -so- hard that it doesn't even take dye evenly. You might have better luck if you were to spray a tinted clearcoat. I have heard it said that some paint places can mix custom colors of clear in spray cans, so you might be able to pick up some clear coat of the right color if you were to look around.

Or you could buy a whole spray setup and mix your own, but I kinda figured that was out of the cards....

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In this case, the outer layer of wood has been sealed with a finish. I'm not an expert, but my experience leads me to believe that you have two choices.

1) Do a lot sanding (to get to "fresh" wood that has not been affected by the finish) so you can get a decent saturation. Then go through the slow process of sanding, staining, finishing, sanding...

2) Sand it down until you get to the surface of the wood, then use a tinted finish. There are a lot of polyurethanes and varnishes out there that have pigments and dyes, and they might give you the color that you want.

Just my opinion. Void where prohibited. Not suitable for children with small parts.

D~s

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