Full Body And Neck/fretboard Lacquering

[esppse]

Hello,

I want all around shinyness on my guitar so I am planning to spray black lacquer and clear coats on the whole body, neck and EVEN fretboard for a permanent glossy fretboard.

the fretboard is made of rosewood, I dont need grain filler for a job like this right?

(the neck already has frets on it, I bought it off ebay)

Im planing to spray stewmac black lacquer, then use their aerosol clear coat cans on them afterwards.

i have a few questions i really need help with.

1. Is this ok with a rosewood fretboard to have the same glossy polyurethane finish as a guitar body?

2. How can I spray the whole neck without with the black lacquer without spraying the white side dots? Its hard to tape those tiny dots up.

3. Should I cover the frets with something?

4. How many cans of black lacquer do I need for the whole guitar/coats?

Im a beginner at building guitars but i really want to learn!

-Thanks!

[guitar2005]

You don't need to paint a fretboard to get it glossy and painting rosewood seems like a bad idea to me.

If you want a black fingerboard, apply some black dye on the rosewood. To get it to a glossy finish, all you need to do is final sand down to about 400grit. Then, put it under a buffing wheel, with the final buff being a diamond bar (white). You can add some tung oil and polish some more if you want more sheen. That should give you a very slick fretboard.

[ihocky2]

I would stay away from painting the fretboard for several reasons.

First, it's rosewood so it is an open grained wood and will require grain filler. When the finish wears off the grain filler will show in the pores and look horrific.

Second, rosewood is an oily wood and is not always successfull getting paint to adhere or dry properly. Even if it does dry, the oil will make it more likely for the finish to fail early in the guitars life.

Third, look at maple fretboards, even with a polyurethane finish, the finish wears off quickly from playing. You'll end up with gloss black on the areas that area played less and bare rosewood showing through where you play alot. That will look a lot worse than a non glossy rosewood board against a glossy guitar ever will.

Like Guitar2005 said, use some black fretboard dye and then polish the fretboard up. Rosewood will polish to a mirror like shine.

[esppse]

I would stay away from painting the fretboard for several reasons.

Third, look at maple fretboards, even with a polyurethane finish, the finish wears off quickly from playing. You'll end up with gloss black on the areas that area played less and bare rosewood showing through where you play alot. That will look a lot worse than a non glossy rosewood board against a glossy guitar ever will.

Like Guitar2005 said, use some black fretboard dye and then polish the fretboard up. Rosewood will polish to a mirror like shine.

ohhh, i never knew that glossy maple fretboards wear off fast,

but heres something i dont understand, I have a ESP JH 600 stock from a factory. It has an alder body, maple neck thru, and ebony fretboard. The body and whole back of the neck is black lacquer, i had the guitar for 6 years and the finish on the back of the neck (the paint on maple) never wore off besides some dents. this means that maple necks or fretboards should hold paint and polyurethane finishes very well right? so should i just buy a maple neck and spray the whole thing black and lacquer it?

dean guitars has something like it (Dean Custom Zone)

http://media.photobucket.com/image/dean%20custom%20zone/tor3ro/IMG_7428.jpg

i wanna go for something like this, but black not pink lol

as for my rosewood fretboard neck, ill do as you guys suggest and post the results soon, when im buffing the fretboard, can i use this?

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supplies/Abrasives,_polishes,_buffers/Foam_Polishing_Pad.html

should i tape up the frets? or let it buff to? (i dont know how much metal the buffing pad would take off the frets)

thanks for the advice guys, it has helped me alot so far!

[ihocky2]

It's not so much that back of the necks that see the wear, it's the fretboard from the strings rubbing. This is what happens on the maple boards. Picture this with black paint though and rosewood showing through where the bare maple is.

I've never seen one of those Deans that's been played, they've all been new on the rack.

[rkennett]

doesn't the wear depend on playing style and size of frets?

[esppse]

my guitar neck has pretty high frets (jackson neck jumbo frets) its impossible to press the strings down to the bare wood on this neck