SocialDistortionFan

nothing new to add, but just another vote for "spare strings" and "have fun". maybe a small towel to wipe the neck down between songs, if you sweat a lot. gets hot up there. do a set-up, or get one done beforehand.

This is just personal preference, but I hate tung oil. I've heard good things about Tru-Oil but never tried it. From what I understand, it's a boiled linseed oil base with additives. I DO NOT recommend any of the following for musical instruments, this is just to illustrate my experience with tung oil and boiled linseed oils: I used to buy/refinish/resell military surplus rifle stocks (M1's and M14's), and tried both tung oil and boiled linseed oil. Those were the original finishes used, and they were mainly intended to protect against rain/weather. On non-collectible ones, I'd use Easy Off oven cleaner to pull all the old oil/grease/cosmoline out of the wood, so I would be starting with bare wood. In my experience, tung oil always felt oily, gummy, or tacky, even with thin coats over that bare wood. I was never happy with how it looked either, linseed oil brought out the color and grain a lot better, and dried better. Many times I re-stripped tung oil treated stocks, to again refinish them with boiled linessed oil, before I quit using it all together. But I'd never use either for a guitar neck, *in my own personal projects*. It feels oily forever, it stinks, and unless I handled it with rubber gloves, it would irritate my skin pretty bad. Nothing I would want on a guitar neck. For guns it's not too bad, because typically people keep them with a thin layer of oil on the metal parts, in a case or safe, and typically a rifle isn't handled as frequently and as long as a guitar (so smell etc isn't as much an issue, guns stink from solvents/oils no matter what). In the field, many times they're carried on a sling, or while wearing gloves (here in IL during hunting seasons, it's usually pretty cold). So the tackiness isn't as much an issue there either. You might be able to get a better feel out of the Tru-Oil with a light rubbing with white Scotch Brite, or a rag with denatured alcohol. My understanding is that the additives in Tru-Oil are intended to allow the finish to build up, which normal boiled linseed oil will just get gummy if put on too thick. If I got spots like that on stocks, I'd use denatured alcohol on a rag to thin the oil down a bit, and let it dry. The key was always to work in several light coats, allowing them to soak in before the next, to avoid that build up. But occasionally, it would happen. If you try the denatured alcohol, keep it away from any binding, inlays, paint, etc. Just a lightly damp rag, if you squeeze it and it drips, it's too much. Keep it off everything but that Tru-Oil surface. I accidentally spilled some the other day on a lacquered surface (back of my project Squire neck) and it had quite a negative effect on the finish. I'm new and inexperienced to instrument refinishing, so keep that in mind. But I've put a lot of oil on other wood (mostly walnut and birch, if it makes a difference) through the years. Experiment on an old maple baseball bat (if you have one in the basement) first. I bet the Eko neck is nitro lacquer. Aside from the pre-CBS Fender mystique, that was a pretty common finish back in those days, auto industry, musical instruments, furniture, cabinet making, etc. It was inexpensive back then, and dries fast, which are the priorities in manufacturing/production.

New guy, nothing to show yet. I just want to compliment everybody's work, every pic in this thread is very well done. I don't think I could take a pre-made neck and body and make it look half as good. Truly amazing work, everybody, even the ones people say "well, next time I would..." etc. They look great.

Hi, great forum here, I actually found it as I was researching this project. I got a good price on this neck recently, I was told that it's a ~1967-71-ish Jazzmaster neck (it's a 25.5" scale). Most of the neck stamp is gone, all you can make out is "MAR", no date/model codes. It looks to have had the headstock cut down from the larger CBS shape. Someone had removed the original fretboard and put on a slab rosewood board, which was poorly done and cracked. I'm assuming that it had a "curved" rosewood board, and someone crudely planed it flat (possibly belt sanded?), and put the slab board on. I was actually hesitant to take this project on, but I absolutely love the feel of the neck, it's a B width nut, with a big fat C shape like I've always wanted. It also had the original Fender "F" tuners in good shape so I'm going to try to resurrect it with a 12" radius, rosewood fretboard. Following the "fretboard removal" tutorial here, I steamed the old rosewood off. It was on with hide glue, so it came off in probably 20 minutes. Under the fretboard the planing was noticably uneven, and you could see glue spots in the shape of the old block inlays. I removed the binding, it was cracked, and had been planed into. Some of the side inlays were planed or sanded in half, and some were untouched. Since it's never going to be a collector piece, I removed the binding, and plugged the holes for the side inlays with dowels. I've planed it flat (neck was over 1" thick at 12th fret with the 1/4" rosewood, so I did have a little room to spare, all I did was true it, removing as little as possible), and I'm looking at fretboards. I want to get one that's already radiused and slotted, I don't have the tools or knowledge to slot one. Also this project is big enough for me as it is, previously all I've done is stuff like bolting necks/bodies together, replacing pickups, simple refinishing). But I've done enough non-guitar related woodworking that I'm comfortable in gluing a fretboard on and having it be true, and shaping it. I'll likely have it fretted somewhere though, I'm not ready for that. Anyway, here's where I could use some input: I know that neck binding is typically done over the edge of the fretboard, but what I'm considering is getting some plain maple binding, gluing it on, then planing it flat with the surface of the fretboard and putting the fretboard over the top. #1 I don't want to lose any width, #2 I just think it's probably the easiest way to do something like this for the first time. I don't have a router, so I'm not comfortable trying to get a perfect fit with the fretboard to the inner edge of the route for the binding. It would be neat, but it's beyond my skill level, and honestly I don't have the funds to pay for it to be done right now (in the process of starting a business). Plus I just like doing stuff myself. Any tips or advice? The route for the binding is now a pretty uniform .040" wide by .140" tall, if it makes any difference. It's pretty small, which is why I'm leaning towards just filling it. I guess my main decision is if I want to: 1. get maple binding, fill in binding route, true it to top and edges and put fretboard over top. 2. white synthetic binding like original. I'm not sure the white would look right with the fretboard on top (it didn't really look right when I started, white binding, then big rosewood slab on top), and think the maple would be less noticable, but obviously it's going to be pretty visible either way. 3. maybe a rosewood binding, with a thinner rosewood board on top to blend it all together better, but I don't want to lose any of that fat C shape. Or maybe a 9.5" radius would keep the overall thick feel, while tapering the fretboard edges to the rosewood binding, without making it look like a big 1/2" slab, which is my concern with using a rosewood binding. I don't want to plane any deeper because of the truss rod, the wood covering it is pretty thin towards the nut and heel ends (maybe all the way, I don't know, I can only see the ends). Thanks for any help.