Thread: Finishing maple/rosewood neck

I finish all the way up to the end of the rosewood edge. Just tape off the whole fingerboard area and spray the whole neck. Once you've buffed this and oiled your fingerboard you'll hardly see the difference.

Hiya

I give my necks 3 spray coats of Miralac semi-gloss, then sand, then 3 more coats, then once the fretted fretboard is glued on I tidy up the glue joint, mask the fretboard, sand the neck again, give it another 2 coats of nitro, then lightly sand, apply my headstock decal, mist coat that a couple of times, then give it one last wet coat. Once the frets are dressed the fretboard gets a good rub of Snarling Dog orange oil and a buff with a piece of old towel.

For maple fretboards I give the board two coats, then lightly sand before I press in the frets, then I glue the board to the neck, lightly sand the neck, apply my headstock decal, mist coat that a couple of times, then give it all one last wet coat.

Now that we're getting warmer weather here in Adelaide again I'll probably go back to using K&H clear acrylic instead of the Miralac nitro, in which case I cut the 3 coats of nitro back to 2 coats at each stage. The nitro is ok (and works out cheaper) but the fumes are not the best.