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Advice needed - Which neck finish to use
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Author:  bcombs510 [ Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:20 am ]
Post subject:  Advice needed - Which neck finish to use
Hello,

I'm still working on completing my first build. Slowly but surely getting there. :)

I have the neck pretty close to final fit and ready for finish. The body was finished with gloss Endurovar and shined up quite nicely on the buffer. I was originally planning to just spray endurovar on the neck as well, but I started reading old forum posts here and elsewhere. Next thing I know I'm ordering truoil and liberon finishing oil.

So far the neck has a wash coat of 50/50 truoil and mineral spirits on it. I did three coats this way sanding with 150, 220 and then 400. I saw this mentioned in a thread here as a good way to pore fill. I then sanded up through 600, 800, 1200 and 1500. It's nice and smooth and ready for the finish coats. I had planned to do truoil coats, three per day, until I was happy with it (some folks have said 10-15 coats). But then I read a few horror stories about truoil and that liberon finishing oil was a better choice.

Questions:

1) Should I stick with the truoil or use the liberon? Success stories are welcome.
2) If I switch to liberon, should I take it back down to bare wood and build up a wash coat of the liberon?
3) Regarding the sides of the fretboard and fretboard extension, do I mask these off or finish them as well? Seems like I should finish everything but the top of the fretboard, but I'm not sure.

Your ideas are always appreciated.

Thanks!
Brad
Author:  Colin North [ Thu Mar 03, 2016 12:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Advice needed - Which neck finish to use
I heard matt Enduro Var makes a good neck finish......
John Greven mentioned it so I'm planning to use it on my next one.
Author:  Chuck R [ Thu Mar 03, 2016 3:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Advice needed - Which neck finish to use
True oil works great. I've done six so far with it and have not been disappointed.
Finish the sides, tape off the top. You can clean any that wicks under by scraping with a razor blade.
Author:  Mark Mc [ Thu Mar 03, 2016 5:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Advice needed - Which neck finish to use
+1 for True Oil on the neck. I don't know about the Liberon, but it would probably do a good job also. I have used Danish Oil successfully also. Danish soaks in a bit more and gives a more matt and softer finish, but takes longer to cure and harden up. Tru Oil sits on the surface and builds up with subsequent layers. It gives a pretty hard final surface, more like a varnish than a traditional oil.

I know with your first build you feel like you need to develop the perfect method, like this is the definitive guitar of your lifetime. But then most of us get addicted to building and you will find yourself trying a different method on the next one and something else after that. There is no holy grail. No method is "correct", and we can over-think these things. Just get on with it so that you can get some strings on that thing!

Best wishes
Mark
Author:  Colin North [ Thu Mar 03, 2016 5:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Advice needed - Which neck finish to use
Yes, tape off the top of the FB, the nut slot, and the face of the heel + under the FB extension (a new scalpel blade to cut the tape at all sharp edges helps) - finish on the rest.
As a suggestion, I found sanding through the varnish, angled to taper the varnish at the FB edges, before removing the tape helps to prevent damaging the varnish in that area when removing the tape.
My last build I used Liberon, and it was nice, similar to a couple of earlier tru-oil finished guitars I made after playing in.
And forgot to mention in earlier post, the EV gloss actually makes quite a sweet finish on the neck too, had it on one of my players for well over a year.
Like many gloss finishes, it was a bit "sticky" at first, but didn't take long at all to settle in (although it did wait a month before leveling and buffing)
As said in an earlier post, you can overthink a lot of stuff...
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