Fender neck color

jimfergie

Newbie
Messages
13
I'm trying to match my American Strat neck in color. I bought a can of ReRanch amber neck tint, but it's too yellow. In looking at the various necks down at the guitar store, most of the Mexican one's look like there's no tint at all, the wood is almost bleached in color. Most American Strats have color in the finish, but it's not yellow or orange like some. It's more of a light natural maple or "pecan" color. Any body have an idea of the color Fender uses in the tinted poly finish they use? I've contacted StewMac, they said their amber is yellow too, I would have to mix my own dye with lacquer to try and match it . I've put a couple coats of Deft sanding sealer on the neck for a temporary finish, but will just continue with lacquer or maybe even the Omni Polyurethane that I'm going to use on the body. I see why they switched to the two part poly's, they build up a finish with only two coats and rubs out glass like. I just have to keep praticing with temperature, reducer and spraying technique.

Jim
 
Maple neck , Gloss Headstock Face with Satin Urethane Finish on Back of Neck

Here is your answer - per current Fender American Strat Spec sheet . . . :hello2:

so if there is any other color difference, is it the wood? or year?
 
I bought my American Strat a couple years ago and the neck is satin on the head, but glossy on the back and front of the neck. I would imagine it would be pretty easy for Fender to spray the whole thing satin and then just buff the neck to bring out the gloss. The other day at the store there were some G and L's that certain necks were almost orange in tint. I think some of the Fender  vintage styles may be yellowed obviously to mimic old lacquer. I'm pretty sure you get some of the amber or brown dyes and mix up your own lacquer tint to try and match this non yellow tint I'm talking about. I'll tell you though, I sent back the first neck from Warmoth because the frets were wrong, it was satin finished by Warmoth and it was very thin. The second neck came unfinished. I sprayed 3 coats of Deft sanding sealer and it looks and feels identical to the Warmoth finish and is extremely easy to spray with no sanding, the neck comes from Warmoth extremely smooth.
 
I'd have to see a picture of the neck in question that you are trying to duplicate? A lot of the current Fender models have finishes that have actually no tint at all; it's just a clear gloss or satin finish, if that's what you're trying to duplicate, just shoot whatever clear top finish you want over the sanding sealer; note that you don't really need to use sanding sealer on a maple neck.
 
Reranch also has a lacquer that is a tinted clear coat that looks like aged lacquer.  It is in between the vintage neck amber and clear.  I guess I beat CB to the punch on mentioning that...
Patrick

 
here's a  rather poor picture, on the left is a couple sprays of ReRanch Tinted Neck Amber, it's heavier on the bottom, it's fairly yellow. In the middle is the Warmoth neck with sanding sealer, pretty normal maple color. On the right is your typical Fender tinted poly finish, obviously some color, but not yellow.
 
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