Alright forgive a very rookie question. When hard finishing necks with unfinished fingerboards (Pau Faro in this case) will I have better luck taping off just the flat of the fingerboard, or taping down the edges (where the side dots would be) and sanding the resulting trough smooth?
Hard finishing necks with unfinished fingerboards
- Thread starter jman
- Start date
There is all sorts of "technique" out there for this.
First of all, make sure your frets ends are as you like them, if any smoothing needs to be done, etc.
What I like to do after that is run the tape so its just at the bottom of the fret slots. You'll end up with just a tiny stripe of unfinished wood, but... after the finish is all dry and level and ready for buffing, you can take some 600 paper or even 400 paper (followed by a light 600 pass) and "feather" the edge of the finish line. What you're doing is getting rid of the abrupt ledge of finish that results from the tape being there. Feather that down and buff the whole thing out. That comes out pretty nice.
First of all, make sure your frets ends are as you like them, if any smoothing needs to be done, etc.
What I like to do after that is run the tape so its just at the bottom of the fret slots. You'll end up with just a tiny stripe of unfinished wood, but... after the finish is all dry and level and ready for buffing, you can take some 600 paper or even 400 paper (followed by a light 600 pass) and "feather" the edge of the finish line. What you're doing is getting rid of the abrupt ledge of finish that results from the tape being there. Feather that down and buff the whole thing out. That comes out pretty nice.
I think the key there, in all the good solutions, is the blending, feathering, "finessing" of the finish to bare wood.
I've got a Fender made J bass, and its finish (poly razz-ma-tazz) began peeling from the sides of the fretboard (rosewood) as soon as I got it, so dont forget to really prep, and degrease the sides of the fretboard with naphtha if you're gonna have finish on it. I fixed up the J bass with some superglue dripped behind the lifted up sections, and/or removed the sections and replaced the finish with super glue, leveled and buffed. Its "ok" but is still peeling. Not one of Fender's better finishes, but... maybe I'm lucky with only one dead note on it. Someday, a Warmoth replacement.
I've got a Fender made J bass, and its finish (poly razz-ma-tazz) began peeling from the sides of the fretboard (rosewood) as soon as I got it, so dont forget to really prep, and degrease the sides of the fretboard with naphtha if you're gonna have finish on it. I fixed up the J bass with some superglue dripped behind the lifted up sections, and/or removed the sections and replaced the finish with super glue, leveled and buffed. Its "ok" but is still peeling. Not one of Fender's better finishes, but... maybe I'm lucky with only one dead note on it. Someday, a Warmoth replacement.
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