Neck Sanding/Re Staining

[SnakeGS]

I took my neck off my strat and i am planning on taking out some nicks and dings my little brother put in it when i was in the Military. I have sanded the neck down with 320, 800 and 2000 grit, but i was curious on the stain type. After sanding the neck i am curious on the stain i need , check pic below. Also how well will the stain cover that up, or should i take the whole neck to the original like the spots? I was thinking of an Amber stain but that why i am posting so i can get better suggestions lol. Thanks all.
If i have already messed it up no prob its a project neck right now, i have a backup strat but i figured i could make it look somewhat new again for a possible sell or to give to my brother even though he screwed it up lol.

Also i dont care about the fender strat logo, im having fender re place it if again i havnt screwed the pooch on this which i kinda think i did lol

 

[Patrick from Davis]

In general, regular maple does not stain well, it gets rather blotchy.  You can tell that the finish is tinted because the wood is very white under the stain.  I hate to nit pick, but there is a large difference in the procedures for staining or shooting tinted finish.  The general course of action is to remove all the finish, get some neck amber tinted nitrocellulose finish from Reranch and refinish the thing.  This is assuming that you have some experience and are willing to put in some time and effort into getting it right.  The first attempt rarely works as planned.  There are other courses of action as well, like pure tung oil and various other finishes that have been discussed in depth if you go and search for them with the forum search.  I would have encouraged you to try and touch up the finish, but mixing finishes is a no no and will just cause a headache.  So it is best to start fresh because even if it is the same finish as what you have a can of, different brands of the same thing often cause trouble.
Patrick

 

[Alfang]

As said above, it will be hard to match whats already there and aged as well.

I would take this aproach, spray or wipe on something you find off the local shelf, if it doesn't work, sand down the entire neck and start over, 

Theres a ton of info on this forum and elsewhere to show you how to aply a new finnish, it's not that hard

 

[tfarny]

Yeah, take it down to bare wood. The #1 simplest procedure after that is probably to stain using an oil-based wipe on stain, like the minwax ones, after taping off the fretboard with masking tape. After that dries, use some wipe-on poly, either satin or gloss, again Minwax sells the stuff everywhere. I just finished a tele neck with the wipe-on satin poly, I couldn't believe how easy it was, and it feels and looks just like a Fender American series satin finish.

 

[callaway]

I agree... you should strip it completely. Also, it is recommended only to sand to a 320 or 400 grit before applying a finish. You want a little bit of texture on the surface so that the finish can adhere. Save the 2000 grit for after the finish has been sprayed!

 

[SnakeGS]

thanks all yea i am almost done with taking it to the bare wood. I figured it wouldnt be easy to try and touch it up lol. I was also thinking of doing the brush on wipe off stain. When i was in the military we had to re stain 1800 dollar doors lol and it had to be perfect so i have alot of experience with the brush on wipe off staining technique. Its just finding that stain around here lol.

Would it be good to use the brush on wipe off and then shoot it with reranch nitro clear coat? also am i going to have to hit that skunk stripe with rosewood again? or will the amber stain work over that without staining it amber?