New unfinished neck was wondering how to proceed.

[333runes]

Greetings all I am new to the Warmoth building experience as well as new to the community. I was wondering if you could possibly give me some pointers. I recently purchased a neck & body from Warmoth. The neck is quartersawn maple with an ebony fretboard all unfinished. I purchased it this way mainly because of my limited funds at the time plus I wanted the try experience of doing it myself. Since then I've done some research on the interwebs on the best ways to move forward with some sort of finish. I know that I want a very minimal finish but I do want to protect the wood. I can imagine a slightly thicker finish on the neck as compared to a thinner finish on the fretboard. Of course me being a total novice I could be totally wrong. As far as options are concerned I've read and seen videos about boiled linseed oil, tru oil, tung oil for the neck and lemon oil for the fretboard (Although lemon oil doesn't seem to be too popular of an idea)

Basically I would love to hear your opinion on what you would do next with the neck. It's going to be a while until I get the body that I ordered so I have some time with this neck. It sure seems very well made and the ebony fingerboard looks and feels awesome. I mean heck it looks like it could be played right now just fine the fretboard is so smooth and nice. So of course I want to be able to proceed effectively with positive results.

So far from what I've read I know that naphtha should involved (people were saying lighter fluid)… two or three different grits of sandpaper and some sort of oil for finishing. From what I understand, multiple coats of oil will most likely be used on the neck..I'm just not sure which oil to use or if there's a better option I should be considering that I'm not aware of.

Any insight or helpful hints from you nice people would be great to hear. I truly value your opinions and Thank you very much in advance.

 

[stratamania]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Firstly, Warmoth require a hard finish for warranty purposes. Oil or poorly applied wipe on finish for maple would void your warranty.

Warranty

Default Description

warmoth.com

That said, if you want to use the types of finishes mentioned, I have used Tru-oil on several Warmoth necks. It is straightforward to apply in thin coats. Leave the face of the ebony board unfinished.

 

[NedRyerson]

I agree with Strat. I'm not as concerned about the WM warranty so on maple necks, I've either applied a colored lacquer if I wanted it to blend into the aesthetics of the body (my satin black V-K was finished that way, both body & neck) or done applications of TO (now that I mentally count my inventory, this is the most frequent approach I've used for my own collection).

Leave the fretboard alone. That is a gorgeous slab of ebony, though. Looks a lot like what I have on my V-K with those chocolate streaks.

 

[333runes]

TYSM for your replies! Looks like Tru-oil would be a good option?..would you recommend the wax that they make as well?..and what about sanding in between coats? I heard that is a thing that some folks do.

 

[stratamania]

TYSM for your replies! Looks like Tru-oil would be a good option?..would you recommend the wax that they make as well?..and what about sanding in between coats? I heard that is a thing that some folks do.

I have used the Birchwood Casey, wax also. It is optional as a final wipe on and off buffing step. I have done that on Birdseye maple for example.

Here is a link to a post in the first build thread I did on the forum quite a lot of years ago now, which details some of the application steps.

Quilted Purple Strat Build

Holy mackerel! That's some pretty aggressive shielding, especially considering how useless it is. And that on top of using noiseless pickups! Good job, anyway. Next time, don't work so hard. You'll live longer.

unofficialwarmoth.com

I tend to use finer grits towards and in between the final coats up to about 1500.

If you check out the Welcome to the forum link in my signature, that thread has tons of links to build threads and useful info.

 

[toothyfish]

Is there a reason that ebony and rosewood fretboards are left unfinished (or perhaps a very light linseed oil) yet maple fretboards are finished with lacquer or polyurethane?

 

[stratamania]

Is there a reason that ebony and rosewood fretboards are left unfinished (or perhaps a very light linseed oil) yet maple fretboards are finished with lacquer or polyurethane?

Ebony and Rosewood are dense tropical hardwoods, and durable for the purpose without finish, whereas maple is not.

 

[Rick]

And if you're looking for historical backup ... for centuries violin and bass fretboards, in ebony, and the few I've seen in rosewood, have not been finished. Centuries!