Oh Finish Gurus, Save Me

[stubhead]

I have almost finished the shaping on my formerly-paddleheaded 7-string neck.

I want to tint the entire neck a light amber. I necessarily have to use water-based polyurethane as my finish coats (smell...). I know that Warmoth puts some kind of light sealer on their necks. What I have done previously to tint a Warmoth-sealed neck is to mix up a strong concentrate of powdered amber dye (from L.M.I.) in water, then just tint a batch of water-based polyurethane to do the neck with - 6 or 8 thin coats an hour or so apart. However, I have now removed some of Warmoth's sealer from parts of this neck.

To dye an unsealed body, I mix up powdered dyes in water, dye the body, then seal that with Zinsser's Bulls Eye Sealcoat, which is a wax-free shellac that seals in the dye. Then I can put on clear water-based polyurethane with it lifting the water-based dye. To dye this neck evenly, should I:

A: sand off ALL of Warmoth's sealer, dye it, then seal it, then finish it;
B: put on a coat of Sealcoat all over everything, then the tinted polyurethane;
C: go straight to the urethane stage, because Warmoth's sealer won't affect the absorption;
D: something else?

I'm leaning towards "A" because it seems most predictably error-resistant, but any and all advice would be appreciated.

P.S. (I need to get this sealed up real quick, before jackthehack's "ex" arrives....)  :guitarplayer2: -> ccasion14: -> :blob7:

 

[jackthehack]

A.?  Which ex?

 

[bpmorton777]

I think i have read elswere on this board that you should never sand a neck but somebody else should know for sure.

Brian

 

[jackthehack]

That's SOME people's opinion on sanding the portion of the neck that fits into the neck pocket; you HAVE to do some sanding on the rest of the neck if you are going to finish it dependant on wood selection....

 

[stubhead]

I think i have read elswere on this board that you should never sand a neck but somebody else should know for sure.

A: It's MY board and I'll sand if I want to;

B: What could possibly go wrong, if you refinish it so as to seal out moisture?

C: I already DID....

 

[-CB-]

B - The issue is not sanding, but how much and where.

Excessive sanding - reshaping if you will - alters the stresses in the wood, and can make it go all wavy.

Sanding on the heel of the neck is not a good idea to get a fit.  Much better to sand the body.

A light sanding, to get the finish off is fine. 

As far as W's sealer goes... its not much of anything, and dont worry about getting the rest off before finishing

 

[rahimiiii]

Alcohol based dye dissolved in acetone, wipe acetone over the neck first to cut the sealer then the dye.

 

[-CB-]

i sanded my goncalo neck to get the skunk stripe level - it raised up a good deal.  Then I used alcohol dye.  No line, or other tell tale artifacts where I sanded then dyed.  The W sealer just did not make a difference as far as dye was concerned.

 

[jackthehack]

Side note on the "sealer"; you may have seen my post on the '54 Goldtop Tele project in which the neck came several mahogany shades darker than the body. I experimented last night with some stripes of different dye colors. This evening I was getting ready to grain fill the body and neck and when sanding the dye out of the neck it lightened up a couple shades. Anyone else notice this?

 

[-CB-]

Not I.

Only sanding I did was on that goncalo neck and it stayed a medium brown

I do think Gregg said thats why necks are darker tho, maybe some woods more than others?

 

[jackthehack]

Dunno... As far as mahogany goes the only other time I had a mismatch problem the neck was much lighter than the body and any sanding on it didn't affect coloration...

 

[-CB-]

guess ya just cant tell till ya see what its gonna do

spose if you had a mismatch, might be ok to sand it down just to see what it did

certainly wouldn't hurt if done carefully and minimally