Creating this look?

Jaen-Pierre-Dowling

I stumbled across what is, in my opinion, the best looking Strat I've ever seen...

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/8153/267952x.jpg

Now I would like to know, despite having to get a custom paint mix made, is there any way that a standard maple neck can be tinted to look like this, without having to remove the logo or any other info on the headstock?

Thanks a lot!

AlanRatcliffe

Pretty standard "pumpkin orange" vintage tint. Amber looks better to my mind, and is more like the colour of a real old nitro finish. You can suntan a neck a little in UV light, which darkens the wood slightly, but modern finishes usually don't yellow, so it won't do anything more than take the edge off the "paper white" of a modern finish neck.

It's best to refinish, but you can spray a tinted lacquer over the top, just rough up the surface a little with 400 or 600 grit water paper first, so the new finish can grip (poly doesn't soften and blend with the new finish).

I've done refins where the face of the headstock is left original while the rest of the neck is refinished. If you want to tint too, you just put a few coats over the top of the headstock.

Some folk degloss with steel wool and then rub in shoe polish, but it doesn't last long (unless it's nitro, where the finish will stain).

Jaen-Pierre-Dowling

Thanks a lot Alan!

It's such a blast being part of this forum because there's almost always someone who knows exactly what I want to know! ? Thanks a lot for a great source of information as well as the huge entertaining reading I get done over here!

I was wondering though, the tinted lacquer you mentioned, exactly what's the product's name? And will its application alter the tone/playability of the neck at all?

AlanRatcliffe

Unfortunately you can't get the pre-tinted finishes here as they are flammable, so can't be shipped (most dyes too). But you can get a finish locally and tint it yourself using powdered aniline dyes which you dissolve in a 4:1 alcohol to acetone mix to use as a finish tint.

You can also get [url=http://]dyes premixed in a glycol carrier[/url] that can be shipped and will dissolve in almost any finish. More expensive than anilines, but easy to use.