guitar neck project

[kuang89]

My epi les paul had a crack in the neck. I refused to use a filler or plaster to cover it back as the fear tat tis crack might be a lead tat my neck itself is cracking.

Being my cheapo self, i decided to do the job myself. I used a knife to remove the finish on the neck which popped up slightly.

after removing an area of finish, realised it isn't cracking.

but now, i have to remove the entire finish on the neck..it took me 6 hours to remove the entire neck leaving abit on the heel and the portion below the nut.


hardest areas to strip finish using a knife. So i'll leave it, since it's a player not a looker and also i'm really lazy to do a proper job. Biggest concern for me would be keeping the finish above the binding.

first mistake and only mistake luckily...

dark colour stains on the wood is becos of when factory is doing the paintjob, they straightaway paint black on the barewood without a coat to protect it. And the wood is defintely not mahogany. It was quite dark at first, then i sandpapered of a bit leaving abit too so tat after painting the new paint it'll still have a dark backing tone.

Paint again soon

 

[whitetele]

wat kind of wood ? the neck has a scarf joint?

 

[eclipze]

what wood is that?
i cant distinguish whether its a mahogany or not.... i only see a light color on the heel.. i cant see the real color and grain
maybe its a young mahogany outer core wood... and maybe not...

 

[guitarsan]

The wood might be Nato. It's quite commonly used in MIC/MIK lower end "mahogany" guitars.

 

[kuang89]

the wood's identity can't be really determined as it's a mic epi. however it's feels real great even when bare, but leaving the neck bare will make it be a wooden bi-metallic strip as the fretboard is of a different wood. So have to varnish/stain/finish or watever. After 3 coats...

it's actually much darker(camera flash) can see tat i brushed each coat in various directions, and after running sandpaper to it..

actual colour. Kinda blends wif the dark finish it originally had. Frankly speaking not really a good job done.

now i've decided to do the same for the back of the body, but i'll only start when i've enlisted...Also taking the time to play abit see if the neck still nids to be finished. And also finding methods of stripping to current finish. whether should i pay for it to be done or not still a question.

Les Paul+Mahogany coloured back+black top=???Black top(gold top tat is black?)

 

[eclipze]

its like a sealer coat layer... before its going to be finished with top coat

 

[van_halen]

kuang89, why there's a "crack" then later no crack?

 

[eclipze]

its the crack from finish coat's crack

 

[fgl]

KUDOS TO YOUR EXPERIMENTATION WORK ....

I know how siong it is to hand sand ..thats why I bought a power sander before ... then started doing it semi pro for a while

Why not remove the finish from the back of the headstock as well as back & sides of the body then do a stain job? Les Paul style ...

 

[kuang89]

yea..i want to leave the back of my headstock black for the "stinger" style...i definately will take out the back of my guitar body...

tis is the colour i want it to have...

and the front will maintain black wif a black pickguard.
hardware wise also looking to change the pots n tat drops thingy...
ambitious but try my best to make it all work wif army's pay...