Hey,

I never had a ploy finished guitar, but I just bought an old '84 japanese strat with a maple neck. Where you see the finish come off on the fingerboard on nitro finishes on guitars like SRV's 'number one' and Claptons 'Blackie', I don't really see that on poly guitars. The finish has just started to reveal the wood only on second fret at the b string, plus down on the bottom front edge where your hand rubs. That's just my observation.

I've also heard people say poly necks don't age well. Age is a pretty general term, but the neck on polys tint just nitro. I'll have to take a picture neck time I remove the neck, as you can see the original tint that has been untouched hidden on the wood and where it has been exposed. I was pretty surprised to see such a difference.

The body finish is also pretty tough, I wish I had it on Alder instead of basswood. The basswood sounds great, but it seems the finish is tougher than the wood, as the there are man divots that look like small hail damage on the back. The wood is not exposed.

Just going to say, coming from a Les Paul guy, the finish on the poly is nice on older guitars, they age much slower but I think they last a lot longer. Look at john frusicante's old strat, I wouldn't be surprised one day if he has to retire it due to the wear, like SRV had to retire his neck (and Clapton switched guitars). I can see a guitar like this lasting an entire lifetime and another even if i gigged with it for 20 years. I think the issue would be with the frets holding up and being refretted.

Hi strat_tone: for a long time now the necks on almost all Fenders are polyurethane, apart from the Reissue models and some of the Sigs.

I have a neck I put on a body about ten years ago: it was nearly snow white back then: now it's a heavy cream color.

And even my 2005 MIA's neck has darkened noticeably. Personally, I'm quietly disappointed by that: the milky white of that maple was one of the things that attracted me to the guitar.

So as you say, urethane on a neck will also darken, it just takes longer.

What I don't know for sure is what the finish on your MIJ '84's body will be. Probably polyester I'm guessing, but perhaps it is polyurethane...?

Cheers - C