I've been looking to buy a standard Strat (MIM, obviously). I prefer a glossy neck finish and, frankly, the neck on the standard Strat looks pretty bland to me. I don't really see the tint they say they're finished in.. Anyway, is there an easy way to at apply a glossier finish to a maple fretboard? Is it much trouble to apply a darker tint to a guitar neck? I guess one issue would be the decals on the headstock....

Hi oldguy: it is not diffucult to apply a couple of thin coats of tinted lacquer over the top of the existing varnish. You'd just sand it all over lightly first to creat a "tooth" for the new lacquer to bond to. On a MIM and most MIAs you need polyurethane lacquer to match what's already on there.

The decal will be fine: it'll just show through from beneath old and new lacquer.

If you have a maple fingerboard it does get a bit fiddly with the frets: you either have to mask them with thin strips of tape or scrape the lacquer off the top of them after spraying. But nothing too difficult.

On the other hand, I'd just try taking some automotive cutting compound or even easier some swirl remover to your MIM neck and see if you can't buff that satin finish up to a gloss one. That's the easiest way of all and will just cost you a bit of time and elbow grease.

Even your modern polyurethane lacquer will darken with time without you needing to do anything about it. The dark tint on genuine old necks is just clear varnish that has yellowed with the years. Nitrocellulose does that more than urethane, but the the polyurethane lacquer on a 2005 Strat of mine has already darkened noticeably - to my disappointment!

Any use?

Good luck - C

Ah, nothing like advice from the master of Strat building! Thanks for the quick response. I'm looking at one of the Sunfire Orange Flake Strats and the satin, hardly-tinted neck just seems too ordinary with the bold orange flake on the body. From your post, it sounds pretty simple to change the finish on the neck. Thanks again!

A pleasure!

- C

I've been checking around and came across Rustoleum Varathane Stain and Poly Spray as a possible solution. According to the description, it can be applied over a finish, eliminating the need to strip away the original finish. Based on what I've read, "regular" stain has to be absorbed by wood so you can't just apply stain over an existing finish. So, it sounds like Varathane would be a good way to tint a neck without having to strip it down to bare wood first. Basically, it acts as a tinted clear...

Does this sound like a good way to go? Varathane is available in spray so I'm guessing all I'd have to do is remove the neck, mask off the fret wire, prep the neck by sanding the existing finish so the stain/poly will adhere to it, and then apply the Varathane. I just need to make sure Varathane give a gloss finish...

The American Standards feature the glossy finish on the fretboard and the front of the heastock. The back of the neck in finished in satin polyurethane.

Some 3m scratch remover ( like an automotive rubbing compound ) will gloss up a satin finish VERY nicely, and you can do it by hand with a cotton rag too! As for the tint, it is there, I have a 1996 MIM that the maple is eerily ghost-white! If you want the tint darker, leave your guitar out of a bag or case, near sunlight (windows) and take it to smoky places and to outdoor gigs! That will really speed up the orange-ish tint to the maple wood!