DONE! ADH/Gonk/theworkoffire restore '72 JM neck (p.21)

[theworkoffire]

Intersting reading about danish oil. WOuld this work with tru oil or not ?

It's very similar stuff, but I suspect tru-oil has a higher varnish content than most Danish oil, so leaves a surface on the timber.

[2fLAz]

Cheers !
yeah you can get really hard finish / glass shiny finish with true oil
Need to find some danish oil
Btw, anyone knows what is the oil that gets used in wudtone.
A friend left me a small jar of it and it might do the trick

[PorkyPrimeCut]

It's interesting to see the before & after fretboard, once you've applied Danish Oil.

You recommended it to me the other day when we discussed darkening the board on my Tele.
Would you say, in person, that this finished board is much darker & less red than it originally was?
It's difficult to tell from all you photos due to different lighting/background etc...

Yeah, the oil makes a big difference - it just takes away any dryness and unifies the grain a little. You can get a sense of what it would do by damping the end of the board with a bit of white spirit, which will disappear completely once it's dry. It doesn't take away the redness, but it darkens everything and reduces the contrast.

Cool.

Should I mask anything? I'm guessing that wiping the excess off after a few minutes will remove any oil from the binding.

[theworkoffire]

Should I mask anything? I'm guessing that wiping the excess off after a few minutes will remove any oil from the binding.

No, just damp a cloth with it and wipe it on carefully. You can get the board quite wet with it, then wipe off any excess after a couple of minutes. Keep checking to make sure it's not pooling anywhere on the surface - just wipe it again if it does. It'll dry overnight.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Should I mask anything? I'm guessing that wiping the excess off after a few minutes will remove any oil from the binding.

No, just damp a cloth with it and wipe it on carefully. You can get the board quite wet with it, then wipe off any excess after a couple of minutes. Keep checking to make sure it's not pooling anywhere on the surface - just wipe it again if it does. It'll dry overnight.

Thanks for the advice.

I've a decal designed that I'll be adding, plus I need to take down the gloss on the back of the neck & remove some of the gloss from the front (for some reason they sprayed gloss poly on the small section of fretboard in front of the nut so it's a different finish to the rest).

Looks like I'll be taking the guitar apart again, one last time.

Anyway, end of thread hijack. This neck is looking superb!

[Pacafeliz]

wanna know the hardest part...?

i'll be leaving mexico for good in 3 months. i'll be sending the remaining keeper guitars (including this body) to my GF's home in germany soon, real soon.
then, we'll be travelling thru central and south america for about half a year.

so... i won't be able to see, feel and play this neck until then.

but it'll be amazing when the moment's arrived, and i'll post it here.

so i guess, best thing would be to ship it directly to germany. or... please, use it and wear it in. make a body for it, so it won't be lonely!

ps: will you age/tint the binding a bit, still? or isn't it as white in real life as it looks in the pics?

dude you're KING.

[theworkoffire]

Ok - before and after. I won't say it's perfect, by any means, but it's playable (AFAIK ).


































The slight step in the binding at the nut is necessary because whoever did the last re-fret before it was butchered over-sanded the radius, leaving it too low at the edges. Taking the board down so it was level at the binding would have left the centre of the board too low. You can see how uneven the rosewood behind the nut is here:



I thought it best to leave that as it was. This way there's plenty of scope for another couple of re-frets. If I'd have taken it down low enough to remove the inconsistency it would have meant no more scope for re-planing in the future.

Now I just need to persuade Pat that all this effort can only possibly be re-paid with his white Yamaha

[theworkoffire]

Sorry, Pat, missed your post - no problems leaving it here. I'll look after it good and proper - just let me know when you're ready for it.

It's white, but not ridiculous. It'll soon age down once it starts getting used. Normally it would get a coat or two of clear lacquer, which would soften it a little, but I didn't want to re-spray over all the wear on the back, really.

[Pacafeliz]

that's incredible!

[Toots]

Insane!

The photos in this thread would make the best coffee table book ever. I would buy one.

[niemand]

.

[zhivago]

Excellent work, Ben!

[zenarcade]

Incredible work!

[tade]

Am I the only one here who prefers the mojo and the vintage vibe of the neck in the "before" pictures?

Now seriously, I'm amazed this could be done in such a short time, I would have expected three times more worth of work just to make it look to something similar to a guitar neck again.

[Pacafeliz]

Am I the only one here who prefers the mojo and the vintage vibe of the neck in the "before" pictures?

YES!!!