Headstock

curtisleedavies1420

hi guys,
just been sanding down my guitar and headstock(due to it being black) and im wondering if i need to varnish or paint it somewhat before glossing it to make it a darker more 'from the shop' look, any help would be great!

Funkfingers

Some form of sealing coat is desirable. Opaque paint makes sense if there are unsightly joins or grain to disguise. A veneer can look good. It is difficult to be more precise without first knowing the sort of headstock that you are refurbishing.

Corvus

Have you sanded off all black paint, or just sanded it back a bit? And what dyou mean by glossing?
If you mean laying a coat clearcoat over flatted-off black, should be OK to go for it with clear lacquer. Depending what type paint the original was and how far you sanded it (if clear over base and you went through the clear, the base colour can be reactive).

Or d'you mean polishing back the black to a high gloss?

curtisleedavies1420

thanks for the responses! @Funkfingers @Corvus ;

its a squier musicmaster bass, ive sanded off all the black paint down to the wood and now im just wanting it to look like the 'normal' wood colour headstock however due to sanding its gone quite a light colour and doesnt really match the colour of the back of the neck. I was thinking just like your average wood varnish to make the wood a bit less 'bright' then clear lacquer would do or not? never done this before ha!

Funkfingers

Raw wood always looks pallid compared to the way it will look under coats of varnish or waxoil. 

When it comes to discolouration, any clear coat that you apply now will always be playing catch up with the original finish. One option is to blend a small proportion of brown pigment into the clear varnish. Another option is to imitate CBS era Fenders by spraying the front of the headstock in nitro-cellulose.

Corvus

Gotcha, so clearcoat/lacquer can be water-clear, or have a slight natural tint,or be deliberately tinted to make necks look more vintagey, or just less starkly pale. So hard to know exactly what shade you need. And with a tinted clear, the more coats you lay of course the deeper the tint shade gets.

I'd say your best bet is shoot some decent pics and have a word with @SteveRobinson who does cans of tinted cellulose lacquer in a few shades. He can probably suggest the best one to go with. Pics in decent natural light probably best, it's still a bit of a lottery though as to how good the final match of your headstock will be, because of photos vs real life and the changing-shade-with-more-layers thing.

WezV

Even water clear lacquer will look more yellow than the freshly sanded wood, just down to the different surfaces.... but it will probably need a light tint to match the rest of the neck.  The maple will have darkened through UV exposure.  Or just leave it a few years to catch up

Andyjr1515

curtisleedavies1420 said:

thanks for the responses! @Funkfingers @Corvus ;

its a squier musicmaster bass, ive sanded off all the black paint down to the wood and now im just wanting it to look like the 'normal' wood colour headstock however due to sanding its gone quite a light colour and doesnt really match the colour of the back of the neck. I was thinking just like your average wood varnish to make the wood a bit less 'bright' then clear lacquer would do or not? never done this before ha!

It's worth first of all wiping it with a damp (not sopping wet!) cloth and seeing what colour it turns.  

The damp wood will be significantly darker than the freshly sanded dry wood - and will be an excellent indication of the colour that just varnishing with clear varnish or lacquer will turn it.

I've been experimenting with a specialist lacquer so ignore the area in the middle, but the left hand area here is just sanded wood and the right hand is exactly the same but just dampened with water.   If I varnished the left-hand side with clear varnish, it would look pretty identical to the damp wood...



So, with any luck, you might find that it matches the back of the neck without needing any tint at all