Maple neck finish

usedtobe

I have a mighty mite maple/maple neck, which has a "Thin satin poly finish"

The finish must be very thin indeed, as it could (to me) pass for unfinished. I'd like to beef up the finish a bit.. I'm not after a thick gloss finish or anything, just want to give it a bit extra protection. 

Tru-oil, do we think? Anything else? I'll test it where it doesn't show, naturally.. 

One more thing: when people say "thin coats of tru oil" do they mean thinned down coats, or un-thinned tru oil, spread as thinly as possible?

Sorry if this has been covered, but it's the fact that the neck has a coating of something, already on, that is putting doubt in my mind..

Thank you in advance..

victorludorum

I'm pretty sure that if it has poly on it then tru-oil won't work as it won't be able to penetrate the wood, although it's not something I've tried...

Megii

I have a strat partscaster I made with a Mighty Mite neck - I thought the same as you when it arrived i.e. it could pass for unfinished. But finished (albeit thin) it is, and I found it's possible to buff the finish to more of a satin, and it then looks and feels quite nice:




These two pics are the best I can do to show the satin appearance - a bit hard in a photo, but trust me it was/is pretty good, Actually, a lot of the back of the neck now looks glossy, just from playing. I forget exactly how I did the buffing, but I think I may have done some light careful smoothing with very fine 0000 Liberon brand wire wool, and then just used pieces of copy paper, perhaps with a tad of white/clear candle wax, and a lot of elbow grease. Still easier than trying to add another finish on top though.