Stripping and re-finishing a guitar neck

barnsleyboy

Hi everyone - hope you are all well!

I recently bought a Harley Benton TE-52 to see what all this tele fuss is about. It's a great guitar for the money and with a few tweaks, it plays great. I bought it expecting to maybe dull down the shiny body (I had a go under the pickguard with some wire wool, but the jury is still out on doing the rest of the body). The thing I hadn't expected was the dreadful almost same colour neck - it is proper Tump orange:

         

Any ideas on how to strip the finish? particularly the fretboard without damaging it? I took the neck off and tried using wire wool on a patch hidden by the neck pocket, but if I do the whole neck, I don't want to completely muller it. I'm not a big fan of the relic look, and the only youtube clip I can find on this is what I can only describe as a dogs breakfast!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4SFXr3DYBo&t=196s&ab_channel=intheblues 

Any search of stripping finish off guitar neck usually discusses making the back of the neck less shiny. My options are to either completely strip the whole thing, or maybe just the fretboard, and then finish with tru oil.

Any suggestions, hints or tips would be much appreciated!

WezV

Stripping most of the neck will be easy with a scraper and a lot of sanding.    The fretboard is a lot harder to do.

Heat is not an option on a neck.  You can try strippers but I wouldn't expect any to touch it 

Funkfingers

barnsleyboy said:

The thing I hadn't expected was the dreadful almost same colour neck - it is proper Trump orange:

     

That is pretty much what the real thing looks like after several decades.

The cost of stripping and refinishing in a clear coat will probably be more than the price of the entire guitar.

Unless you are fixated on the Fender blackguard Fifties cosmetics, it is probably wiser to make a feature of the existing colour scheme. Divert attention away from the sepia toned neck by adding something even more red/orange/brown elsewhere. Change the pickguard to tortoiseshell.

barnsleyboy

Funkfingers said:

The cost of stripping and refinishing in a clear coat will probably be more than the price of the entire guitar.

Unless you are fixated on the Fender blackguard Fifties cosmetics, it is probably wiser to make a feature of the existing colour scheme. Divert attention away from the sepia toned neck by adding something even more red/orange/brown elsewhere. Change the pickguard to tortoiseshell.

I'd do the job myself, so really it would just be the cost of the tru oil/ equivalent finish. I'm still in 2 minds, like I said I don't want to b*gger it up totally! Aussie Shane seems to be going for it hammer and tongs on the neck with his sanding block and it doesn't look too bad. If I did it with a bit more finesse and care it might work. I'd have to take my time. If I go for the whole neck, I'd be tempted to mask off the front of the headstock and keep it as the original colour.

The black pickguard might be a tricky one to replace - I believe that aftermarket ones need a bit of dickie-ing up to make them fit, and things don't quite line up. Although, I do like the black.