I will soon receive an unfinished maple/maple neck and alder body from Warmoth and have a few finish questions for the experts....

-Finishing alder - have seen several alder bodies finished with tung oil. can satin poly be applied over tung oil? (I know *natural* alder is not considered a favorite) Is there a vintage tint product recommended?

-maple fretboard - I have no problem finishing the back of the neck, but am concerned about the fretboard. If I apply poly over the fretboard do I need to tape-off the fret wire? I know I can use wipe-on poly between the frets, but would like to understand how the professionals accomplish maple fretboard finishing. Any recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks.

1. I believe you can because most modern tung oils are compatible, they contain very little or no tung oil but a lot of lacquer blends
I would never again do an alder body in natural with tung oil, it turns into a terrible brownish color, like 70s desk tops that old crappy offices still use :) You could use a dye and make it a little bit interesting, people like alcohol soluble dyes or aniline dyes.


2. the whole neck is sprayed and then the frets are polished, the lacquer does not like to stick to frets, even a fingernail will take it off. You could wax only the frets to further ease cleaning up

Did a bit more research on this site as well as at ReRanch after reading your post.

Appreciate your warning re: tung oil on natural alder....the 70s desktop look is not what I am after....