First:
If you are applying an epoxy coating to a wood or other surface, be sure that the surface is not oiling or dirty. Some wood fingerboards have absorbed alot of hand oils form player contact over time. Sometimes players have 'treated' their fingerboards with oils to keep them looking good. Some species of wood have fairly high oil content inherent in them. An oil or other contaminant will act as a barrier to the epoxy bonding with the surface. I t basically acts as a mold release.
Second:
Multiple coats should be applied in very thin coats. Otherwise I can assure you that you will end up doing a lot of sanding/leveling. It can end up very frustrating trying to regain the proper relief.
Third:
As epoxy cures, a 'waxy' surface coating immerges. This amine blush acts as a barrier to adhesion of the next coat. Therefore you must remove that waxy surface material between coats for best bonding. You may wish to sand between coats so as to keep the correct fingerboard shape, but do not rely on sanding to remove this coating. Sandpaper is just as likely to move the waxy stuff around on the surface as to remove it. You simply will not know if this has occured until you see how well the next coat bonds. By then its too late. Instead, wipe the surface with a keytone, like Acetone.
You will probably also have some pretty crude looking fret slot areas after removing the frets, that
will either need to be somewhat hidden by filling.
Good luck!
We have a rack of pretty aweful looking attempts that players told us to simply keep when we replaced them with graphite necks., One is an old, carved and signed Michael Tobias 5-string that is just plain pitiful.
So unless your a hobbiest into a real project, just take your wood neck off, sell or keep it and buy a graphite neck for about $310. It will sound and operate better, and save you a heap of hassle.
) but the layer below it has not.
