Refinishing an EB Musicman neck with high gloss nitro....

[tleeitsme]

So I am no luthier myself but I have an amazing tech in town who does all sorts of fab work just short of building me set-neck arch top semi hollows lol

He is currently holding onto a 2000 EBMM Sterling fretless that I wanted to "restore". Neck is beat on both sides, it was an instrument I rode hard and hung up wet as a child. So he is re-profiling the neck to eliminate the dents in the back and the round wound ruts on the fingerboard, and while he was at it I figured I would have the fingerboard epoxied and the rest of the neck lacquered in high gloss.

Now because the necks are oil finished from factory it has to be stripped down to bare wood to apply a gloss finish, and fundamentally I am worried about stripping my bass of its logos and not being able to find accurate waterslides.

Is there a way to save the logos from being sanded off or maybe the best way to get accurate waterslides for an instrument not as mainstream as a fender?

Thanks in advance.

 

[FunkHead]

I would just leave the face of the headstock untouched. Jm2c

 

[Beej]

A couple of thoughts...

Necks don't require sanding back to eliminate dents, most dents can be steamed out easily. Gouges cannot, but you can still steam the fibers back into place before sanding the profile and filling the gouge as needed.

An oil finished neck does not "have" to be stripped back in order to apply a gloss finish - that's an unusual assumption to go into this with, not sure where that came from? There's no reason this neck can't be restored faithfully unless it's really far gone.

Are these two items above recommendations from your tech?

 

[Matt Liebenau]

What @Beej said. I have steamed out some of what seemed to be decent dents in bodies or necks to where they were unnoticeable or almost so. I've also applied polyurethane over TruOil with no issues and, if I remember correctly, Deft spray can lacquer over either TruOil or Danish oil with no issues.

 

[tleeitsme]

A couple of thoughts...

Necks don't require sanding back to eliminate dents, most dents can be steamed out easily. Gouges cannot, but you can still steam the fibers back into place before sanding the profile and filling the gouge as needed.

An oil finished neck does not "have" to be stripped back in order to apply a gloss finish - that's an unusual assumption to go into this with, not sure where that came from? There's no reason this neck can't be restored faithfully unless it's really far gone.

Are these two items above recommendations from your tech?

Should have been more specific. He is steaming the dents once the wood is bare. Steam won't penetrate a finished piece of wood, something to that effect. So not completely "re-profiling" like I led on previously.

and yes he said that he is worried that an oil finish will not take a sprayed finish of nitro, being hydrophobic by nature it could cause bubbling or peeling/cracking.

I could preface that he isn't a guitar luthier by trade. He took it up upon retiring from his profession, but I will also add he does better work than any guitar shop locally (I live in a huge metro of 4m+) and his refin work is pretty spectacular from what I've seen. So for the most part I just take what he has to say as law lol