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Finishing advice

I'm working on a PBR themed guitar and the last thing I need to do before assembly is finish the neck. It is a fretless style, with a poplar neck and fingerboard. I plan on painting the space between the frets where the inlays usually are blue and the 12 fret with the double inlay's red to mark the frets. The empty fret spaces are going to be bare wood. I want to scuff up the painted stripes a bit to give it a weathered look. I also want the bare wood to have a little something though, so I am trying to decide if I should apply a tung oil finish on the whole neck and then spray paint on top. OR should I spray paint first, scuff and then spray on a clear coat afterwards? It seems like spraypaint may not adhere to the wood after it has been finished with tung oil and if I scuff it up afterwards it may not look the best.

If I do the clear coat spray afterwards, any suggestions on type?

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Permalink Reply by Travis "SlackJack" Woodall on December 7, 2009 at 4:01pm

You are right, spray paint will likely not adhere to tongue oil. After you paint it, you could use a good paste wax. It dries hard and can be reapplied if need be down the road. Looks good, especially if you are going for a natural look instead of something that has a furniture type finish. I just used it on my Padron build and have been really happy with it. Plus, it's always fun to experiment.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on December 11, 2009 at 9:21am

Thanks for the advice. I stayed away from the tung oil and just did a clear lacquer of the top of the spray paint. Here is the finished product:

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/pbr-cbg

Travis "SlackJack" Woodall said:

You are right, spray paint will likely not adhere to tongue oil. After you paint it, you could use a good paste wax. It dries hard and can be reapplied if need be down the road. Looks good, especially if you are going for a natural look instead of something that has a furniture type finish. I just used it on my Padron build and have been really happy with it. Plus, it's always fun to experiment.