Save The Neck For Me!Staining the Headstock and Applying Polyurethane to The Neck.

If you need to start at the beginning go here.

For those of you that have been keeping up with us this post will cover how we finished the neck in our 7 string guitar kit build.

Full disclosure: We forgot to take as many pictures of all parts of the process as we should have.

Anyhow, on to the info!

We started by giving the neck a light sand with 220 and then 440 grit.  You can use whatever light sandpaper you have lying around just to make sure all parts are nice and smooth.

Next if you just want stain on the top of the headstock and not the sides and back you will need to use painters tape and carefully tape around the edges of the headstock so only the top of the headstock that you want to stain is exposed.

It is also advisable to tape over the holes drilled for the tuners on the back of the headstock in case you drip any stain down the holes.

We applied one coat of stain and wiped it off with a rag to mimic the look of the body of the guitar.

After letting that dry remove the tape and if you haven’t already use the painters tape to fully tape the fretboard so none of the polyurethane you will be applying will get on the fretboard.

We didn’t stain the neck as we wanted it to have a natural look.

A coat hanger was used to hang the neck from the ceiling so poly could be applied to the whole neck in one coat without have to turn it over.  We used a foam brush to apply the poly.

The first coat really gets soaked in by the wood and you can hardly tell any poly has been applied.  We did light sanding in between coats on the body but we decided not to on the neck.  In total about 6 coats were applied to the neck.

After the neck is completely dry remove the tape on the fretboard and you are done like dinner!

It’s so easy!

On to Part 6!