Advice for finishing a neck

I'm new to this and have been reading for weeks and learning alot. This is a fantastic forum chock full of information. But I'm having trouble determining how to approach finishing the neck because there are so many options. Forgive me for the rehash.

I am cutting my teeth by refinishing an SX and am currently stripping the neck and reshaping the headstock. The guitar will be mildly relic'd (meaning nothing shiny or new looking, but I'm unlikely to physically beat it up too much). So I want a dull satin finish on the neck. The glossy orange neck will be gone and replaced with a simple pale yellow.

I think I've narrowed the technique down to this:

Option 1: StewMac Vintage Amber (ColorTone Tinted Aerosol Guitar Lacquer? (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_supplies/Finishes_and_solvents/2/ColorTone_Aerosol_Guitar_Lacquer/Pictures.html#details)) and then finish with Tru-Oil. Buff and then use 0000 steel wool to satinize the finish. Is that right? I see references to StewMac Vintage Amber but the aerosol color looks like it's designed for bodies and not necks? Or is it suitable for both? Or am I looking at the wrong StewMac product.

Option 2: ReRanch Neck Amber (spray dye), and ReRanch Clear (lacquer) following their tutorial here (http://www.reranch.com/fenderneck.htm). Seems simpler for a beginner.

Oh, I will be adding a decal.

Does anyone have a shot comparing the two colors? And are either of these methods too difficult for a beginner? One more advisable than the other? Or is it six and one-half dozen.

Thanks in advance.

Hi. You may want to consider using just Tru-Oil, rather than
Tru-Oil over lacquer. Tru-Oil is easy to apply, can be done indoors
without a paint booth, and yields a great feeling neck. It does
provide a bit of amber tint, too, though I guess not as much as
the amber lacquer would.

If you need more tint than Tru-Oil would provide, you could
perhaps tint the Tru-Oil, but I've heard conflicting remarks
about tinting Tru-Oil.

Hi. You may want to consider using just Tru-Oil, rather than
Tru-Oil over lacquer. Tru-Oil is easy to apply, can be done indoors
without a paint booth, and yields a great feeling neck. It does
provide a bit of amber tint, too, though I guess not as much as
the amber lacquer would.

If you need more tint than Tru-Oil would provide, you could
perhaps tint the Tru-Oil, but I've heard conflicting remarks
about tinting Tru-Oil.

I was just looking at the neck today and was thinking "damn, it looks pretty nice as-is. Maybe I should just clear-coat it". It's a little white though. Sure would be nice to keep the finish simple. I'll look for some pics of some Tru-Oil only necks to see if I can get a sense of the color. I don't want a saturated yellow color anyway and have been worried that the VA finishes are all pretty yellow / amber.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Here are before and after photos of a Strat neck. I think
the original finish was polyurethane. It was pretty pale.
The after picture shows with three coats of Tru-Oil.
You can see the amber tint. However, I couldn't find
2 photos taken with the same lighting, so you can't
make a really accurate comparison.

Hope this helps.

I wonder how much it'll darken over time. I did some image searching for plain tru-oil necks and they all look fairly pale blond. And I can knock down the gloss, right? And put a decal on?