Neck Finishing Questions

I'm working on my first build. I am doing the Krylon-Deft combination on the body and it is going pretty well, thanks to all the great information on this forum. I need to get started finishing the neck. It has a rosewood fingerboard. Here are my questions.

1) Should I just stick with Deft for the finish?

2) If so, how many coats?

3) How durable will it be?

4) Should I consider a wipe-on poly for the neck? (I love the satin poly neck on my American Ash tele).

5) Finally, I am assuming I need to tape off the rosewood board for finishing it. I know when painting they usually tell you to pull the tape off while the paint is still wet to avoid chipping and getting the tape stuck to the wall. Do I need to do a similar thing here? That would be a huge pain to retape before every coat.

Sorry for the numerous questions.

Thanks
Jim

1) I would if you like the color of the neck. Otherwise use some sort of stain then the Deft.

2) Start with light mist coats then do wetter coats. I'd say half a can since you'll be sanding and polishing. Maybe less than half a can since you're not spraying the fingerboard. Rule of threes from the ReRanch instructions. Three passes make a coat. Three coats per day. Apply for three days.

3) It's lacquer ........... it will be that durable.

4) That would be your choice.

5) Fagitaboudit................ tape the fingerboard ......... apply all your coats ...... remove the tape.

Thanks jwells!

1) I would if you like the color of the neck. Otherwise use some sort of stain then the Deft.

The neck is a little light. Do you have any suggestions for a stain to do the neck?

Maple is hard to stain using ordinary wood stains. I tint necks with tinted lacquer, eg. Butterscotch from ReRanch........ light mist coats until I get an acceptable color. Do NOT buy Fender Neck Amber <---CRAP from ReRanch.

Thanks again. I heard the reranch neck amber was bad. That's why I asked the question and I'm glad I did. I was tempted to try some stain that I had lying around.

If you have some stain you could try it on some scrap maple or on the heel of the neck if you don't have scrape. I haven't had good luck staining maple.