spraying vint.amber without sealer or clear coat?

[Ryschwei88]

i was just wondering what would happen if i just sprayed a neck with vintage amber without using sanding sealer and not putting a nitro overcoat over the amber.

Would it wear away to look like a realistic relic?

without sealer would the neck warp?

maybe use sealer, then amber, then no nitro overcoat?

just saying, im very low on inventory and i have a neck to experiment with, mine.

 

[Bud Veazey]

Nitro on a maple neck without sealer will work fine. The neck won't warp. The nitro seals the wood.

You don't have to have nitro clear coat over the tinted nitro, especially if you want it to show wear. Personally, I'd add the clear coat.

I know nothing about the relic stuff.

 

[Shepherd]

Is it the stuff from reranch? If it is, that stuff is a clear nitro but with a tint added. It will also act as a sealer but if you decide to refinish it again later, it will be harder to remove cause it soaks into the wood instead of sitting on top of a sealer.

 

[Vizcaster]

You probably need to get a handle on the purpose of a sealer. Usually it's biggest advantage is that it's easy to sand level because the first coat of any finish usually soaks in unevenly, and sometimes can raise the grain, all of which requires you to sand back before you build a finish on top. If you want a glass-smooth built up finish like a high-end acoustic, you'd use a sealer (for example a vinyl sealer) that builds quickly and gives you a nice level base to sand back and start building your clear topcoats.

With maple it's not mandatory to use a special sealer - any finish is going to serve the purpose of slowing down the exchange of moisture season to season, and that's going to solve your warrantee issues on a pre-made neck. If you were going with any sort of dramatic color, I'd recommend a sealer before you build on the toner or color coats, but just for a vintage amber, you're fine.

Also, with respect to wearing, it probably isn't going to happen very quickly anyway. You're probably going to be fine just using the amber on bare wood without a topcoat. It certainly will look a lot better than the anemic white color of a new Fender neck.

 

[Colt W. Knight]

You don't need a sealer on maple, but like said above, the color will bleed into the maple over time.

If you do not use a clear coat after the amber, you will most likely sand through the color buffing, and it will look poorly.

 

[The Saint]

Reranch 'Fender Neck Amber' is not nitro (or a lacquer at all). It is a "dye mixture in a solution" . If this is what you're using, I would follow the Reranch directions and seal the wood with a couple passes of clearcoat first. That way, the dye won't penetrate the wood. It will wear more naturally and if you don't like the shade, it's easy to remove the amber dye with acetone and do a do-over. Once the dye penetrates the wood (if you don't clearcoat first) there is no going back unless you want to do a lot of sanding.

Reranch 'Tinted Clearcoat' is another animal entirely and is more useful for yellowing aged finishes and pickguards. I wouldn't use that to tint a neck.

 

[Ryschwei88]

awesome, thanks for the replies.
and yea, i have the reranch dye mixed with solution, def looks awesome on necks. i like it a bit better than stewmac amber, looks more realistic.

 

[Shepherd]

The fender neck amber is basically a toner and needs a clearcoat.

 

[Old Cane]

Reranch 'Fender Neck Amber' is not nitro (or a lacquer at all). It is a "dye mixture in a solution" . If this is what you're using, I would follow the Reranch directions and seal the wood with a couple passes of clearcoat first. That way, the dye won't penetrate the wood. It will wear more naturally and if you don't like the shade, it's easy to remove the amber dye with acetone and do a do-over. Once the dye penetrates the wood (if you don't clearcoat first) there is no going back unless you want to do a lot of sanding.

Reranch 'Tinted Clearcoat' is another animal entirely and is more useful for yellowing aged finishes and pickguards. I wouldn't use that to tint a neck.

Thank you.

Rys, what will happen is that you will get very dity hands very quickly and will think to yourself "I just wasted $16" because you did. Like The saint is tell you you can go without undercoating with clear but you can't go without overcoating with clear.