Finishing a set neck guitar

[Griffo]

Does anyone have any tips for finishing a set neck guitar? Finish after joining the neck and body or before? How do you mount/hold it while painting? Any tips/tricks/guidance would be much appreciated!!

[FrankenWashie]

Hey Griffo, it’s a question of space. If you’ve the space and the set up you can set the neck and then finish the guitar as a unit.
You need to be able to suspend the guitar and rotate it to get an even finish.
Otherwise, do all your stain and colour with it separate, and possibly your first clear coats, then you make the join, and finish your clear coating with the unit fully assembled.

[Mr.Drifter]

I was sitting on this for a while, trying to figure out how I'd do it, without staining the neck by accident (which I did a touch of anyway, because I didn't mask off).
Was going to stain the front, and then set it and stain the rest, but decided to wait until after I'd set the neck and sanded the heel. That way I could do it all in one even coat, and what not. Though I didn't mask the neck, and got some stain on the neck, which didn't sand off perfectly.

But, if you have no plans of sanding the heel, or want to use different finishes, you can do the finishing first, and set the neck later. That is a viable way to go about it

[Griffo]

Thanks fellas. I’m planning on doing a solid color lacquer finish, with the body, neck, and headstock all the same color. I wonder if I can assemble the guitar and then finish the guitar in stages...ie. prime the body, let dry, prime neck and headstock, let dry...and the same process for the lacquer and the clear coat. It might double my drying time, but it would allow me to hang the guitar from the headstock to do the body, and then from the strap button hole to do the neck/headstock.

[FrankenWashie]

The vees are a bit of a pain, unless you have 2 HB PUP routs in it, where you can use an f clamp or a quick release clamp to grip between the 2 pup routs like a handle, or a side mounted jack hole where you can insert a heavy dowel to use as a mount in a vice or similar.