Maple fret board finish & neck finish

[BenWill]

Do the fretboard and neck need to be sprayed with sealer or treated with anything before I spray the laquer on it?

[McCreed]

Do the fretboard and neck need to be sprayed with sealer or treated with anything before I spray the laquer on it?

The only prep you really need to do with maple is sanding. However I like to do my fret ends before clear coating. That way I don't have any sharp fret ends and don't have to worry about doing them with a newly applied finish.

Also, after sanding I wipe down the whole neck with naptha before spraying the finish. This just to be sure there are no contaminants (like oil from fingers) that might interfere with adhesion of the lacquer. You don't have to do this, but it's what I do.

[fender3x]

However I like to do my fret ends before clear coating. That way I don't have any sharp fret ends and don't have to worry about doing them with a newly applied finish.

I did this with a bass neck, and got fine metal dust on the raw wood that was difficult to clean up. It's another reason I may do a few coats with shellac. The clearcoat I have been using is water based, and I understand there can be issues with rust if I missed any of the dust.

Is there an approach you used to remove the dust...or did you just do a better job of taping things off than I did? ;-)

Based on my current experience, I wouldn't do anything to the frets until I had at least some clearcoat on. What I did on the only other maple fingerboard is essentially that. I put a very thin coat of clearcoat on, did the fret ends, and then put more clearcoat on.

Stressing here, however, that applying finish is definitely not my strong suit.