T-style, Single Cut Leftie (non PBG kit)

[ElleBrooke]

After some marathon painting yesterday and today I've mostly finished the back. Now I'm trying to decide what to do about the neck and headstock. Gotta customize the headstock! Probably with another fish, but still deciding. The neck is mahoghany with a rosewood fretboard and trapezoid inlays. I'm debating whether to paint/stain the neck blue or pink or just polyurethane the natural wood. I remember fender3x's lesson about fender strats and teles mostly being natural wood, and gibson single cuts being painted/stained the same as the body bc of the set-in neck, so I'm leaning towards coloring the neck. What do you guys think about the neck?

Back:


The side with the natural stripe:

[Simon Barden]

As it’s a bolt-on neck, keeping it natural/simply stained with clear over the top would be fine. It’s where it’s glued on that getting the neck matching the body takes on more importance. And as it’s really a LP-shaped Tele, then a natural/light amber tint would be most appropriate.

[ElleBrooke]

As it’s a bolt-on neck, keeping it natural/simply stained with clear over the top would be fine. It’s where it’s glued on that getting the neck matching the body takes on more importance. And as it’s really a LP-shaped Tele, then a natural/light amber tint would be most appropriate.

That makes sense! I remembered the lesson, but missed the logic. Maybe I will stain it lightly and put a color stripe up the back. Like a faux skunk stripe. Thanks Simon!

[ElleBrooke]

In retrospect, I probably should have chosen maple over mahoghany for the neck. I think I want to try to match the stripe around the body to the neck color. I tried a dab of polyurethane at the base of the neck and it doesn't seem to darken the wood too much, but i think it's going to be a challenge to match the poplar to the mahoghany.

[Simon Barden]

I didn't realise it was a mahogany neck, I had maple in my head.

It's really going to need grain filling if you want it to feel smooth, otherwise any finish will sink into the pores.

[ElleBrooke]

It's really going to need grain filling if you want it to feel smooth, otherwise any finish will sink into the pores.

That is important to know! I guess I will be researching grain filling. Thanks for the heads-up!

[vh2580]

So in awe of your painting.
You could continue the theme around the rest of the body and have a clean mahogany neck that doesn’t require matching. Or (from me selfishly wanting to see that thing covered in art) you could grain fill the neck, whiten and continue the theme up the neck as well.

[ElleBrooke]

So in awe of your painting.
You could continue the theme around the rest of the body and have a clean mahogany neck that doesn’t require matching. Or (from me selfishly wanting to see that thing covered in art) you could grain fill the neck, whiten and continue the theme up the neck as well.

Thank you so much! You've given me a couple new ideas to consider!

[Alexej]

Very interesting and inspiring work!

Actually if the neck was the same woodcolour as the body I would keep it natural. But in this case.
If I may add an idea about colouring 🙂 dark blue neck and sides of the body. Could maybe try to colour it in PS first.

[ElleBrooke]

Very interesting and inspiring work!

Actually if the neck was the same woodcolour as the body I would keep it natural. But in this case.
If I may add an idea about colouring 🙂 dark blue neck and sides of the body. Could maybe try to colour it in PS first.

Yes! Thanks! I am considering all options right now, so the more ideas I have to throw around the better. My initial inclination was to make the neck dark blue, and leaving that stripe on the sides natural. But it's a bolt-on neck, and in actuality a telecaster, so then I went back to making the neck natural and changing the stripe... I have a few days before I have to make a decision to stay on my time schedule, in the meantime, I'm totally open to suggestions!