Black Magic Woman as a neck finish.

[pablopepper]

Hi all, as the title suggests I want to use black magic woman as a neck finish. I remember seeing someone do it a few months but I don't remember seeing the finished product and I can't seem to find it.

Does it work? Is the maple of the neck too dense to absorb it properly? Ideally I would like a pretty much solid black neck, but I'm not sure if this is possible.

Also, has anyone tried it on a fretboard? Or is that a stupid idea?

[Gavin1393]

Quote from pablopepper on June 6, 2013, 19:17.

Also, has anyone tried it on a fretboard? Or is that a stupid idea?

You need your fretboard to be slick and quick! Not going to happen if you paint it!

[adam]

Hi Pablo, you may not have noticed, but we've now added a "Wood Suitability Profile" to every Wudtone finish. This is what the Black Magic Woman says:

Product Description

Black Magic Woman includes:
Base coat
Deep colour coat

Highly suitable for:
Basswood
Ash
Alder
Mahogany

Suitable for:
Walnut

Unsuitable for:
Maple

Please ask about other woods.

Edit: This information was taken from a spreadsheet Andy (Wudtone) prepared, so I would take his advice.

[pablopepper]

Righto, thanks chaps. *scribble. I must have misread that chart.

[WeirdBits]

You could always test it on a headstock offcut and see how it goes (assuming you have some BMW already). I've found BMW to be pretty challenging to get an even colour depth across the grain variations on alder and I suspect it would be a lot tougher to use on a maple neck. My guess would be that the first deep colour coat would be the key (just keep going over it and over it and over it), and would soon show whether the colour could actually be made to work.

I'm hoping to do a black neck on one of my projects as well, but fortunately it has a mahogany neck rather than maple.

[Gavin1393]

Hi Scott, the BMW works well on a mahogany neck, maple is a no go.....just don't try and paint the actual fretboard!

[Analyst69]

Hi Pablo. I am in the process of finishing a kit with Dark Onyx and Goldenrod. The Body Back, Neck and Headstock are Dark Onyx (I'm not sure how close Dark Onyx is to BMW). I found it a bit of a challenge to get the maple to take the dark onyx, but it seems to have come out alright (I note that the Wudtone page for Dark Onyx says it is suitable for maple).

With a rosewood fretboard, I typically treat it with Tung Oil which tends to also darken it quite a bit (still brown though, not black).

[pablopepper]

Cool, thanks. Gavin, I promise not to use Wudtone on the fretboard, this will be my first time using it so it's better for me to ask. I am still in the planning phase of this new build, so expect some possibly 'out there' questions of you old hands. I do want to stain the fretboard to make it darker, so I might use Tung oil and see how that goes. As for the neck, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to stain it black?

[wokkaboy]

Hi Analyst,
can you please post some pics of the neck with dark onyx ?
Dark Onyx is more a blue black and has a white mixing bottle to lighten the colour as required. BMW is probably the hardest colour I've used to get consistent cover. I remember seeing a BMW neck on a build diary but can't remember who did ut or what model, could have been an SG ?
I have applied BMW to a SG headstock took ok but took quite a few coats
Pablo you better take the advice and not apply it to the back of the neck, unless you try apply a bit on the bottom of the neck that will sit in the neck pocket that you won't see, what model axe is this for ?

[pablopepper]

IB-1. I'm really just trying to nut out my options at the moment. If it ain't doable, I won't do it.