PRS Neck - What's the deal with this wood?

[MJN]

Hi. I picked up an inexpensive, used PRS SE Standard with the plan of stripping the original finish, carving the top, and refinishing in nitro lacquer - so I would then have something very close to a PRS standard 22, w/o spending the $$$. It had a satin finish, and as I'm sanding the paint off the body everything looks great - pretty nice mahogany actually. But the neck and headstock look a little different. It's supposed to be mahogany as well, but has some dark streaks running through it, and smells sort of "sappy". As I sand it, the dust is slightly yellow vs. the white dust from the body. Photo attached. Kinda bummed, 'cause I wanted to finish the neck with tung oil instead of repainting. Anyone know what's going on here?

[David Schwab]

The finish looks like it has stain in it. Some mahogany is very pale in color. It's common t stain it a darker color.

You can probably strip down to the bare wood, and before you oil it, apply some stain to all of the mahogany to even out the color. That's a common thing to do with mahogany. Like Gibson, who always died it brown.

[jack briggs]

As the SE series are Asian made, they are probably also using an Asian wood similar to mahogany, but not related.

[olddawg]

It looks like a water stain to me on mahogany. If the guitar had a color finish they would not have cared. Like the guy said, try to stain it evenly. Nobody sees the neck but you anyway. If you like the way it feels when you are done who cares.

[jack briggs]

I think that's where he's sanded through the sealer coat. It's awfully hard to stain bare mahogany with even results. You'd have to do it with a gun. The usual technique is to spray a sealer/washcoat, then tinted or pigmented finish, then clearcoat. What I'm seeing in the pic is the color coat sanded back, revealing a sealer coat, which has been sanded, revealing the bare wood.

[MJN]

Thanks everyone. I would say the last reply best describes my situation. After removing the black paint, it didn't take much sanding to get through the sealer coat in that spot, and seems to be taking too much sanding else where to get the same bare wood. Not ready to give up on the natural wood look yet, but do not want to drastically alter the shape of the neck by more sanding. Anyone ever used bleaching methods on necks to "remove" tinted sealer coats or stain and even out appearance?

[jack briggs]

MJN,

I've bleached mahogany before, but what it'll do is lighten the color of the wood. What it won't do is remove any coating, whether lacquer, urethane, or any sealer. Those would have to be chemically or abrasively removed.


Cheers,

[imaradiostar]

Curious if you ever got this sorted out- thinking about refinishing my EG SE.

jamie

[MJN]

I did. I've refinished a couple PRS SEs now and have found the best way to remove the factory finish is by sanding. They have a pretty thick sealer coat so if you're careful you can sand away the clear and color coats leaving the sealer. Do not use heat - the finish just crinkles but does not really release from the wood and definately does not peel off in sheets like polyurethane does. Citristrip didn't work at all. I think these are polyester finishes.