Finishing under the neck extension?

[Brian Evans]

I've only done bolt on necks and finished neck and body separately. If you do a dovetail neck, how do you finish under the fretboard extension, which floats above the body? Particularly if you do a stained body colour or a sunburst?

Brian

[Jim Hepler]

Brian, I finish the neck and body separately then scrape off any finish where I want glue to hold. You really only need glue on the sides of the dovetail itself, not the rest of the contact points. so as long as the mortise in the body and the dovetail and that end of the neck are masked off you should be good unless the finish is thick enough to affect the fit, in which case you'll have to scrape it off there. It doesn't take long. Just mark carefully and scrape inside the lines. I use a razor blade with a little hook turned on it as a scraper for this kind of job.