Give Me a Stripper

My good friend Rob (in the desert) asks..."Hey Pete-
I've got a fun cheapy guitar ( a Jay Turser Surfcaster) that actually SOUNDS great...it plays ok, but I'm going to put a Tele neck on it to address that part. BUT, in the meantime, I thought I'd experiment on it a bit....I want to strip the gloss off the fretboard (maple) and the back of the neck (also maple)...do you know a good, safe, somewhat easy way to do this?"
Rob... you have 3 choices (if refinishing a body): Sanding, a Heat Gun, or chemical stripper.
I would not consider the sanding it... it will change the shape of things... the heat gun thing is also a little weird
for my mind... so it all comes down to good old chemical stripper. I had a famous ex-Masterbuilder make me a
guitar... and he took my 1951 Tele covered in a wonderful green glitter, and stripped it using the chemical approach. He then
painted it in blonde Nitro. A day later some of the green bled though the nitro (this is the trouble with chemical stripping),
so he re shot it with more nitro to cover it up. Not a perfect job for my mind... but it worked.
Chemical stripping is still my choice of how to do it... because it does preserve the original shape of the wood you
are working on. As with all things, there are side effects, but they can be minimized. Waiting a bit for the wood to
dry after stripping (a week or so) might help here. IF YOU HAVE A NECK to refinish... 'The Fender Stratocaster Book' (Balmer) show how he refinished a Strat neck using sanding. THIS IS THE BEST WAY for a neck, but unless you have practice at it, the neck will probably be affected somewhat here and there (oops...hit that headstock angle a bit hard!)... but considering people shave the back of their necks anyway (not THEIR necks, the guitar)... if you can live with it... I can.