LP JR neck question

[Bill Bell]

I'm sorry I should have a picture of this but I will try to explain my issue, the neck (without fingerboard) should be flush with the top of the guitar where it mates to the body but mine is raised about .05" above the top surface, I did not make the neck tenon quite deep enough. The guitar has a claro walnut top and a wenge fingerboard, when the fingerboard is mounted to the neck there will be a 2.25" X .05" light maple strip (the neck is maple) showing between the top and fingerboard. I covered the tenon with a drop top as I did not want to use a pickguard, if I used a pickguard the strip would be hidden and a non-issue. How would you address this, I thought I could paint the small strip with a dark brown paint? Thanks for you help.

[John Catto]

OK, I'll assume this isn't really like a Les Paul Jr. since the neck on a junior (at least the single cut ones) IS raised above the body without so much angle.

Anyway hard fix, remove the fingerboard, remove the neck and reset it. If you have a tenon glued in and buried under a top this may not be an option.

Easy Fix. Neck pickup

Now I see above that the neck is Maple and the actual neck wood is what's showing not some sort of Maple filet strip. If it was just a filet strip I'd get the airbrush out and dyes and shade it to match, given it's the actual neck wood that probably wouldn't look very good. What you could certainly do is make some sort of ornamental cap for the end of the neck/fingerboard made out of either the wood from the top or the fingerboard.

[Bill Bell]

John, thanks for your response. I is exactly an LP jr double cut, the neck is angled at 2 degrees and the top surface of the neck (without fingerboard) is supposed to be flush with the top at the neck/body interface. The only difference is that I did not want to cover the beautiful wood with a pickguard so I glued in the tenon before putting on a drop top. "If" the neck wood was dark it would be a non-issue but since it's maple it sticks out like a sore thumb. I thought about a cap at the end of the fingerboard but it's only the very end of the neck that would need to be dyed or painted? By the way, the fingerboard is not yet attached.