flat satin finishing a dinged up sticky Polyurethane Fame Forum III neck

Got this Fame Forum III (made in Poland by Mayones) for a really good price. I immediately blocked the trem and removed the trem springs.

There were some really deep scratches in the Polyurethane clear coat, that made this guitar sad

you could feel them while playing and the whole neck felt sticky, plus I've recently played satin finished necks on PRS SE Models and they felt great

Taping the neck joint with masking tape so I won't scratch the back and sides, this is harder to do on set necks but I'll give it a shot.

The volute on this neck felt like the perfect transition point where flat black would meet glossy black. I also taped the side of the fretboard to keep it glossy and not to hurt the side dots.

Got to work with the rough side of a sponge - I needed around 3 of them for the whole process

it only takes off little of the lacquer but leaves it with scratchmarks - always go with circular motion and apply light pressure.

the hardest places to reach here are the areas around the fretboard and neck joint

I then went on using a lighter, already used scotch brite fleece to get a better looking finish

The tools used and a finished neck

OH ... MY ... this feels smooth

you can see the difference in gloss and flat black, really hard to take pictures of though

even the volute joint and sides of the headstock came out decent, eventhough I spent a little to much time there on the right side, where the lacquer is thin. There's a small lighter mark now, implying that I was nearly down to the filler/wood.

I've seen worse PRS SE neck finishes

the heel was the hardest part of this job since the sponge didn't quite cut the areas near the body

still turned out decent

I'm really proud of the glossy fretboard sides. I never thought the masking tape would really make this look good after peeling it off.

The ebony fretboard needs some cleaning with lemon oil, but I also have something coming in that will make this look even better. So I'll wait with cleaning.

obligatory low light gear shot.
Disclaimer: I already did this process once to a whole translucent guitar but never on a black finish. This feels like a great project since theoretically you can buff the finish back to shiny.
Overall it took me around 3h to get it done. Use good masking tape and don't apply too much pressure.