My third guitar, a 12 fret whose neck I've never liked. Felt way too chunky compared to the others I've built. After getting used to the neck on my fourth, I decided to jump into trying to make this one play as smooth. So now I just want to ask next best steps before I go any further...
Before I understood what binding a neck meant, and still nervous about building a neck from scratch, I bought this as an ebay roughed out 14 fret neck, cut it down to 12 fret, and added two mahogany strips (with purfling) to widen the neck enough for my fat fingered fretboard. So what I've done so far is masking off the purfling and anything else except where I've changed the contour to be thinner.
If I were to start refinishing without asking what experienced folks do, I'd start with a bit more sanding towards the masking tape, up to about 320 grit, then wipe on some shellac, and finally start spraying with the same tint I originally used, hoping to get it to blend without too obvious color mismatch...
Anyone who has tips I have overlooked will be appreciated for sharing. Luckily for me, the body came out fine and sounded good enough to be my previous daily player, just want to get it back in the rotation with a faster neck. Roy