Removing plastic headstock veneer

Are you sure it's plastic? Most solid black headstocks are black lacquer with and maybe clear lacquer over the top of that. For the Jet King, I'd guess polyurethane. That will come off with a sander. If you are willing to repair the black, just sand it smooth, touch up if necessary, dry for a week or so, level sand, then coat with gloss polyurethane (several thin coats), level sand, steel wool, and polish. If you go natural, same advice, but sand down to wood, finish sand, steel wool, clean and follow with poly coats, level sanding ...

Yea, I'm sure it's a plastic venner.I can really see that it is by looking at the edge.
The neck is all maple (no finish at all ,except I guess a clear sealer).So if you look at it's edges you can see that it's just plastic that was pressed & glued on. There's no binding, so you see the maple to veneer edge is too perfect to be a sprayed on deal. Probably looked nice new.

The Jetking had a couple diff models and changed the headstock atleast once on the JetKing 1. I have two JK-1's & the only thing diff between the two is the head stock.My other one has no veneer at all, just plain maple & bigger different shape.This veneered one has the same shape headstock as the Ibanez SZ520QM. These JK's are some very nice gtrs btw, smooth easy playing, 0 problems setting them up & can't imagine another gtr sounding better for what they cost. They are atleast a great "beater" Gtr you can leave in a stand for a quick practice & still love to play. They stopped making them though! Get em if you can!

Thanks for your help too.

I'd still give sanding a shot -- a shop belt sander is good for this sort of thing. But be cautious, as the sander will eat away at it pretty quickly. The sanding belt also will load up with plastic -- melted plastic if you are too aggressive. Go slowly.

There is a planer attachment for a Dremel tool that might work -- of course it's probably $50+ plus a Dremel tool.

Heat and peel ? -- maybe remove the nut and start there so any beginning marks are less noticeable. But of course you cannot use too much heat.

Ok update...Well laying a t-shirt and heating with the iron did not work. This is some strange stuff they use. I heated it up pretty good ,not melting anything but yet the whole headstock was very warm at one point. I got too worried I'd cause bigger problems. I don't want to warp or loosen the fretboard on an other than looks a great neck.

This veneer plastic or whatever it is ,is not just a solid hard sheet of plastic. With the heat it did get "softish" ,but must need alot more to loosen deep enough to the wood. I got it pretty hot then tried a razor to atleast get it started. It just chipped kinda and is kind of like layers of paper coming off. :shock:

Anyway,,, I'll never advice anyone to try the heat method. It might have worked with reg clue, but this stuff is probably held down with some industrial super apoxy. I'll have to try the beltsander this weekend. I'll have to be real careful with that. I don't want to slip & dig into where the nut sits. Hopefully I can get it to bare maple, but I may chicken out & stop after I get a nice flat surface then order veneer. Even if I do get to bare wood I'll have sanded gross-grain, so going to need some hand sanding.

I want to seal the neck again if everything works out . The neck is a natural maple look n feel like a strat with rosewood fretboard. I'm sure there must be some kinda sealer on there even though it just feels like bare wood ,right? If It is just bare unsealed wood I'd had humidity neck problems by now. Can anyone advice me on a clear natural feeling sealer to wipe or spray on?

Thanks for your time.

Satin Polyurethane is the modern stuff for non-gloss "bare" maple neck. Fender uses it on many of its guitars for that smooth, natural look.

Other options are tung oil, linseed oil or gunstock oil. These will tint the wood, but seal it and leave a non-gloss natural look.

Thanks for the replies gnease, you been right on with the advice. Thought I'd update incase anyone else follows this.

I took it out & used the belt sander to remove all the veneer. After that I reshaped were the nut sits back to it's 90deg angle,(used needle file & stickon 220 to a known 90deg lil peice of oak sanding block).After that was right I made a maple shim I'll have to use now for the nut. I got the whole neck hand sanded smooth w/ 220. I decided to stain with oil base light cherry. It gave it a nice older aged look. I have one coat of Formby's low gloss tung oil on it now drying.I'll put atleast one more after using 0000steel wool, probably 2 or 3 more coats.

After it's finished I'll have to do some sanding off the bottom of a Tusq nut that's going on. I'll just be in setup mode then & should have this cheap but great baby back up & making some blues with me. 8)

great! give us a pic when done?

Ok ..neck is out swinging in the garage right now. I just put the 2nd coat of tung oil on. I'll try to put a small pic er two this weekend, should have everything back together then. Nothing really inspiring, but looks alot nicer than it did.

I'm not sure yet but may or may not use the 0000 steel wool and rub it down after I put the final 3rd coat on.Like I was getting ready to do a 4th. I'm using low gloss & looks good but I like the feel alittle better after buffing the gloss off. Might get away with doing the back & leaving headstock face & sides glossy.

It's done.I still need to do some setup is all. She's alittle cheap & trashy, but we all know how that is.Right around Mid-night you just gotta pick her up.

Looks good. Love the tulip Grovers on it too. Trashy? ... love a little trashy.