What to use to tint a raw wood maple neck ?

You could try shopping around for white dyes, but you're half way to painting it at that point. My guess is that it would have to be bleached out first so that it didn't come out too yellow or brown. Something like a light stain isn't going to move the color in that direction.

I have no personal experience with any of these, but; limewash, whitewash, milk paint.

The first thing to do is speak with the neck supplier to see if they apply a sealer coat, because that will affect how stain colors the wood. Many neck makers do apply a sealer; Allparts and Warmoth do.

It will not take much to stain maple to a light tan color like that. I'd get me a small can of cherry or pecan oil-based stain and mix up a dilute solution (called a "wash") by combining it with mineral spirits. Put on some rubber gloves and use a cotton cloth to apply the wash to the wood. Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes and then wipe it completely dry.

This will very slightly darken the wood. You can 'sneak up' on your final color saturation this way by applying successive coats, with dry time between. Do not use a stain that has any red in the mix, because making a wash will give the neck a pinkish cast.

Unless that's what you want...NTTAWWT.



Also remember that applying a clearcoat over the stain will darken it a bit.  So experiment on scrap wood: do one stain coat in one area, two stain coats next to it, three next to that, etc., and then clearcoat it.  It will give you a good idea on what the final color will be.

Even test with the clear coat alone. That piece of wood and that control knob are not far apart. My digital color meter says the knob is already brighter than the neck wood, the more saturated color of the knob throws our eyes off the scent (if you'll excuse me mixing my metaphors and body parts). So anything you do to the neck can only make it darker still (short of a solid or translucent paint, like Mary Kaye white or Butterscotch?).