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I'm 98% sure I'm going to pass on this portion of the repair. But for my own curiosity, is there a way around fixing this without stripping the neck completely and redoing it?

I was taught several years ago of a way to fix some flaking lacquer on a Les Paul. It was the victim of a cheap guitar stand and the rubber burned a couple spots in the lacquer and caused some flaking. The guy who taught me wetted the flaky parts with butyl cellosolve, and then drop filled the void with lacquer. The spots were small, and it was a fairly out of the way spot, and wasn't handled a lot. Would this technique still work on a bigger spot like the neck? My hesitations are that I have no idea what's gone on with this guitar, and the substrate is looking pretty gummy, plus there'd be all of the "who knows what" from players hands rubbing into the spot. Not to mention it has the potential to be a really big eyesore.

In my shop, I would clean the area with lacquer cleaner first. Sand all the flakes off, and then shoot fresh lacquer. I'd take it easy on the sanding to avoid having to re-stain. That's a head scratcher for sure. How gummy does it feel? Did the guy have it laying on a vinyl guitar strap?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Too bad it's not a maple neck they you can scrape the finish off and refinish it with Waterlox and the client will love you for giving them the slickest neck in the business.

What Chris said there is no easy fix for this AND take heed to what Chris said about preserving the stain. These want to scope creep badly if you make the wrong move.

What does the owner expect of the work and does his budget match the expectation? Specification creep is a prevalent problem, but disappointment in the finished job is also in the mix.

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Peter Havriluk