Day Ten

 Before I started the final rubdown I took the opportunity to feel the neck as the player would. Whilst it’s true that although the previous (and last) thin coat had been 24 hours earlier, at once I felt the sensation a number of builders have noted, of not having direct contact with the wood of the neck. I decided to leave the neck as it was, namely with just half a dozen coats of the thinnest poly mixture.

Since it is still my intention to ‘sign’ the headstock before the final topcoat, I applied the 4:1 ‘strong’ mixture of poly and white spirit to the face of the headstock only. I let that dry a little to be sure of the gloss look before applying the same mixture to the front, sides and back of the guitar body.

The result is very satisfactory. I’m resigned now to the fact that the body won’t have the glassy gloss typical of PRS professional guitars but will nevertheless be a decent amateur attempt.

Unfortunately, the replacement bridge and stoptail have yet to arrive from the UK importers, but that’s partly due to Royal Mail apparently losing a bag of outgoing mail from the company, partly due to the seasonal pressure on the Post Office and partly, I’m sorry to say
because the company waited until I’d returned the incorrect bridge they’d initially supplied before they despatched the correct items. When it’s the company’s fault, a little trust and immediate despatch of the correct parts would have been a nice gesture.

If there’s any silver lining to this particular cloud it is that my impatience to get to the ‘interesting’ stages of the build – sanding and waiting for gloss to dry are not ‘interesting’ – are effectively restricted.