Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it.
Eddie - next time you go ti Gothenburg, drop me a line and I can buy you a beer. BTW, many years ago - like 1996 - I was in Venezuela - on Isla Margarita. Niiice
Now - my method of getting a sweet glossy finish on the guitar.
You know, I've tried and I've tried ... on my earlier builds I've used nitrocellusa. I have a small compressor and spraygun and I have really been doing this by the book. First pore-filling on the mahogany, sanding down to grit 1600, and many (7-8) layers of that nitro laquer. And polish, polish, polish with a very fine polish compound.
And it looked good. But not for ever. After some months the guitars lost their lustre, became more and more dull, and in spite of the many layers the laquer felt thin and fragile. I know - it's supposed to be thin. That's why Fender uses nitro only to the top coats (read that on tdrpi, some fender former employee wrote).
There is a commmon belief that nitro laquer makes the guitar sound better - well, I don't subscribe to that. These are electric guitars and no Stradivarius.
So I tried another kind of laquer this time - an oil-based varnish-like high gloss furniture laquer (Gammaldags möbellack -- Old Time furniture laquer). And yes, this was a joy to work with. Not as toxic as nitro, either.
I put on six layers, I wetsanded every layer with 800 or something. And I gave every layer two days for drying. The last layer was a bit orange-peelish, but wetsanding and polishing took care of that (I never dared to sand the final layer before).
And finally - that deep, glossy finish I always worked so hard for (and failed), now it was there:
Oh, I almost forgot. The guitar was stained first. With an laquer-based mahogny-colored stain.
And one more thing - the joints on the maple top was sealed with epoxy ( and sanded down) before staining.
So why are there two frets missing? Because the fret wire is sold in lengths of 2 feet. Four feet made for 22 frets. Really, really annoying. Have to order two more feet.
Another picture, hard to get the colors right - this is way too red. But maybe you get a sense of the beatiful maple. Not the standard tiger or curly maple, but something quite different. It's very vivid and "3D-ish":
This picture is taken before wetsanding and polishing, you can see a bit of the orange peel in the reflection.
Coming up next: Aaaah the gold, the gold...
//Erik