As discussed last time, the plan was a multi-stage sanding program, starting with 400-grit, and finishing with 2000.
Before starting, the work bench was cleared of anything that might scratch the wood inadvertently and a soft blanket laid on top.
Starting with the body, the sand paper was wrapped around a standard cork block when rubbing the flat surfaces on the front and back, and just paper in hand for all the curvy bits. The amount of dust generated at the beginning was a bit startling, but quickly became quite minimal as the grades increased, at the same time being very careful not to spend too long in one spot, creating an uneven surface.
The finer the grade of paper became, the direction of the rubbing became much less important, as there were no obvious score marks being created. Thankfully, the progress seemed to replicate the experience on the test panels. The surface became smoother and shinier, developing an almost polished appearance as the paper grade increased.
By the finish, at 2000-grit, a very satisfactory result had been achieved. The figure in the Bubinga laminate had started to "pop" and the chatoyance effect was obvious when changing the viewing angle. I did my best to make a video to show you, but it was way better in person than on screen. The best way to view the effect is to focus on one spot on the surface as the angle changes.
I had read somewhere that it is possible to really speed up the action of a neck by making the surface as smooth as possible. At my level of playing, there is absolutely no need for a super-fast neck, but I finished it to the same level as the body anyway. As a precaution, the fingerboard was masked with tape first, mainly to protect the ends of the frets from scoring from the coarser grades of paper.
With the sanding finished, it was time to embark on the most visually important, and time consuming, part of the build.
