Reply by Tennessee

Loren is right about his finishes, but I specialize in open grain finishes with my guitars, so it’s nitro lacquer, 8-10 coats, polished with Novus #2 to a mirror gloss. I’ve only filled once or twice, when I was doing an actual color. (The guitar was painted silver metallic)

As far as the neck, I put on a semi gloss nitro on the back and buff it down just until it slides, players love the slick feel. On the front of the neck I’ll put gloss nitro, but then I have to go back and use a little tool I got from Stewmac that covers everything but the fret and I polish off all finish off the frets so they are nice and shiny with no lacquer on them.
I’ve been tempted to try the Tru-Oil thing, after having a long conversation with a gun builder. The finish is stunning, but I think that guitars may take even more of a beating in certain places with sweat and so on. Also, the time to achieve the finish may be a limiting factor for me.

And screwing down the pickups tight, be sure you don’t start bending the tabs or breaking plastic, if you have plastic covers. you just want them tight enough in a solidbody that they don’t make any buzzing sounds or move around that would cause noise.

-- Paul, Tennessee, http://www.tsunamiguitars.com