Finish before finish

[TallDad71]

I learnt to build guitars through books. One of the last steps they all detail was to glue on the bridge and set up the strings.

I recently ignored that advice and decided to finish the whole guitar before I polished it all up. The reason I did this was to leave the guitar in place for a month to stretch and yawn and find its sound. I then went at it with a sanding block to optimise the soundboard with much better results.

Does everyone do this that don't write books on the subject? If so why not?

[johnparchem]

String up an instrument in the white is not that unusual for the reasons you mentioned. I tend to wait until after I finish the instrument to get better results on the finish. I find it hard to spray cleanly with the bridge on and cleanly sand around the bridge. There are some that do a great job French polishing with the bridge on. I am not one of those people.

[kiwigeo]

Six of one six of the other......pros and cons for each method.