...and now we wait.

"Waiting, sweetheart.  Just Waiting. Waiting for you."

The body has about 10 or 12 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer sprayed on it and the neck has probably 5 or 6 coats.  So, now we wait for the lacquer to fully cure (i.e. dry).

I've heard different opinions about how long you should let the nitro cure - the can suggests at least a week.  Dan Erlewine suggests two weeks.  I've also seen some hobbyist luthiers recommend 3 to 4 weeks.   At times like this - I'm tempted to go with Dan's advice.  He usually ends up being right and I usually end up fixing whatever I did incorrectly and doing it his way in the end - so why not just go that route to begin with?

Looks like a lot from where I'm standing

You might be asking yourself why I sprayed the neck with half the nitro of the body.  The main reason is that I'm not going for a high-gloss finish for the neck.  I'm going to keep it pretty low-gloss but I still wanted the protection of a lacquer finish.  Since I'm not going to be adhering to the same finishing schedule as the body will need - I don't need as much finish.

"Yeah, I've seen some things..."

I ended up using two cans of Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer for the guitar body and neck.  I could have used more (and would have needed to if I wanted 10 - 12 coats of lacquer on the neck).
A note of caution if you are trying this at home:  When you get to the end of the can the spray starts to really "spit" out of the nozzle.  It's not a big deal if you are going to use a second (or third) can and put on more coats.  But if your last coat happens to coincide with the bottom of the can just know that you may get bubbles or bumps in the finish if you keep spraying after the can goes from a hissing to sputtering sound.  It's probably best to just stop (and get another can if you need more coats).

Yup, I'll just be hanging around for the next couple of weeks.

One thing I don't think I talked about was taping the neck and body in preparation to be sprayed.

As you can see in the below pictures I taped off the fretboard and the "heel" of the neck so that no nitro would get on it.  I taped off the fretboard because it doesn't need it.  The fretboard is made of ebony which is ridiculously hard, durable, and water resistant.  Ebony is another one of those woods that doesn't float because it's so dense.  So, no finish required.

Similarly, rosewood fretboards don't usually get a finish either (but strangely rosewood backs and sides of acoustic instruments do get finished.).  I don't know why exactly.  Finally, Maple fretboards do usually get finished and many vintage Fender guitars have the nitro sprayed right over the fretboard and the frets(!).  That one makes no sense to me.  But I'm sure all kinds of tone 'mojo' esoterica are really tied to the practicalities of assembly line production.

All taped up and nowhere to go

The heel of the neck (a phrase that makes no biological sense whatsoever) may be sprayed or may not - depending on your preference.  I chose not to because I wanted a tight wood on wood connection.  If you look at the above image of the guitar body you will notice that the neck pocket is taped as well.
Once the tape is removed (hopefully!) the tight fit will still be there.  It's all done in the service of a nice tight joint - as the prevailing theory is that this will provide a good sound transference between the neck and the body.  That last sentence could be complete bollocks.  Only time and experience will tell.

Wearing protection

Penultimately, I have a confession to make.  I'm a bit of an abusive owner.  Perhaps abusive is too strong.  Tragically clumsy?  More accurate but not quite strong enough.  You get the idea - I'm not careful with my stuff!

This poor neck has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous ownership for going on seven years.  I've dropped, knocked over, kicked (okay, it was in a case but I still kicked it) and applied general maltreatment to it for far too long. All of it was accidental - I swear!  But still, this poor thing.

Because of this - it's got a few dents and bruises.  The fact that this neck is finally getting protected by a lacquer finish makes me feel a little better.  The flip side of this is that it's not going to look as good as it could but I'm of a mind that a few scars are probably not a terrible thing - especially if it moves us forward.

A little sloppy.

Finally, while the lacquer is curing I'll start work on the electronics, and probably restart work on the Les Paul build.  But I'm also in the middle of making some upgrades in my shop - so we'll see what really gets done in the next few weeks.