I had the body sanded and had begun polishing, but have finally gotten the neck sanded down to whatever gray 3M sanding pads are... I think around 800 grit. The neck has also been leveled, and the fret-ends are pretty much dressed. I confess that I cheat on the fret dressing. I hit it with a fret beveling file, and then once the frets are flush I take any burrs or sharp edges off with a maroon sanding pad. Sometimes two maroon sanding pads. This completely destroys the pads, but it works pretty well and is much faster than dressing with files. It only works on a new neck that hasn't yet been finished, since the sponges would also take the finish off.
I haven't finish crowning this neck or the bass neck I am also working on. I started to, but it was going pretty slowly with my "Baroque crowning file." These have worked reasonably well for me. They are mostly idiot proof and don't require much technique...but definitely takes some elbow grease. It cost me about $30 on Amazon, and does the job... But I decided to upgrade to Fret Guru Dagger crowning file, which has gotten great reviews. It's a diamond file, like the Music Nomad and Stew Mac Z-files, and I have seen reviews that it works as well. Keeping fingers crossed (which makes it harder to use a file ;-) ).
Also figure that I am going to have to be able to file fret ends on finished necks as well as on new necks, so I bought an Uo-Chikyu end dressing file. I am pretty sure this is the same as the file made by SM and Hosco. In any case, a high quality Japanese file. Will review them here...eventually. But happy at least to get a little done.
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