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This is the OM I built for my grandson. Started it May 1st, finished it last night. That is the fastest build thus far.
This is my 11th guitar.

It is Ambrosia Maple back & sides, Redwood top, one piece Honduras Hog neck, walnut bindings, ebony fretboard, bridge and headplate veneer. It is built off the Jonathan Kinkade plans.
It sounds like a guitar! Yah!
Actually it sounds quite good, a little chimey, which I expected from maple. The notes have clear separation, and there are hardly any overtones. The midrange stands out, the bass is not boomy, more subdued.
I know the sound will change with time. I did a french polish and it is not very good frankly, but I wanted it shiny for an 11 year old. I see it is very hard to keep from putting fine scratches in the FP finish, especially one that has only cured about 3 weeks.
I would have sprayed nitro but just didn't have time to deal with the days of spraying and long cure time.
The woods are quite striking and I like how it looks.
Caleb is arriving tomorrow and gets the guitar on Saturday. I think he will be very surprised, not even his mom and dad know about it. :)

Nice looking guitar! How thin did you go on the top? The maple guitar I finished this year has gone from uninspired sounding to most excellent in a few months. Caleb's OM will certainly progress in tone quality, I would think.

Dan, the top is at .110"

Amazingly fast start to finish. The guitar looks great.

Yeah, amazing for me, usually takes 5 to 6 months!!!!

Your grandson is going to love it!

the best way to make a guitar mature is to play the dickens out of it...

Hey gang
I made this guitar in 2016 for my grandson who will be turning 18 in August and starting college on his birthday.

So I did a French polish on this guitar and it's been in India for 7 years. The heat and humidity played havoc with the shellac....soft and sticky much of the time.

So it brought it to me last week and I stripped the finish....actually sanded it off, and I'm spraying nitro lacquer on it now. I hope to have it back to him in about 3 weeks. It will look like a new guitar. He took pretty good care of it and there were very few dings, etc.

Here it is in the spray booth. I've got a sealer coat and 8 thinned coats as of today. Probably will do 2 more then two flash coats to help level it out.

I'll post a pic of the completed refinish and assembled guitar.

Kevin, you have a lot of experience with that environment, and it's really instructive to learn how it affects different finishes. So far I have not had to worry about whether any of my guitars got any further than my house, but this is good to know! Bruce W.

That sounds like the best decision on going with nitro. The real world can be an unforgiving thing. Good luck with the new finish.