Update

Well I guess I should post an update on how this finished, as I got so carried away at the end, then lost the progress photos off my camera, so can't really detail anymore of the restoration.

The neck ended up really nice after about 6 coats of the oil. I left it for a week after the last coat, then gave it a good rub down with a cloth and it turned out like all the internet wisdom suggested: a nice smooth satin finish which was very playable.

The body was finished then and I had to decide whether to make and fit a scratchplate. I made a couple of card templates and it just didn't look right with one, so I decided to leave it off for now. I was growing quite used to the battered look and didn't feel the need to cover up the scrapes and bumps!

Next job was to make a saddle from a new piece of bone that I'd bought. This was a fairly simple exercise. First I glued the old one back together with superglue and used that as a template to mark out the approximate shape on the new blank. This was then sanded to shape and also the thickness reduced so it would fit into the carrier on the bridge. Lesson learned from this was that I assumed the original one was the right size - actually I could have made it 3 or 4mm longer and it would have been a better fit, but it's worked out OK for now.

That was it then - refit the electrics and tuning pegs and string her up!

I am delighted to say that all of the bracing repairs etc held together when the string tension was re-applied and she played nicely for a £50 guitar! The overall character was exactly as I had remembered the current model APX500 when I tried one of those, which was a bit of a "thin" sound compared to a full dreadnought size guitar, but the body is significantly smaller. These are really designed for the electro-acoustic side I think. I had some fun playing through the amp too. It actually turned out exactly as I thought, which was nicer to play than the basic entry level F310 I have (a much nicer neck on it), but with less bottom end sound due to the smaller body.

The action was a little high so, after letting it all settle for a couple of weeks, I reduced the height of the saddle to give about 2mm clearance at the 12th fret and this made it much nicer to play. No need to go into detail of how to do this here - there are loads of YouTube videos etc about it. Just take it easy and don't take too much off at a time.

You might remember that one of the reasons for getting this was to be able to take it to festivals without worrying too much about it getting damaged. In the end, when Shrewsbury Folk Festival came around in August, I just couldn't bear not to take my "good" guitar, which is sounding better and better the more I play it (I'm sure IT is getting better, not ME!) so this one stayed at home.

But the story has a nice ending, as my son started making noises about getting a guitar to take to Uni with him, so it has found a happy home at Lancaster University :-).