On the neck I sanded the living crap out of it starting with 80 grit. Then went to 120 then 220 grit san paper. Then I put about 7 coats of Semi gloss polyurathane (I cant spell... :) ). Then hit it with 000 steel whool (the finest grit I could find). The neck is like glass now. Smoth as a babys bottom. The gold rings are from a fabric shop my wife found for me. They are the same type used in tarps and purses and such. I would of loved to find a little bigger but I put 2 in to compinsate for the smaller size. Also on the back of the neck where the strings are attached I used small rivets with the nail insert removed. I seen alot of folks making them with the strings run through just wood. You can see where the strings are cutting into the wood and I didnt want that. I was looking for gold rivets but no luck :mad: . I orderd 10 boxes today from a web site so looks like im going to be busey here in the future. You would not belive how many folks want one. (seems more for decoration than anything else) Glad you liked it man. Im really excited about it and play mine every day now. Actually got a few songs going. Its like a whole new world. Ohhh yea ... word of advice.... On the first recording I made I had it tuned A E A .... not a good idea. I mean it sounded good but I went through 4 .026 strings before I relized its not a good idea. I got it tuned in G now and works fine.