French Polishing is actually very easy to do, but very time consuming. That's what the high price is all about.
Bottom line is the technique allows for a very thin, super glossy protective finish to be applied to the guitar allowing the wood to resonate more. Jury's still out for me on whether it's worth it on a steel string instrument.
One of the first times I came across the forum was when my friend decided to have his early '80s D-25 refinished. He decided to send it to his classical Luthier who had just refinished (French Polish) his old classical (nylon string) and had built his harp guitar for him. I was very skeptical. He's as picky as I am with the looks of his guitars. He had gotten this D-25 from a former student of his who used to keep it on the couch (out of the case) to "keep the cat off the couch." LOL Anyway, it turned out that it was his favorite sounding guitar. . .even above his '68 Martin D-28 (Brazilian Rosewood back and sides!!!). He wanted to have it french polished because it was beat up. His logic (and it DOES sound logical) was that it could only open it up further if it were french polished. It's the closest you could be to unfinished without actually being unfinished.
I, on the other hand, am scared. "Better" is just a degree of "different". . .which it will certainly be. So I hope "different" actually MEANS better.
-J
