clear (ish) lacquer from Japan

The picture shows top/bottom of a qin I am currently (slowly as usual) working on. The picture was made by my friend E. Tulp from NL who is a very good photographer. It shows the top board made from spruce and the bottom board made from maple. This is the result of about 10 coats of the see-thru "cashew" lacquer from Japan. Mr. S. D. advised 10 coats. The next step is to put in the hui above and carve a couple of characters below after which I will sand/polish the lacquer and put on strings and play a bit to decide if I have taken enough wood out of the top.
I wish to proceed slowly in the decision making. It is said that spruce takes a while to open up
and that should factor into the decision. The wood here is nothing fancy but it is a very interesting experiment to try and reveal the grain.