I've seen them quite badly protruding/recessed and not in a consistent fashion along its length. You'd certainly need a fresh lacquer coat applying and an expert to remove the excess timber first either from the stripe or the neck.
That is interesting as our guitarist's sister is J'anna Jacoby! She says he's great mind you J'anna is a looker and you know what rod is like with the ladies!
Oh and you get "RTA" real time analysers, so you can see which eq channel is feeding back on the screen and cut just the problem one, 31 band eq on each output all separate so you can just pull the bugger that is causing it which doesn't really hurt the mix compared to say a 7 band or a low/mid/high.
Well it can help to get you in the ball park, I normally look for a similar venue from my previous gigs, wooden stage, low ceiling, hard floor, marquee etcetcetc.
If it's a regular venue you play at then you'll have all the settings saved from last time you played there, set it up the same as last time and use the same kit and mics and you only really need to make sure everything works at sound check, a budget version for a typical desk with knobs is to take photos of the knobs after each gig.
Sounds like you got it easy if he goes to the bar 'after' sound check, most would do the annoying rattling the kit thing for ages then disappear just when you need them for the only five minute slot you are allowed to sound check!