The body . . . part 2 of . . .

First rule of wood finishing; All finishing takes at least twice as long as you planned for.
Collary; There is at least twice as much sanding involved as you think.

So after the last update, the body was sanded lightly with 220, sanded with 320, lightly stained (stain wiped on and almost immediately wiped off) ... in 3 stages, front, back, sides ... and let dry for 24 hr. Then sanded with 320, buffed with non woven white finishing pad, and lightly stained again.

AND ... I discovered another rather nasty scratch on the lower horn. The nice part about this finish is that you can sand out the scratch (see below) and touch up the stain and you'll never see it after it's finished. Try that with a spray on finish ... possible but MUCH harder to get 'right'.

The horn after sanding out the scratch ... no that's not reflection ...

So here it is after restaining drying, sanding, 2nd stain, sanding & buffing ...

And after the restraining ... still just a hair lighter but you have to
know that it's a refinish and not something that just is a bit lighter.

And here it is in better light ... although next time I'll have to watch the shadows ... just after the last stain. It'll get one more buff in 48hr or so and then it'll be ready for it's osmo oil topcoat.

And no it won't be ABSOLUTELY perfect but even with my OCD tendencies good enough.

Pickups; I broke down and bought a pair of Seymore Duncan p-rails for it (ultimate versitility?? we'll see ...) - they won out over some Sentell mini humbuckers ... BTW I don't like the covers on the S D ones, those S's are a bit much ... , the Sentells may go into something like a future jaguar type build or I may replace the p-rails to see what happens or ... ... ... isn't indecision great. Some copper tape for shielding is also on the way ... now I just have to figure the rest of the wireing. And how to do that raised center to the bridge thing I've been thinking about ... nope I'm not done yet ... 

And yes I still have to clean up the rest of the mess on my work table, such as it is ... fixing the fence this morning had a much higher priority ... not having to chase the dog down through the neighborhood ... ... ... priceless.