Building a twin neck guitar - Part 9: A wet sand "dry" run

OK, so ... one of the things I need to do at the end of the build is wet sand the finish. This really has to be done and I want to make sure I can do it. I've decided to strip down one ... not one, no ... my favourite guitar and wet sand it to refresh the finish.

I picked this guitar because it's the cheapest and oldest I have, but, it also has a lot of sentimental value to me.

Here we go!

This is how it starts. Neglected is the only word I can think of. Anything that I've written that was even  half good was written on this guitar. Anytime I learned anything new, was on this guitar ... and now it looks horrible. I had stickers on it that I eventually took off, but the "gum" residue was always there.

It has also had things/stickers not properly removed!

See! This looks horrendous!

I'm hoping that this will prove (to myself) that I can remove imperfections from the build, leading up to the final finish. The back of this guitar is really scratched up due to the fact that I have a couple of "bumpy" belt buckles and used to tucked my shirt in at the time of playing ;) .... so, if I can make this look better then that's a good sign.

Even the head-stock and neck look terrible! I really need to look more at maintaining my guitars!

Lots of "bits" :)

The only thing holding me back? Look at that soldering! The wiring couldn't be any better!

Right, so it's all broken down and I've stripped out the electrics. I've cleaned up the body and it looks great! If I wasn't doing a new build (and I've picked my next!) I would put him (His name is Dime) back together now.

After cleaning, here's the end result. I took pictures with (*) and without (**) the flash .... and it looks STUNNING!
                                  (*)

                                  (**) Look at that finish! I'm tempted to leave it as it is now it's cleaned up. Damn. I need a dry run, but now I need to see what I can do.

So, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do the flat front and back, but leave the rest so that there's a split in texture and colour in the bands :)

If this goes well then I'll be ready to go. Over the next two to three weeks I'll finish the painting and finishing of my guitar body. I have my wiring diagram so all I need is something to put that wiring in to! :D

Yay :D