Sanding back and sunbursts

Friday was spent sanding back those first layers of finish...the guitars are glossy/shiny from the lacquer and the task is to level the finish by sanding by hand. You know it's level when all the shiny spots are dulled from the sandpaper. The trick is to do that without sanding through to the wood... which is tricky and I don't think any of us newbies managed it. So after doing that, we spent much of the day applying touch-up coats of lacquer to the spots where we sanded through. Towards the end of the day, Russ demonstrated the process of spraying a sunburst. Which means applying a darker colored lacquer (in this case black) around the outside of the instrument that fades into a lighter color (in our case, honey amber) in the middle. This is a pretty standard look in the guitar world, although I personally prefer the look of plain wood or solid colors, in general. Still, it's good to learn how to do this. We'll finish our sunbursts and then add topcoats of lacquer on Monday. Finish work is time consuming, but it's what makes the guitar look so nice and shiny when you're done. One little mistake and you can end up with a glitch that is impossible to remove without starting over, which would suck.