Some before pics to show that under the cruddy veneer there was actually some nice wood to work with, I just hope that I can get it back to this state.
Well, I think that I can fix this and retain the natural finish that I'm after. After the kids were put to sleep and the wife fed I decided to hit the garage and see if I can get this crud off. I have to admit that morale was low, I was tirred after a rough day at work, you know the drill.
I first thought that this guits finish was fubar, but I spent 5 minutes last night on one of the sides, (which was my biggest concern, as the grain soaks up in the stain more easily). So I didn't use any powertools and just pulled out some 80 grit and decided to hand sand it and low and below, from 3 layers of stain and 2 layers of sealer, wood peeped out. The sealer that was on top seems to have shibed up a bit, so I'm goingt o have to attack this stuff with a heavier duty sandpaper and then work my way down. I don't want to plane the guitar if possible, because that would mean adding veneer on, which I want to try and avoid.
As you can see the grain of the wood has sucked in the stain pretty good, but bear in mind, these results were after 5 minutes of hand sanding and the stain seems to only go about 1/2 a mm into the sides, (man I hope that this is crappy stain). So there's hope. I have to admit that I'm not out of the woods yet, there's still a long way to go before I'm doing any type of celebrations.
I've decided to make up a host of sanding blocks as well as some round ones for the horns and then give it a solid days work over the weekend.
