Thanks for the replies. I kept sanding and eventually got to the white (previously I was using much too fine), and the new stain looks much better
After this picture I sanded back a tiny bit with 400 and did another layer to get a darker blue but the light isn't good now to show it. Next I will dye the rest of the guitar, then grain fill the body and seal everything. Then I will maybe start a new thread and document progress from there, once I have something interesting to show.
Lol thanks Andy, this is pretty useful!! (will probably skip the binding,,)