I was told to put up some pictures so here goes...
The first picture is of the guitar before I'd done anything to it at all.
This second picture is mid-way through clear coating. Notice the "whitened" grain...that's "Pickling White" Ace water based stain, and the clear I'm using is just a rattle can of polyurethane made for this kind of stain (they're both Ace products...made by Sherwin Williams). This picture is before I wet sanded at 600 grit before doing more clear coating, so it looks a bit rough.
Also, speaking of rough I didn't want to take out all of the "flaws" because I think they give the guitar some character, and anyway I'm not going for perfect, just...better than it was, which I'm confident I've already done by getting that crap-job of lacquer off the guitar.
I'm just getting to the point now where the clear is starting to build and the grain is starting to get some depth to it.
I'm going to need to find some intermediate sandpaper around here somewhere...I have 600, and 1500...I'm thinking I need...800? 1000? in between.. Then I'll probably hand polish it to finish.
Tomorrow I send the money out for my Bigsby B-5 and my TOM roller bridge, and my new S101 neck should be here sometime this week. I may later go with a better neck, but it gets it together until I can afford something better.