Thanks, Chris.
It's not my first time working with aniline dyes, but it is my first time doing the sand-back, multiple color thing. Rodney gave me some great tips for achieving the tortoise shell look.
I lost count of how many lacquer coats I sprayed, probably around 20 to 25.
BTW - I ended up discontinuing the heat box halfway through. It was working well, but several times I experienced some small areas of bubbling in the finish - not due to the heat box, but I wanted to eliminate any possible causes. Never did figure out if it was some sort of contamination, a problem with the shellac sealer, or just bad spray technique on my part. I might try it again on the next one. Anyway, after a week it's hardening up well (the neck heel already passes the fingernail test) but it's still gassing off a bit. But I've other things to finish up while I'm waiting.
In other news... I got some more brazilian rosewood on eBay for making the tuner buttons, pickup rings, and control cavity cover. I have a bunch of b/r/w pen blanks, but the dimensions are just a bit too small to get whole keystone-style buttons without laminating. I did manage to make a nice bookmatched truss rod cover, and I'll use another pen blank for the stop bar.
Oh, and I bought a new DeWalt variable-speed drill today to use with the foam pads... I discovered that the chuck on my old corded drill was trashed.
Mike