Well I got a little curious and rubbed a little danish oil on the front, (I've sanded it off again now though), and I'm also optimistic about how it will look when finished- the danish oil gives it a nice, more amber-ish colour and really makes the figure stand out. The fact that it makes it shinier does indeed make the bevels more visible too.
Cheers, its not that bad weight-wise thankfully. I was initially planning to plane it down to 1.5", but then I realised that it had to be at least 1.6/1.7" ish for the trem, so it ended up thicker, and I was worried about the weight.
The carving removed a lot of wood though, and there's still the trem cavity to route, so its only going to get lighter.
Obviously it will never be a light guitar, but its looking like it wont be uncomfortably heavy either.
And I too am now a scraper-convert. I'll definitely be buying more in future!