Hiya,
I'm yet to build my first body as I'm off on hols for 3 months, but I did rebuild and restore an 8 seater solid timber dining table. Pity I don't have pic's on me, but basically it was a Malaysian medium density timber, not sure what type, and I rebuilt it with solid 150 x 150 furniture grade pine. After sanding down real fine, we stained with walnut stian with only 2 coats or so, then sealed it. When the sealer is dry, sanded that back just a little to get the roughness off the sealer, and this is the scary bit... the sealer turns an off white colour, thinking I had ruined it, but when I put the lacquer on it came up a treat. The more layers of lacquer you put on the more gloss you get. I put 3 coats on, so not much gloss at all, but the table looks unreal.
This has given me a lot more confidence for when I get to stain and seal my first guitar.