Flash, forward to 39.

Today was day 3 of the dual build challenge. I started off with sanding down the Les Paul copy that I have named "39". This is because it was a present for my 39th birthday. Boring, but it's better than "the Fire Blaster" or some such rubbish and it's meaningful to me.
In the post today I also received a major piece of the decorative artwork to be placed on this guitar.

I plan on it going in between the four knobs on a 45 degree angle.
After sanding down the back of the beast I rubbed in some ColorTone medium brown. See photos below. Unfortunately I had a little of the brown on my glove and it came off on the front of the guitar near the top pickup cavity. See photo for this epic fail/fix up. Firstly I rubbed it down with water as ColorTone is water soluble. Then I went mad with 60 and 80 grade sand paper. Now you can just see it. The bottom stain I'm not too worried about as it will be covered by the humbucker cover and ring.

So I think it's looking good so far. Here's the dark brown I was aiming for.

 This is one of Billy Duffys' (from The Cult) custom made guitars in the factory.
Actually, it's a little too dark for me. It's the deep red of the Mahogany I wanted to minimise. It's just a quirk of mine that I think quality heavy woods should look more brown than red. When lacquered over, my 39s' backside should look nicely dark, but not so dark the grain disappears.

The only other thing I did today, besides watch the cricket, was tape up the Flash. It's now ready to be sprayed red. I'm a bit nervous, having never sprayed stuff this expensive before. I guess the worst that can happen, is that I end up having to sand it all back and start again. Not really looking forward to that - damn those Fender curves!