It sure has been a LONG time since my last update, thanks to work, a couple other projects, and some frustration in my finishing process. My original idea was to do a French polish finish. In this process you basically use a balled up rag and using a mixture of shellac and alcohol you slowly polish the guitar until you build up a nice finish. From what I've heard its quite the art, one that I wasn't successful with. One thing I did learn, is that shellac in a can from Home Depot isn't the same type of shellac that you need for this process, so I wasted many hours trying to get a nice finish. I kept putting on finish, but then I got lots of drips, streaks, etc... I sanded the finish smooth several times, but every time I would try to polish I just couldn't get it to work. Turns out the shellac in the can that I got has other additives which were probably creating most of my problems.
Before applying additional finish to the top, I did sand the bridge location to bare wood and made up a mask so that I'll have bare wood to glue the bridge to.
I just wasn't happy with the finish I was getting. At the same time I already did have a good base coat of shellac on the guitar. Home Depot also has the same type of shellac in a spray can, so I decided to try spraying the guitar in the spare storage room in our apartment. I put down some garbage bags, and sanded the guitar and neck as smooth as I could with 600 grit sandpaper.
The first spray coat of shellac went on well and the finish looks much better then what I was getting by applying finish by hand. I should have done this from the start! The finish does have a little bit of orange peel, but I think this method of finishing will give me a finish good enough for my first guitar. Further down the road if I get good at this, I want to be able to spray laquer!