@northernbassist Many years ago, a buddy of mine's starburst Fender Strat that was pretty banged up and he completely dismantled it. He stripped off the remaining paint, and began carefully sanding the body (the fingerboard was still in fairly good condition). Using progressively finer sand paper, he got it down to almost a mirror shine before he ever considered any lacquer. I wondered why anyone would want to cover up such a beautiful grain.