Apply clear lacquer, add waterslide decals

 I watched the guy from Northwest guitar do this seamlessly. After several viewings, I was ready to try it. 

Started with some possible decals:

I like the idea of calling this guitar a Tidalcaster since it is a telecaster body. But Tidal Flattercaster, named after my home community of Tidal Flats Housing Co-op, seemed to fit best, so it won. I'm using a font that resembles the traditional Fender font. 

The DS logo was for my ukulele headstock. What I learned about this is when you've got a dark background (walnut coloured headstock), you really need to accentuate the lighter colours. My decals look okay on an amber maple background, not so much on dark walnut. 

This photo shows the two headstocks and the pickguard after a couple of coats of clear lacquer. 

When I look at this picture, I wonder whether I need a full pickguard. I like the woody look with the paisley bridge and switchplate.

That looks pretty good. Except under certain light, you can't see the decal outline. I've wet sanded it after 3 coats of clear gloss lacquer and then added two more coats. I'll repeat the process and then I'll stop. The guitar headstock is in good shape but with the uke I over-sanded it and dug into the logo, so it's less successful. 

Clear lacquer is toxic and pungent, so I am trying to spray outside on our front deck in the early evening when no one seems to be around. So far so good, but I wish I could do this somewhere more secluded. I let the lacquer dry for at least 10 minutes, and then I bring everything inside to dry overnight. I put both instruments by a bedroom window with three fans circulating air throughout the room but nothing directly on the headstocks. There's no lingering smell. 

I also noticed that when the lacquer dried on the pickguard, it rippled the wood veneer anywhere it wasn't fully glued. I'm not keen on that. The pickguard looks awesome but I'm disappointed in that little flaw. 

Starting to come together.