Re: Well, I'm Going To Attempt My First Guitar Assembly
I didn't feel like taping it off again. The stain will sand right off in a matter of seconds and binding is right back white again.
I believe some people do the same thing using a razor blade, angled very slightly to avoid hitting the maple top. To avoid taking too much material from the binding, you could leave scraping/sanding the top edge of the binding until just before you start applying clear coats.
That looks great so far, and the mock-ups really give an idea of where the project is headed. When I built my LP-based guitar, I found i really needed to do the mockups at various stages because at some points i would be so deep inside one particular process, i'd kinda lose sight of the bigger picture.
Can I offer two bits of infromation that might be of help, regarding the use of masking tape ? (you may already know this, in which case ignore the following).....
Masking tape, even the good stuff, tends to harden after a day or two. Anytime you have something masked and will be doing more on the same area later (more than 24 hours), don't leave the tape on. Remove it, and re-mask it right before the next process. It's tedious but it will cause a lot less trouble.
Later in the process, you may find you want to mask an area of fresh paint/lacquer. The masking tape can very easily take bits of the finish with it when you remove it (the tape). The trick here is to stick the tape to your clothing first .... tear off strips and gently press them on your clothing and then peel it away, THEN use it on the fresh finish that needs to be masked. Putting the tape on your clothing causes some clothing fibres to stick to the tape, reducing the tape's adhesive power. You can experiment first to see how much/how many times you need to apply the tape to your clothing to reduce the stickiness (try sticking the tape to another guitar or a table top to get a feel for how the adhesiveness can be controlled by this method).
(I think there may now be 'low-tack' tapes available, but the good tapes start to get expensive, and the old spray-painter's tip of putting regular tape on the clothing first works great and gives you some control if you need to mask freshly-finished areas).