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The problem I have is, I already scraped the binding and sides flush. I thought the tinted filler paste would just lightly sand off, but it isn't. I"m afraid to scrape again, as this will un-flush the bindings, and might take some filler/coat off the wood. Do I just have to be careful and scrape them again to bring out the white? I'm not up to speed on solvents yet, and am afraid to try wiping them with naptha, for fear of ruining what coats i've put on. (Indian rosewood sides, sitka top, with one thin coat shellac then filled with stewmac tinted grain filler)

thanks--Dave F

I always scrape binding just after a thin coat of lacquer AFTER the filler is all on, dye is on, basically the instrument is finished and ready for clear. I'm afraid you will have to scrape it again, but you can spray extra coats in the binding areas. I think wiping with solvents will only make a mess.
Tough lesson to learn, but all is not lost...

Hi, Dave,
I don't know what sort of stain you mixed with your filler, but it probably didn't penetrate deeply into the plastic. I would scrape it with a razor blade or a utility knife blade. Tape all but a corner of the blade--leaving just the width of your binding. Hold it so that your fingertips glide along the corner of the binding and let your fingers function as the depth stop to keep the blade from wandering past the junction of the binding and wood. Go gently and patiently and I'll bet it'll clean right up for you without removing more than a hair's depth of binding. Then very lightly scrape the sharp corner off your binding all around. Your finish coats should level everything out very quickly.

Here's a quick video showing the process. It's important to note that he is scraping tinted lacquer coats off (not wood stain) but it should work the same either way. This guy makes it look easier than it really is, but it's doable. I've scraped wood stain off plastic binding very successfully. He also shows how to make a scraping tool just for this purpose. Quite a few other scraping videos are available. Just google up "scraping guitar binding".

http://www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Re ... _done.html

It was StewMac's tinted water-based filler. I actually just scraped it off, and it wasn't too bad after all. It actually forced me to look at the binding much closer, and found that it wasn't finished as well as I thought! ( although I was told that it would shrink as the glue set over a day or two, and it did, leaving it a little shy of the wood--'nother lesson learned) Hoping you're right about the finishing coats leveling things out. I have faith!

One thing I tend to do is leave leveling the sides and binding till I am ready to final sand. That will let the binding recover from the swelling it gets from gluing. That wait time usually ends up being 2-3 weeks, while I build the neck. I sand the neck area flat to mate the neck, but the rest of the binding is left rough till the whole instrument is done and ready to sand.
Still, years down the road, you will get a little shrinkage around the binding/wood joint. It's part of life...