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I rubbed out some KTM-9 this weekend. It definately takes more effort than solvent based stuff. I had to go back a few times and rub some more as it wasn't shining up properly. I am using stew mac's colortone compounds; coarse, medium, fine, and swirl remover. As far as sanding, I started with 400, and went 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000.
Should I have started with 600 intead of 400? and also, what compound should I start with if I sand up to 2000?

Ahh....getting those micro-fine scratches out...it's a tough job.

I start with 600 wet-sanding, and then go up to 2000 wet-sanding. From there it's the higher grits of MicroMesh, also wet. Then to the buffer starting with Menzerna coarse, then medium, and lastly with the fine compound. After that I'll use a hand glaze. I will probably switch to 3M's Machine Glaze at some point though.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

This was on a small test panel, so I was doing all the compounding by hand. I'll be using a buffer on my actual pieces, so maybe that will help.

I usually level the whole lot with 600 grit (Wet, spray the final two coats, and then level, and then start levelling at 800 grit, wetsanding. Once it's level, abralon fine grit pads and power buffing with medium and fine stewmac compounds and a foam buffing wheel. Power buffing == the solution here, though. It's a pain in the butt to do by hand.

This is semi-related

I polish aluminum specimens at work if I can't find a graduate student to do it. I start with 220 wetordry. I make very sure not to put any swirls, I just sand straight in one direction at a time, then I switch to 45 degrees, then to 90 degrees, then to -45 degrees and so on. I've found that the swirls are nearly impossible to get rid of. I don't really understand why. What my technique does is to end up with small diamond shaped scratches, which decrease in size and height as you go down in grit. This results in a very good surface finish. When I first got my technique worked out I would polished to 1/2 micron diamond paste which actually turned out to be too smooth for my microscope. No light bounced into the microscope so I couldn't see. Took me a week to figure that out.

I'll probably try this technique the next time I sand a finish.

Just curious, what are you guys using to "wet sand" your waterbourne finishes? Are you using just plain ole H2O as the lubricant?

I use plain old h2o with just a bit of dish detergent to help with the slide.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Ditto, water with a drop of dish soap.

anyone ever tried mineral spirits or the like as a lubricant? I had a bad experience once using H2O. It left streaks down the sides of the guitar. The finish may not have been fully cured.

sounds like mineral tracking. best to use distilled to avoid it.

I have used K1 kerosene, mineral spirits, naphtha and distilled water w/a drop of soap. I like distilled water w/a drop of soap best. I inflate a balloon in the sound hole to seal it as a means to keep water from running on to the inside of the top/back and braces.