TLA1-S Kit

I've seen some great spalt finished in really diluted walnut stains just to give it a bit of depth. Great looking kit

I think I have decided to leave the top natural and stain the back and sides blue or red. Finish it with a gloss lacquer.

A good choice. Personally I think you get the best from spalted tops if natural or only very lightly tinted, otherwise you loose a lot of the fine detail in the spalt.

Attachment 22486

The wood grain on the sides of this body are so hard to sand! Really hard wood. Anyone any tips? I'm sanding with the grain up and down. I'm starting to get some scuffs on the binding too, anyone tips on how to get them out?

With end grain, it's best to follow the grain lines, looking at your photo, you'll have some challenges ahead of you, but it will be worth it in the end.
As for the binding, don't be too worries about that. You can scrape it later to smooth out the finish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNbsZsSabPs

End grain is tricky. If the machine marks are not coming out, then you are almost certainly not actually sanding with the grain. I have also found that the end grain of the different pieces can be at 90 degrees to each other. Try sanding the end grain at 90 degrees to how you have been sanding so far and see if the machine marks start to sand out.

Attachment 22662

First coat on the top, happy with how it’s bringing out the grain.

I’m spraying the back and sides. I’m spraying on to the wood (no primer) hoping the wood grain will show through. Any advice on this? Sand/spray/sand finer/spray/sand finer/spray etc etc?

Looks great.

Sounds like you may need to do a lot of sanding on the sides and back otherwise imperfections will show though the finish. Very tempting to dive in and get on with finishing it off but that may require double, or maybe even triple the number of top coats to flatten and smooth out a not so good prep, not to mention risk damaging the gorgeous top.

For the back and sides, the first coats on untreated wood are going to sink in without adding much depth, so I'd wait until maybe 4 coats before doing some sanding. I'd also try and spray some extra coats on the end grain as it is very absorbent. You don't want to break back through to the wood otherwise you'll get more sinkage on the bare patches.

Attachment 22942

Really happy with how the neck is turning out. Same as the body Coolangatta gold, but the body took to it completely differently. 2 weeks to cure then a sand and polish