Once the lacquer was dry and no longer giving off a smell, I started sanding the rough spots back. Given that the grain was showing anyway, there was only so much I could sand. I was also being careful not to go through to the paint.
Then I moved on to polishing. I used Meguiar’s polishing compound. Once I’d done a few passes of that, I used two coats of Mothers carnauba wax and then two coats of Meguiars Tech Wax 2.0. Lots of polishing.
Timbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr
Timbah First Bass by Tim Gill, on Flickr