I read back through some of the build pages, and it made me think of the old military saying that "the enemy always gets a vote." It's a bad metaphor in that the guitar is not the "enemy." But I thought of it because the guitar always seems to get a vote in some builds...all of mine for example. There seems to be a cycle where I find a problem, come up with a solution, try the solution, discover a new problem caused by the "solution", come up with a solution to that...rinse and repeat. Often finding the solution means changes to the original plan. JimC put it nicely. The instrument is emerging rather than conforming to plan.

More prosaically, I really like the red and black, and will be thinking about that when I re-attack the finish on my ESB-4. So FWIW your ultimate finish choice looks like inspiration to me ;-)