This is my first refinishing project.I got this '97 Studio model for my birthday about 12 years ago. It was a big deal at the time and I've played the hell out of it ever since. At the time they only offered solid black and white, as well as translucent wine red and emerald green. I wanted to see some wood grain and the green was hideous so wine red was my only choice really. I'm not that into the colour and it hasn't really aged that gracefully, it just seems a bit dull.I was at a show a few years ago and the guitar player had a Studio redone in a dark brown with a cream dress up kit and I knew then that was exactly what I wanted for my guitar.I stumbled upon Sully's awesome Studio restoration on Youtube and then did some more reading about the Tru-oil finishes and decided I'd jump on the bandwagon.Here are some minor war wounds:Chip:Couple dings:Nice gouge in the neck, thanks party girl...Time to get to work.So many screws in this thing...Headstock face not in great shape but I'm not going to touch it:The top isn't very symmetric / traditionally 'nice' but I think there are some interesting patterns going on:Time to dig in! I'm doing this all by hand, a bit of scraping and sanding...You can see the texture from the belt rash just above the scraper:Sanding out the belt rash:Hours later...finally a bare back:There are some dark spots visible, looks like some grain filler / sanding sealer under the red. This also makes the grain really pop out black. I've gotta do a bit more sanding obviously but I wanted to move up to a higher grit.Hopefully the rest of the finish comes off faster. The curved surfaces are a breeze with the scraper but the flat back had to be sanded, which took forever.I'm thinking of staining the back/neck walnut and keeping the top natural before putting the tru-oil on.More to come,Nathan