Paint stripper is a fools tool, and I might be the fool.

Either paint stripper is the biggest ripoff in the history of all things ... um ... paint, or I am an idiot. You make the call.
I have built 2 guitars form tree to playable. I have built two other bodies that never made it to guitar-ness. And I have stripped and refinished something like 4 guitars. NEVER EVER EVER have I used paint stripper and found it to be a good idea. Sanding a guitar should take you like an hour at the most. Maybe some guitars that have really really thick lacquer would take longer. But people always say, "Careful! You will change the shape of the guitar! Use a stripper."
OK.
You tell me.
What am I doing wrong!?
EVERY time I use stripper it takes DAYS to get any progress done. Multiple layers of stripper and the mess is horrendous. You have to set up a ton of garbage bags or something to make it easy to clean up. And I ALWAYS end up sanding the thing anyway! What am I doing wrong. Why do people think stripper is the way to go? I must be an idiot.
So this time I thought, "Ok. I'll try it again. I'm older and more patient. Everyone seems to think it's such a good idea." Well I followed the instructions to the letter and 24 hours later it's a goopy mess and hardly any paint was stripped off at all. Seriously. What am I doing wrong.
Anyway I decided to just sand the rest. The stripper did get the top layer of lacquer off. That, I have to admit, is nice because that’s the hard part to sand through. But even having said that it increased the time it takes to do a refinish project not made things faster. So where's the payoff.
You can see the little gouges in the paint where the stripper actually did work up something, but most of the guitar is still covered.
I am glad to finally confirm that it is alder underneath. I usually like “thicker” woods but I think for the type of playing I’m going to be doing in the near future it will be a good tone wood. I’m gonna have to get some non conductive paint for the p/u cavities too since the stripper leaked into the cavities. All the bare wood you see here is from me sanding. The sanding itself did go faster since the stripper took off the top layer of lacquer but I'm not suer it was worth the time and mess.

To be totally honest there is one place where my sanding got too aggressive and I fudged up a part where the cut of the wood changes. But that's more due to me being out of practice than anything inherent in the sanding process.

All in all I think my suggestion is to skip the stripper and just sand the thing down. It's faster and not that messy. Be careful o the corners and contours and you will be fine.

But again, If anybody knows what I’m doing wrong lemme know.

Thanks

Next time? Pickups!