Surface experimentation

For surface experimentation i took a plank of wood I wasn't using and cut into it, cutting out curves and edges similar to a guitars on the body.

Here is an effect from using the electronic sander, this effect was not to my taste as it left the wood too smooth and a lighter shade than the rest of the wood, although when put to the face of the wood it made it look damaged and aged but it looked a little too clean for the look i wanted, plus it didn't look like the wood had been battered and bruised so this one was ruled out.

Here I thought about how when sanding the wood back it would leave it clean looking no matter what technique I used. So i took some paint and tried out to make it look like the sanded area was mucky and aged. This just looked like it was painted and not aged wood so I looked for something different to age the wood.

After serching I finally decided to use charcoal to give my wood an aged look. This as you can see from the images leves the wood looking aged where it had been sanded and looked exactly the same as the wood surface which had not been sanded. 

To finish off the old, aged looking effect I sanded down the wood just a little in certain areas after using the charcoal to make it look like the paint work had been rubbed away over time due to the aging of the guitar. This then I chose as the effect i would use to make my guitar look aged and worn down.