Trans White/Mary Kaye/Stain/Bleach

The method involves using a contrasting darker colour to grain fill which enhances the grain. Then a transluscent white is sprayed over top. It can just be white semi-opaque stain that is sanded back before clearcoating.

You can't really duplicate that effect with your body. Your body has a tight fine grain structure, whereas the one in the photo is more open grained and looser, allowing the grain lines to show better through the transluscent finish. Finely grained woods just don't pop the same way...

 

Short answer? Use a body made from a lighter wood. Ash would e your best bet, as the white Tele you have pictured above appears to be made from ash.

The color pictured on that Tele appears to be Mary Kaye White, which you can purchase from ReRanch:

http://reranchstore.stores.yahoo.net/marykayewhite.html

I don't think that you're likely to lighten up the body you pictured enough to pull this off without at least SOME hint of the original wood color.

Just my $0.05 (2¢ adjusted for inflation).

 

Don't think that "white stain" will do what you are looking for... I mean, there's "whitewash" or "pickling stain", and Minwax makes something called "winter white", but I'm not sure that it will look like much because that body looks like pine or alder, and the grain contrast just isn't there.

What you're looking for is an ash body... it would look like this without a finish on it:



See those really *large* grain lines? Those are what would show through the semi-transparent white finish you're talking about. Even they would fade considerably under even a Mary Kaye White finish, but because they are so distinct, you'd at least see them, partially obscured. The grain on your instrument is just too fine. It wouldn't look like anything but a milky-white paint job.

 

Here is a picture of someone who refinished an alder body Telecaster in transparent Mary Kaye White:



He stated that you could only see the grain lines under very strong direct light, and even then they were faint. It looks almost like "Olympic White" to me, in the picture...

 

You would probably want to do sanding sealer prior to putting down your base color coat. Sanding sealer is essentially just lacquer with a really heavy doping of solids, so that it will seal the pores in wood. Makes it sand out faster, and finish smoother.

You use sanding sealer for 2 or 3 good wet coats to fill the pores, and then you sand it smooth. From there, you apply your color coat(s), and then your clear coats. There's a good walk-through of a finish schedule here:

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Finishing/Colors,_stains/a-blueguitar.html

I have always liked the ReRanch products. It's just McFadden's nitro lacquer in a can, with color tint.