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The thing you're trying to avoid by going up a progression of ever finer grits is to have ALL of the surface sanded to your "current" grit. That way all of the scratches in the finish are (approximately) the same depth.
Start with as fine as you can, and work your way up. You should DEFINITELY be practicing this on scrap pieces - do not be foolish enough to do your very first finish sanding on the actual guitar.
I use mineral spirits as my wet-sanding lubricant. I know others have had good success with water/detergent and wet sanding, but I almost always had problems with the water getting under the lacquer around holes. This is not an issue with mineral spirits. You still need to wipe the surface clean and dry frequently to check your progress.
If you were level sanding between coats with, say, 400-600 grit, you can start with 1000 grit for wet sanding. Just remember that you will HAVE to work your way up through the grits, otherwise you will leave deeper scratches when you skip from 400 to 1000. It is a LOT more work to get the 400 grit scratches out with 1000 grit paper. Go up 400-600-800-1000-1200-1500-2000. I know it sounds like a lot, but you don't spend THAT much time in each grit. Use fresh lubricant for each grit - otherwise some of the larger grit could be floating in your lubricant and set you back when you inadvertently scratch that loose grit into the lacquer. Get the surface completely sanded with each grit, then move on to the next. As mentioned, be EXTRA careful on the edges. I'd suggest leaving them alone until you're nearly done, and just work harder with the finer grit to get the edges smoothed out. It is very difficult to keep from sanding through on the edges.
Be careful, and especially be patient! Good luck.
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