Process - Finishing Elements

Pickguard style?
Given that this was my own design brief, and I wanted to see enough of the wood grain, I knew that I would be making modifications to the pickguard.  And since I'd moved the control cavity position this would have to be accommodated.  I found a smaller than standard ('F-hole') shaped pickguard for a really good price and held it up to the body and neck to get a sense of where it needed to be trimmed. 



Headstock style?
I really wanted this build to be a Telecaster, but not really look like a Telecaster.  I bought a Stratocaster neck but do not like the Strat headstock shape.  As it is bigger than a Tele headstock, I was able to design a shape I liked better (similar to a 'warhead' style) and mark this with a sharpie for cutting.  Having decided that there was too much room for error using the router, I cut it down to shape with my jigsaw.  It came out exactly as I'd hoped and required minimal sanding to achieve the necessary smooth edges and curves.

I'd never owned a guitar with a maple neck, and felt that this would be a good choice for this project, providing some contrast with the darker body coloring.  But The headstock needed, in my opinion, to match the body somewhat.  I tried several applications of yellow and black dye, coming out with a dark green hue.  It actually was a good color (and there are some green tones in the body), but after lacquer was applied it did not come as close as I felt it needed to the body.  So I bit the bullet and resprayed a light dusting of black before applying another few coats of clear lacquer.  Still some dye showing through, but darker; maybe a little too dark, but I want to get this thing put together now!!!

The tuner holes were perfect, but slightly snug after a little overspray from the lacquer.  Some sandpaper on the end of a drill bit helped clean them up a tad for the tuner keys to fit snugly, but not require a bench vise for installation.  It was harder to drill the pin holes (2) for each tuner key than I thought, but with a little wider bit and a few more tries, the tuners were flush with the headstock and each functioned smoothly as I'd hoped.

Anxious now for set up and get this thing strung....!!!!!