SG-1L "Celeste"

First day of the build my first ever guitar. So excited.
Have 0% woodworking skills so this will be... interesting. Hopefully the many hours of soldering in Uni and designing circuits will help me out when I get to that part.

So, I sanded the crud out the body and neck.
Frets still feel sharpish as I slide my hand down the neck. Will file them down later.

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Next was the headstock. Thought I would design the headstock first before I sealed the wood. Thought a fiery devil horny type look would fit the SG pointed style best.
I think I must be a bit nuts going for a such an intricate design having no experience.

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Quickly found out my Dremel's router bit was quickly outmatched by the wood. Dremel vs hardwood. Hardwood won this round. Completely botched up the the top left corner and bottom right round part.
I will get a coping saw next time I visit the hardware store, hopefully it will give me more control even though it will take longer to cut

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Sanded the larger parts as best I could and wood filler works wonders. Luckily I will be completely painting everything over, I would have had a heart attack had I been going for the natural wood tone ;)
Have not idea how I am going to sand the smaller intricate parts, perhaps a small rod with sandpaper rolled around it and tapped at both ends? I think that may take a while.

Still deciding if I should engrave my name in to headstock, I will practice on some other wood first so I don't botch something else up.

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Will wait for the wood filler to dry and try again with a coping saw.

I like where you're headed with the headstock design Devon, very unique. You may have to get hold of some fine round files to clean up the more the intricate parts.
Another option for the less intricate stuff is some little sanding drums for your dremmel. I just ordered some of these (pic related) off Ebay. You get like 100 pcs plus a couple of mandrils for about $4.00 delivered. The ones shown are 6.35 mm but they do a 12.5 drum as well for around the same price.

Patience is something you need when building guitars dude :) take your time - it's not going to disappear.

What barge posted works really well. I also like using a dowell w/ sandpaper wrapped around too. It doesn't take as long as you think. Just make sure you're using good quality sand paper.

wow pretty cool headstock Devon. As others suggested the dremel sanding drums work well to clean up all the cut edges.

Keep at it and don't rush the build and you will end up with a cool unique axe !

really different, very cool

Thanks Barge. Darn thats ubber cheap, will definitely order a set.

Like the headstock Devon, complements the body horns nicely.


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Thanks for the feedback guys. I know all this extra work will pay off.

Day 2. Bunnings was selling a third party rotary tool kit. Took barge's advice jumped at chance to grab a set with a small sanding drum. Decided to just open up the lower horn to have wider gap, removing the need for wood filler. This gave it a nicer look now that the horn look sized different. Next, got some tiny files and with some elbow grease good it looking half decent.

Taped up the fret board and decided to stain and seal it with an oak colour before applying any paint. Looks pretty nice actually. Has a kitchen chopping board kind of look :D

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Sweet man, looks like you've got it sorted now. I'd just spend a bit more time on a couple of those lines to get them to flow a bit more but otherwise looking sweet. I tell you what, an enlarged truss rod cover following the same "horny" theme would look damn sweet too.
Nice job.

Cool looking headstock Devon, any plans to mod the body?