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I got this set of Holmer bass nut files for around $40 from Amazon and they worked very well for what I needed. I'm not a professional luthier who is building and repairing guitars non-stop.
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i went with satin poly on my deck for my bass that I built recently. Super happy with the way it turned out.

Honestly, I think it looks just fine. Imperfections like these tell a great story.

Welcome to the forums. It's a great community, I just joined this year and have completed 2 kits. You always learn a ton from your first one.

I ordered this set of bass nut files from Amazon. About $40 and they did the job nicely.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08JGDN2V2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I had...

i just did my frets on my new build this past weekend, I used the fret guru crowing tool. It wasn't exactly cheap, out $45 USD, but it did the job great.
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I made a fret leveling beam from a 12" speed square.
https://i.imgur.com/BMXPElL.jpg

Used 2x sided tape to attach the 220 grit sandpaper.

After I got the frets leveled, I used the Fret Guru...

Yeah, I just went through this with my DJB-4 kit. Tested conductivity with my multimeter and found out it wasn't grounding properly. Used sandpaper to sand down the paint on the back where the...

While I cannot accurately answer your question about how they got that exact color, I can say that I just did a build using the Angelus leather dyes and was super impressed with how easy the product...

I went with 10 coats on the body. That provided me the finish that I was after. Didn't want it too shiny, but wanted it to be smooth.

Got it all put together and it's playing quite well. Still gotta make a few adjustments, fret level, etc....but super happy with the way it turned out.

https://i.imgur.com/EBKaLlr.jpg
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It just dawned on me that the only thing I probably had to do was to sand the paint of the back where it touched the wire. The strings will most likely pull ground from the string through holes...

Have conductivity now to each of the string guides. Had to sand the back of the plate where the ground came out of the guitar, and then had to sand the inside of the head of the screw, the bracket...

So, installed my ground wire under my bridge and found surprisingly that the paint on the bridge is not conductive, and thus the ground wire is not grounding any of the strings.

Seems quite...

Thanks, yeah I am going to run the wire between the 2 cavities when I wire up the guitar. I haven't done the back of the pickup guard, put plan to do so.

While waiting the week for the poly to fully cure, I went ahead and shielded the cavities. Obviously not an exciting part of the process, but a part nonetheless.

https://i.imgur.com/fJxWgNa.jpg

Your burst looks great and I really like the shaping on your headstock.

I upload the images to imgur.com and them link to them here.

Here is where we are at the 5th coat of poly

This is the amount of color getting onto my poly rag when wiping on poly to the front
https://i.imgur.com/SFYp19w.jpg

Here is the front of the...

Thanks for the helpful feedback. I've been on vacation this past week, so it's hard to not want to keep plowing ahead.

I waited 3 full days for the dyes to dry. My black on the back and...

Did my first coat of the wipe-on poly around 6:40pm, let it dry for about 3.5 hours, and put on the 2nd coat at 10:15pm. surprisingly there was still a good amount of orange/yellow coming off the...

Well, just decided to go ahead and test a spot with the wipe-on poly first (under the pickguard) and the lift off from the orange was quite minimal. So, rather than doing some spray and some...

So, picked up a can of spray poly to put down as first coat to help with color set of dye....

Noticed can said to apply, and to recoat within 2 hours, and if that isn't possible, wait at least 72...

I decided to just pick up a spray can of poly and am going to put the first coat down using that method and once the coat is on, I'll then switch over to the wipe on poly.

Didn't want to risk...

Spent yesterday and today putting down the wipe on poly (used Minwax Satin Wipe on Poly)on the neck of the guitar. I ended up doing 6 coats and am happy with the outcome, so going to call it quits...