Alright, so where was I? That's right, the fingerboard. So I worked, I think 8 coats of CA glue onto the maple with the back of sandpaper as a squeegie to spread it. The first 4 coats were with thin glue, then the final 4 were with medium body Titebond CA. I learned several valuable lessons doing this. First was not to do it without shoes on! I stepped in a drop and didn't know until I felt my toe burning. By the time I got to it, it was cured and I had to cut off the sock. Had a piece of sock stuck to me for several hours! Doh! My other lesson, and one I feel the need to share, as I had to learn the hard way, is that each layer HAS to be sanded flat before the application of the next coat. If you are impatient (like me), you'll think that the glue should fill the voids in the previous coat cleanly. Instead, it leaves little white, cloudy spots that can only be removed by sanding them out, back to the layer they were originally on. One other lesson I will share is that using the CA activator always left it white and crusty and created more sanding. I decided to let it air dry which took a while. I ended up sanding through to bare wood at the nut that I then had to restain. I had used up all my original amber color mix and had to reformulate to touch up. It wasn't 100% matched but close enough. I made extra this time! Finally decided to drop fill CA on my bare wood spots and use Dan Erlewine's razor blade technique before final sanding. I then worked through the sanding grits; 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1500, 2000. Then used the Stewmac sanding pad set and worked up to 4000 grit. Looks like glass! Back to the body: after waiting for my spray poly finish to cure for 30 days, I noticed it had yellowed turning the body a bit green. I wasn't satisfied and liked my neck finish so much that I decided to sand the body back and in doing so, had to sand back to wood. Doh! Then the rain started... and continued... for another month. I waited for the humidity to drop below 60%. It didn't, so I shifted gears. I was internet buying black hardware and bought a black three hole control plate without measuring because (doh!) and it was too large for the body. Finding a black pickguard was proving difficult/expensive so I bought a piece of birch plywood and cut out a pickguard and control plate. I ordered some black lacquer. Figured while I was at it, I'd order some blush eraser. This was a game changer! The blush eraser allowed me to finish the finish without having to wait for this place to dry out (Virginia, USA). I would highly recommend the stuff if you are in a humid area, just go with light a mist/fog and let it dry somewhere away from humidity. I dried mine in a small bathroom with the AC running and took the dogs outside to avoid the fumes. I stained the pickguard like I had done the body and neck and then sprayed a black lacquer burst around the edges. Finally got several coats of lacquer on the body, pickguard and control plate and sanded all up to 1200 grit. I then finished everything but the fingerboard with colortone buffing compounds (medium, fine) and brought it to a shiny hand polish. Then used a buffing pad on my orbital sander with the Colortone swirl remover. Finally got it put together and it is already louder than my other basses without the electronics! Now I need to wire it up and it should be done. I'll get some pics uploaded soon.