Thank you Simon for your insights; they've been very helpful! A couple of updates:
I spent the last few days working on the finish. I did about 3 coats of blue dye, and then used the gold wax/teak oil to highlight the grain. I got a bit too keen before I posted this on sanding it, so the dye was a bit more stubborn than I was expecting. A few extra coats did the trick, and I am so pleased with how it turned out. I love the way the grain is highlighted, and there are so many spots that have a little extra character. I'm hoping to pair it with some gold hardware and maybe even a black pickguard.
Turns out the bridge has holes for either top loading or string-through, and I think for simplicity sake I'm going to go with the top loading.
The next job is finishing off the frets. They're levelled, but I did a very poor job at crowning them. Once that is done, I'll begin finishing it with tung oil.
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