Finally got a moment to get back into the build, so got some good progression.
Activity for the weekend:
1. Drill string-throughs
2. Drill out string-throughs on back side for ferrules
3. Drill in neck ferrules (kindly supplied by Adam instead of backplate) and get neck drilled for mounting
4. Drill in output jack (Lester style on this 3/4 strat body)
5. Level neck
6. Level, crown and polish frets
7. Oil fingerboard (with F-One oil) to give it some protection through the remainder of the build
Tips that I learned for next time...
a) the body doesn't quite fit under the drill press to use that to drill the string-throughs. I ended up using the drill press to drill a drilling guide nice and square, then used the supplied bridge to mark the top-side and drilled starter points to pick up the drill but and then went down about half-way. I followed that by drilling the 2 e strings right through the body, then checking the bridge lined up on the backside which it did! I then played the same game with starter holes, then clamped a straight edge to guid my drill-bit to make sure they're nice and straight... rinse and repeat on the back edge for the wider ferrule counter-sinks
b) basswood is SUPER soft... lots of compression in the neck ferrules. I used the drill press to bore out the existing screw holes, using the depth stop for consistency, but they must have compressed another 3mm into the back of the body at tension! All good, tight neck achieved
c) I probably should have given the frets a bit of a tap and checked that they were seated properly before levelling - not a show stopper, but #10 and #11 sat really low (or the others really high) so I had to take a fair bit of material off some to get them level.
Next steps:
- Round out the top body corners on the neck pocket where they're straight cut to get more in line with Leo's style
- Fill some spots then sanding, sanding, sanding and sanding
- Stop in at Super Cheap for paint. I really wanted to do an iridescent red (EVH 5150 style) but the kids want something more in the blue spectrum, so we will pick a ColorSpec colour and get ourselves some acrylic primer, colour and clear coat for the body and face of the headstock then I'll so a satin rub-on poly for the rest of the neck
- Prime, sand, prime, colour, sand, glitter-spray features, clear coat, sand and polish
- drop in the loaded pickguard, wire up and output, string her up, tune it and hand it over to the new owners.
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