I didn't expect to get much done this weekend, as most of the pieces for this project are current en route to my place.
But my grain filler showed up like 4 days early! Huzzah! That was one thing that was holding up any work I was going to do on the body.

I got some of stuff called Gork's GoodFilla, and thus far it's been great. (Buy straight from the manufacturer if possible, no need to cut Bezos in on this)

Here's the body slathered in black goop

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Then sanded back

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And finally with the first coat of stain on it.

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I was really hoping for a yellower stain color. Something really 70's.
I have a couple instruments in a reddish / dark brown kind of finish. But this turned out very pretty in it's own way.

The other nonsense I got up to was some neck work.
I thought "what the hell" and leveled, crowned, and polished the frets (at least a first pass, they seem good at least thus far without strings)
Also, I'm moving forward with the crazy-ass idea of filling the original tuning peg holes, drilling in slotted bass tuners and putting 4 on the bass side and 2 on the treble side.

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I will have to abandon the classic "Fender" style headstock design in this case.
I sketched up something rudimentary, at least to see if it was feasible without looking too dumb.

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I was worried about the strings fanning out above the nut, break angle, etc. Typical design worries.
I was worried that what I think is called the "deflection angle" being too great, and the string popping out of the nut slot.
In a reddit post I found while researching, someone said something that totally blew my mind ( Link to give credit where credit is due )

"It's a little counterintuitive, but there's still only a single bend over the nut. If you look down the neck (from the headstock end) of a guitar that isn't straight pull you'll find that if you rotate the guitar about the axis of the neck, there is an angle for each string where it appears to be straight."

Wild. Anyways. The sketch appears at least grounded in this reality so I'm moving forward with the idea. Also, contingency, I found some baritone conversion necks for sale on eBay if everything goes pear-shaped.