So, mock-up time arrived. For these first images, I used the old neck, because I wanted to see a more realistic representation of the final product. I defretted it, sanded to 800, stained a really watery black, then waxed. That will be the process for the real neck too.
With some careful lovin', the inlay really, really pops. Majorly dig it.
Then, I went ahead and screwed it up (in a good way) and strung it:
Please note that I have not yet gotten around to finishing the board on this neck. A bit more tedious with frets in the way. Also, I am aware I wound the strings on the wrong way. :P
So, a couple of minor fixes/further efforts needed:
1) A new bridge. The high e string will not stay in its block at all; the longest I got was 15 minutes out of it. I'm thinking a Fastloader from GFS (naughty room, I know) is the way to go cause then I don't need to worry about blocks!
2) The middle pickup won't mount. The pup magnet bottoms out in the middle part of the rout, and the screw routs are too deep for the screws to get purchase. All I succeeded in doing was ripping some chunks out as the bolts came free under the spring pressure. At this point it appears I will have to glue some mounting blocks in there so the screws actually have something to enter and hang on to.
3) The fretboard. This is not a particularly hard job, but it is a time consuming one. I just need to find a spare several hours to sit down and crank it out.
BUT after all that is done, I think I will have a great player! Nickosaurus and I had a mess around last night just acoustically, and it has a nice amount of resonance on its own. Also, when strumming a chord, you can feel the vibration all the way into the headstock, which is a good sign. The neck has settled nicely, and is almost perfectly straight. Intonation will need minor tweaking, but there are already harmonics evident.
Overall, this is shaping up to be a fine axe!
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