i started building the guitar yesterday, and since I'm a carpenter by trade, I decided to take on the woodworking aspects as step one. First I thought thru the guitar and decided what type of finish product I wanted and how that differed from the kit. So reshaping the headstock and plugging the output jack and the three way tone selector switch hole were first. I was a bit torn over the headstock since the "v" shape was really starting to grow on me but eventually decided on a different Gretssh style headstock, I felt that was a little more my style. As for the tone selector switch I would rather have it lower on the body. Having the pickup selector up high on the body as well as the volume placement is new to me but i think I'm going to like having them there and learning to use them.
Next was the mock up. I decided to put all the hardware on because I imagined marking up the the guitar while lining up the components and I wanted the holes to be pre drilled before the paint to lower the risk of marring the finish. (Although for this guitar I have a flat black in mind) Also I felt like i needed four arms to get the neck/strings/body/bridge/bigsby to all line up together at the same time without some of it nailed down. Once i got everything looking good and holes predrilled it all came back off.
As I looked through the "how to build" thread I saw that there was only one step between finishing the guitar and putting the neck on which was Sheilding the cavities. I decided to do one step out of order which was attach the neck before finishing the body and neck. Not sure why this always seems done later but it seemed easier to clean up any glue or scrapes while still in the sanding stage. Also any custom home built hollow body guitars seemed to follow this sequence as well. So now its sat clamped for almost 24 hours and is going to move onto the sanding sanding sanding stage.