Thanks for the kind words guys. Frankenwashie, I used the Wilkinson bridge as the template to mark the holes (after measuring it in position with the neck attached to also get the scale length correct. The holes were then punched and "contraption" used to drill from the top very carefully. On the back, the string through holes were relatively ok but certainly not perfect or in a line because of the shortcomings of the "contraption". Really its a $30 drill guide, not a proper drill press. I marked out the holes for the ferrules with the "cross hairs" in place and made sure of two things 1. they were in line and evenly spaced and 2. the string through hole was within an acceptable tolerance of the ferrule (ie theres no point in it being on the side of the ferrule), then I used the contraption to drill the ferrule holes at the cross hairs.

I didn't measure properly when drilling on the scrap as I was more an exercise in honing my skill and tweaking the "contraption" to get it to drill as straight as possible.