It's not done yet

I still need to work on the wiring. It's not grounded properly, or something. I also need to tweak the setup a little more.

Here's that string spacing situation I tried to warn you about.

Wired pickguard

Here's the wiring job done underneath the pickguard.
















I found the missing screws for the tuners. They were stuck to the pickups.





















I'll screw down the pickguard after the strings are on, so the pickups match up with the string spacing.


















































































Don't drop the pickguard, it breaks really easily.

















Super glue fixed it.

Wiring configuration

Drilled holes in pickguard

You can see how the finish isn't very level looking. I've been using wipe-on poly, and it could probably use about 20 more applications. I wouldn't prefer to stop on it now, but the project has gone on for too long.
















The pickguard could be buffed to bring out a shine on it.

































It would probably have been better to put the neck pickup closer to the neck, but there was a big hole in that spot from a humbucker, and I had to cover it up. It would look strange to have that single pickup be off-center on that part of the pickguard.

Coming together

The tuners on the right side in the following photo look crooked because I misplaced some of the screws that would hold them straight. Will locate those.



























































Filled in the hole where the strap button goes with a piece of a dowel.















These holes were full of yellow paint, from the old bridge. I drilled em out so there wouldn't be three yellow spots on the front of the guitar.

10 or 12 coats

And probably 10 or 12 more before this side is finished.

Finish started

I've been sanding the guitar on and off the last few weeks. I tried doing it by hand, but removing the old finish was proving too difficult. So I used a random orbital sander. I used a scraper on the sides of the body.

Here's progress on the back so far with just a few coats of wipe on poly.


Photo with flash.






















Without flash.
















Headstock with flash.


















Headstock and tuners with flash.
















Headstock and tuners without flash.