If you’ve been following my guitar build, you might be wondering what’s happened in the last couple of weeks since I returned from the course. I had a few steps left to finish the guitar, and for some of them I needed to order components which took a week or so to arrive. These included a Tusq nut, some small magnets, a fret polishing kit and a few other bits and pieces. The nut was pre-slotted; I had a blank nut but no nut slotting saws, and it was considerably cheaper to buy a slotted nut than to get the saws.
In the meantime, I haven’t been inactive although progress has naturally been much slower since I’ve only been grabbing a bit of time in the evenings or at the weekend. I decided that I preferred the natural wood to the stain, and so I spent a considerable time (several hours) sanding the top down again. Unfortunately, the imperfections in the maple top have caused problems but I have decided on a solution that I will implement later. Last weekend, I finished sanding and applied five coats of finishing oil, and now the guitar is waiting for the oil to cure for a few days before I can finish it off with a light sanding and perhaps another coat of oil.
I have done a few more things too. I fitted little magnets inside the control cavity and on the cover so that it stays on without any screws, although I still need to do a bit more work to make sure that I can take the cover off. At the moment, I have to push it off by inserting a pen through one of the holes on the top, but when the tone and volume pots are installed this will no longer be an option! I have also been working on my truss rod cover which will be similarly held on with magnets, but that’s not finished yet. I also managed to install the string ferrules and ground them, which was a rather fiddly job.
Lastly, I’ve also started working on the electronics. This is completely new to me, so I spent some time researching and getting help in order to design the wiring, since I couldn’t find a schematic that fitted my pickup configuration exactly. I’ve also never soldered anything before, so I watched some helpful videos on YouTube and got stuck in, doing everything that I could do outside the body.
I hope that the guitar will be finished in the next few days, at least to a level where I can play it although I will still have one or two final touches to do afterwards.
