Norris

If you want it howling then opening the mouth a little will mean it's a bit less fragile 

I think I'd be tempted to cut it before gluing the top

Right now though, I'd be using a plane and sanding table to get the mating surfaces properly flat

Welcome. Nice looking guitar 

As Gogzs says, you don't really need a jig for the fret slots if you're careful. After marking out I use a set square and score a line with a Stanley knife. Then go over the line again with a thick bladed knife. That creates a guide slot for your saw. You then only have to concentrate on keeping the blade vertical. Stop if you get tired and carry on when you're refreshed. Rushing or working when tired is when the mistakes happen

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

I definitely have to check TruOil, that gloss is superb!

Thanks. I did leave it at least a week between coats to harden off, knocking back with progressively finer grits. You can still see quite a few pores - it still looks like wood.

The polishing did add a tiny hint of milkiness to the finish, but is much smoother than I could achieve just with wiping. Possibly thinning the oil might have helped there, but I didn't thin it at all. The key was the preparation and applying the oil quickly and not trying to work it too much. If a coat didn't go so well, wait a week, knock it back and do another coat

The raw wood had a pinkish hue to it, but the Tru Oil has turned it a delicious nutty brown. I do find myself stopping to gaze at it often

Oh, and the nut slotting files have turned up. With my evening classes in virus lockdown, that's one thing I hadn't got in my own kit

I initially made the mistake of buying some cheap Chinese ones from Ebay, took one glance and chucked them straight in the bin. I now have some nice Japanese Hosco nut files.

So I'm now "furloughed". I'm not actually allowed to do any work (on my day job) but still being paid. It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it

I don't think I can drag this build out for much longer though 

I've gone over the body with 6000 grit micromesh. Not to remove every imperfection, more to knock down any dust particles, even out the wipe marks and check over the fine details. I've cleaned out the jack plate recess - a lot of scraping with a razor blade. 

Then a good polish with Meguiar's ultimate compound and the body has come up rather nice 

I left the Tru Oil to harden off for a good week before polishing and am rather pleased with the results. I'll confess that I wasn't sure if it would be hard enough to polish, but there you go.

I made a bit of a start on the neck, knocking back a couple of minor runs, but that's tomorrow's job - and it will be a semi-matt finish, 'cos that's much nicer than a full gloss when you have sweaty hands.

It seems almost a shame to do a heavy inlay on that board - it's too nice

Fabulous design skills - you have a great eye. Have you ever used vector editing software, like Inkscape? It's free and quite easy to use for the less artistically inclined amongst us. There again, it looks like you already have the artistic talent 

My, you've got nice wood!

An oscilloscope is not something I'd considered for my toolkit, let alone supercharging it!

That's going to look gorgeous 

I've hopefully got the perfect storm coming. Furloughed (paid to do nothing for the next month at least) from Wednesday, Mrs Norris still at work at the doctor's surgery. I might just get that guitar finished

14 hours ago, ScottR said:

And now it is rabid beaver time!

FTFY

4 hours ago, ScottR said:

I do think @Norris has probably usurped that honor by now though

4 hours ago, mistermikev said:

Norris - literally rofl

I'm thinking of calling it "Patience"

It's not fair - I want to vote for more than one!

Congratulations to every builder. There are some seriously classy guitars on display this month!

4 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

just to make my smugness just a little more nauseating

I'm out of reactions for today. 'Nuff said

It sounds so good in fact that I had to watch it again streamed to the main tv & surround sound system!

That sounds fabulous even on my mobile phone and it's only going to get better as it plays in. Cracking job Andy and some beautiful playing from Matt. What better testament?! You've got to be well chuffed!

Welcome back. It's been a while 

Wow that's stunning. The clear stripe between the blue and darker wood really leaps out. It's a born shredder

That's a gorgeous finish. It looks like silk

5 hours ago, Muzz said:

Looking fantastic. such great mahogany, Total shielding of the cavity makes such a difference to reducing extraneous noise, especially at high gain and volume. What sort of music is going to be played on this guitar?

Thanks 

It will be used for a variety of music. Dan is the guitarist in my band, playing covers from 60s to 80s, mainly centred around 70s rock & prog. His main earner is (or at least was before the virus postponed their tour) playing with Martin Turner, founder member of Wishbone Ash - so it will be used to Throw Down the Sword a few times I imagine

He was hoping to use the guitar towards the end of the tour, but I have a little more time to finish it properly now and let the Tru Oil cure a bit

I've let it sit for a week to let the oil harden up a bit. A good going over with 4000 grit micro mesh, followed by a coat, and I think we are nearly there 

That's a fairly close match to the colour too, which is gorgeous 

Lovely to see some hand tools being used. The guitar is looking great 

Or if you have a bit more time and a lack of machinery, glue several sheets of sandpaper to a thick sheet of MDF to make a sanding table. Cover your surface with pencil marks, then sand them all away again - it should be flat then, and your "bingo wings" will be nicely toned

Use a fairly course grit - 80 would probably do, or you'll be there all year 

I do like down-cut end mills. I don't think I'd use anything else for precision drilling

2mm holes, no sanding...

A few minutes later, after gluing and sanding...

Too right. I bought my son a Squier strat around the time I bought the wood (ash and flamed maple) for my build. Guess which was more expensive: a ready built guitar or a handful of planks!

The most popular "first builds" tend to be either a telecaster or a Les Paul junior. Both have slab bodies, and the telecaster is slightly easier in having no neck angle to calculate and a bolt on neck. Having said that, there are no rules. My first build was from scratch and was a telecaster - however I did a hollow bodied "thinline" with lots of carving, that (being a bit of a perfectionist) took me 2 years to make. It actually turned out rather well if I do say so myself, and even won GOTM

If you fancy a bit of woodwork it might be an idea to buy a ready made neck and build yourself a body for it. As long as you get the neck to fit in the pocket snuggly and get the bridge in the right place, there's not much else to mess up - certainly none that the good PG members here couldn't help you fix