Finish, Frets, and Assembly! – Guitar Build Progress 2021

This is going to be a quick update, because the guitar is officially done!

Finishing the Guitar

I used a crystal clear water based polyurethane finish on this guitar. John wanted the wood and finish to be as light (in color) as possible and this finish worked great for that.

The first couple of coats left some streaking, so I let them dry and very lightly sanded the finish flat.

I changed my application method to avoid streaks going forward and a microfiber cloth ended up being perfect for this.

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Fretwork

The finish was a fast drying type, so I was able to get the guitar masked up and do the remaining fret work 2 days later.

I marked the top of the frets and got to work in leveling the frets.

The leveling process was very quick this time, taking very little material off. I crowned the frets next, then moved on to sanding and polishing.

Assembly

My first step for assembly was applying copper shielding to the back of the pickguard and to the pickup routes and control cavity. This was more time consuming than I had imagined, but I got it done.

When I set the pickguard in place, it looked like it was glowing.

Next, I wired up the electronics. My wire tidying skills need improvement, but it works.

Then I finished up the rest of the assembly and completed the setup.

And – it’s done!

See the final photos and specs over here.