"PLECTRA"

The kit looks pretty good, and there is only one marker dot that needs moving
the 9 to the 10
I will pull all the frets, and shave down the sides of the neck and refret.
Then I will plug the tuner holes, and overlay the peghead front and back then redrill for 4 tuners
And Lord knows what else..
 

I have decided to use a 3 colored tint, and a one color fade.
With tinted lacquer, not staining the wood.
I scuffed the nicely sanded blank and wiped with solvent
 

2 coats of the tinted lacquer
Tints are 3 parts honey amber, 2 parts Amber additive and 1 part vintage maple

I had a customer request to be sure dogs were in as many pics as possible and I aim to please :)
First coat of fade applied.
Tint is one part Tobacco brown

2nd coat of fade, nd one coat of clear

Picking up some reflections after 3rd coat

Pulling frets, preparing to reduce the width

I will use this plectrum neck as a template and score the fingerboard to get my reduction lines
 

You can see how much will be planed

Ready to scribe

One side planed almost to the score line, the rest will be reduced by drum sanders
 
 

Both sides equal

Recontour for the edges

You can see, we are right to the edge of the double dots now
I will pull all the dots and replace them with nice MOP inlay and move the 9 to 10.
The rest are OK

All profile sanded, ready to shape peghead

Im making it have an "M" shape for oblivious reasons :)

Contour sanding complete, ready to dowel
 

Plugged and ready to install front and rear peghead overlays
I will use some old Birdseye maple stripped from a broken piece of antique furniture
Recycle.........all the time
 

profiled and sealed, ready for edge fade
 

The clear made the eyes pop right on out, I like it

One more coat of edge fade to go.
 

Neck back and edge fade completed
Ready to relocate tuner holes but I will do that later after inlay and fretwork

I wanted to get this far tonight so I could drill some holes tomorrow
 

Inlay installed and refretted
Snowflakes and a decorative inlay at 12, to cover the old double dots
9 marker filled and moved to 10
Side marker material installed

I had my old metal template leftover from making my logos for the Accutones and I thought
"I'll just cut that up and use it"
 

Now to polish it up and set it
 
 

Moelogo set and tuner holes reamed and counter bored for the collars
a few more coats of clear , a bit more shading around the "e' and I will be there on the neck

I drilled a relief with a Forstner bit, then set 2 center screws to give extra retention.
The 4 screws that are original only have limited retention so I have hidden these under the plate so as not to change the original look of it.
 
 

A little gold tint for the inlay
 
 

6 coats of clear on the fingerboard and a high polish to boot

Now for some better strings and some final tweaks then off to Sunny Florida
It was a good experience and I feel that I will make a few  more of these over time.
You can use fancy electric's if you want or just go with what they send.
And StewMac carries all the rest of the fancier bodies and necks if someone wants something more high end.
Like any project "Speed is a question of money so how fast would you like to go Moe?"
 Moe knoes how to go slow, or blow does!

Replacing the temporary plastic nut with bone
Drilled the truss cavity and stained inside it

Final leveling and recrowning of the wires

Stringing it back up with some GHS Nickel Wraps

String guides attached
They add some downforce at the nut, improves the tone.
 

Ok thats about it
It plays well up and down with a slick action
The Captain will have fun with this one.

Thanks for watching,
Vinnie