The headstock was inlayed with the remaining silver square rod, for the vine, but it didnt look quite right. It blended too well with the maple, so i decided to use a mixture of ebony dust and epoxy to fill the vine cavity. This gives a real black on white look, opposite to the silver on black of the fretboard. You can also see that i have routered out the trussrod cavity at the headstock end. The headstock was trimmed at the nut to suit the fretboard width, and then bound using 'Ivoroid' ABS binding. The truss rod cover was trial fitted. I also drilled the machine head holes. After binding the headstock, i inserted the adjustable trussrod, and glued the fretboard to the neck. The binding on the headstock was trimmed and scraped flush whilst the neck was clamped up. The 'Graph-tec' nut was inserted to make sure the fretboard to headstock veneer distance was correct. It is pretty important that all these surfaces are square to each other, as we dont want gaps all over the place... The truss rod cover. I made this from the fretboard offcut, and a piece of abalone. I used an engraver to 'sign' my name in to the abalone. The engraving line was filled with a mixture of ebony dust and epoxy.

Day 10 - Jan 21st, 2003

After gluing the fretboard on, the whole lot had to be sanded flat. All the inlays and silver rod will soon be flush with the ebony. Fretboard, sanded and radiused. I used the curvature of the bridge as a guide to the initial starting radius, ending almost dead flat at the nut end. Getting closer.... Radiused! Cant wait to get the neck finished now.

Day 11 - Jan 22nd, 2003

The neck has been shaped! Firstly, i used a rasp to cut the neck thickness down to the relevant thickness. I used my Jackson Randy Rhoads USA model guitar for the neck template/shape. I then used a rasp to shape the neck at each end of the fretboard, making sure i had the correct profile. Once i was confident the shape was correct at each end, i used a spokeshave to cut away all the excess material off the neck. Actually shaping the neck took a matter of minutes. Obviously, if you shave too much off the neck, your stuffed, so this should be taken easy. I really like volutes. This one is slightly large than all the others ive ever seen, but compliments the design very well. Nice huh? Although the volute is larger than normal, it does not interfere with the playability at all...well, obviously i cant play it yet, but it feels "right". Headstock detail shots. Notice how ive only bound two sides of the headstock. I liked the look of the natural timber look, and especially with the black veneer. The body will most likely have this same detail (black veneer)

Day 12 - Jan 23rd, 2003

The objective today, was to carve the back of the Mahogany body. I was intending on using a curved surform to remove the bulk of the timber, and clean up using a sanding disc setup, followed by hand sanding. After using the surforn for two minutes, and getting nowhere, i tried the sanding discs with the fittings to attach them to my grinder. Man, what a difference the sanding discs made!! I started with 40 grit, and finished with 120 grit. The whole lot took me 15 minutes to carve to the correct 'rough' shape, and another 15 minutes of hand sanding to smoothen out all the curves. Im really happy with the results so far. I still need to finish sand the back with finer sandpaper to remove the sanding scratches left by the 120 grit paper. The initial sanding was done across the grain (following the carve shape), but the final sand will go with the grain. The jack plate was next to get some attention. I used a forstner bit to drill the cylindrical shape. The forstner bit did a pretty good job of cutting smoothly, although i still had to sand for 15 minutes to get it perfect. I then made up a solid brass jack plate. I actually used the forstner bit to cut the brass, so its a perfect fit.

Next, Part 4 (Days 13, 14, 15 and 16)
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