Coming in the home stretch. Body is finished... wiring finished. Still need to figure out the pickup rings, reinstall the hardware, and shape the nut.

Headstock that's been wet-sanded lightly. I did this before I started finishing the body. I stopped about 70% of the way through the process so that any dings or handling marks during the body finishing process wouldn't negate a bunch of finish work on the headstock.


Back of guitar with Amber finish.

Front of guitar with Amber finish.

Wiring harness that's been completed.


Pickups that have had new covers soldered on.

Headstock in the process of being wet-sanded. I pulled off the tape over the letters and symbol, and then I started building up a pretty thick coating of sanding sealer, and then clear coat. Now it's finally time to sand with 1000 grit sandpaper and a small straight-edge.

Headstock

Another update. Progress has been slow but meaningful. I've been spending most of my time painting the headstock black, while trying to maintain the Epiphone logo. Not as easy as it sounds. Actually... it doesn't even sound easy. Eh. It's harder than it sounds.

I've also been spending time sanding the body with 320 grit sandpaper, getting off as much grime and dirt as possible.

More fretwork

So progress is being made... albeit slowly. I've leveled the frets, which made the guitar playable (win!) but many frets were awkwardly flat (lose!). I had to take a small flat edge file, and give each fret more of a contour. It didn't take too long, but it was tedious. I also polished the frets with 1500 grit sandpaper, and the rubbing compound to make them smoother.

Then I strung up the guitar with heavy-bottom 10's and the guitar played great!



The real excitement is that I've bought the paint that I need for the guitar (it's on the way), and the rest of the electronics, including pickup covers, and pickup rings. I should have all of these things in the next week, and then I'll fully disassemble and start painting the guitar.