Telecaster build - Hardware installation and starting finish sanding

One job I'd forgotten to do was to drill the hole for the jack. I'm using an electrosocket jack rather than a vintage style. I did a test fit on some scrap:



Then attacked the body with a pilot hole:



And forstner bit:



Until it fitted:



I checked the depth with a cable plugged into the socket, as that has more length than the socket itself. I also drilled a hole through into the main control cavity.

Next I chiselled out the nut slot:



And test fitted the nut. It's a Graph tech nut for those interested:



I wanted to put a couple of strings on the neck to make sure there was enough clearance at the end of the fretboard such that the strings didn't touch anything when the were wound onto the pegs. This required a bridge. My templates had the position of the bridge marked, but I checked it regardless. Both the guitars I'm making will have a standard scale length of 648mm - practically this is the distance from the nut to the bridge. I'm using a Wilkinson compensated, top loading bridge which has a lot of adjustment available, so this distance doesn't actually need to be measured as accurately as might otherwise be the case. However, it doesn't hurt to be right! 

I measured the position and made sure the bridge was central on the body:

 

And attached it, you can see in this picture that I've also fitted the tuners for the two E strings:



At this point I appear to have accidentally deleted all the pictures I took... the guitar did, briefly, have (two) strings on it - it looked straight. The body is also now sanded down to 240 grit, which is as far as I will take it before grain filling. 

This build just needs the neck sanded down to a similar level, then will be grain filled and lacquered. The end is definitely in sight, but what remains is pretty slow going...