The test fit of the neck looks “ok”, though when shaping/sanding it seems I have again thinned the neck on the high e side. Oddly the low e side seems dead straight, while the high e bows in around the 5-10 frets. For the next neck I need to look into ways of avoiding this.
The neck heel and headstock have now been blended by hand and I’ve gone up to 180 grit on the neck. I need to get some 120 grit as I jumped 80 to 180, which is probably too big a step. Some sites say only to go to 220 before finishing, others all the way up to 600 if you are spraying a finish. I’ll probably go to 220 and then try out some of the cheap 500 grit sanding discs I picked up off Ebay for the front and back of the headstock. I won’t do this until it’s warm enough to spray, as the neck might get knocked while in storage.
I can’t decide if to drill the holding screws for the tuners now, or after it’s finished. Everyone else seems to wait, however I’m concerned about marking the surface during drilling. Not sure, especially with my drill press which seems to be wandering more these days (though it could be I’m noticing it more). Due to space and dampness in the garage, I’ll hold off getting a good one and make do.
I have gone though one round of levelling the frets (I’m still a long way from being good at fretting). I will leave it at this point until I’ve built the guitar and can play test it before final touches and polishing of the frets. As I found last time, the fretting matters a lot to the end feel. One to practice.