Finishing the Body
We had planned from the beginning to build this out of mahagony, and to keep the finish natural. We are not setup for spraying, and so we decided to keep it simple, and simply brush on three coats of glossy polyurethane. We knew full well that this was not ideal, but it would have to do. We mentally prepared ourselves for runs and dribbles, and plunged ahead.
In order to handle the body while finishing it, we located a spot on the headstock where a tuner hole would later be drilled, and attached a screw hook. We also screwed a long sheet rock screw into the side of the pickup cavity as a handle, and hung the body from a piece of wire attached to the ceiling. We propped up a number of lights around the area, and brushed the urethane on as carefully as possible. We lightly sanded between coats, and the end result looks great if you don't get much closer than 3 or 4 feet. Obviously, spraying with the proper equipment and clear coat would have produced a better finish, but nothing about this guitar is perfect, and it came out as well as hoped. Oh yeah - and there is the hole in the bridge riser for the ground wire...
First coat of urethane
The twins after the third coat of urethane
Starting to look like a real guitar...
Mock up after urethaning
Between coats of urethane, we worked on the pickguard wiring...