We join this project already in progress.....

I have several excuses:
I had the flu TWICE!
Couldn't find the damn camera.
I forgot.

When my son was a baby he had a computer game (I know, crappy parents) called Road Construction Ahead.  If you tried to do the levels out of order the grizzled foreman would say "finish one job before you start another".
Anyhow, a few weeks back I was looking for ideas on a Jazzmaster project I want to build and I found a maple drop-top strat body on ebay.  I got it for $28.00, shipping included!  I figured worse-case it could be a good practice for finishing.
It turns out it's a StewMac body.  It came with a "Blue burst" finish on it.  Cool effect but not my style.  I had intended to paint it Daphne Blue or Surf Green but after stripping the blue off the maple still looked good.

Normally I'm somewhat ham-handed with sanding, but with the thin veneer of the drop-top I really tried to go slow and not screw up. 
I ended up using Amber and Mission Brown dye on it.  The maple top just pops!  The ash body tended to look darker, which was ok too.

I ordered a MoP pickguard and gold hardware from Guitar Fetish.   Sounds garish but it does look cool against the dark maple.

While looking on-line I saw some examples of counter sinking the jackplate and trem cover. I thought since it's kind  of a "fancy" body I would do some "fancy" upgrades (?). 


Very nerve wracking routing buffed and waxed body, but it turned out ok.  I plan to sink the neck plate as well, but I want to have the neck ready first....



On that, I ordered some body/neck templates (for the JM project) .  Not here yet but I got 900 other things I should be doing instead.

First I positioned it and lined it up with the existing screw holes.  Masked it off.  This provided some scratch protection an gave me a nice line to route too.
I routed almost to the line then used a sanding block to finish it.  After, some brown dye on a q-tip.  I'm going to let it dry for a day or so then seal the edges with some clear lacquer.  Yes, I do wish I had found out about this before....

I like the cleaner line of the sunk trem plate.  I like the MoP against the brown.  I was thinking black would be nice too, but I didn't want it too dark.  Besides, I can always cut another one later.






The Mandocello is crawling along.  I didn't like the binding at the neck joint, so I've been re-thinking it.  There are no photos because it looks like crap.  Not that I haven't posted that kind of thing before.  But I am trying to slow down and be careful. 
Also, still trying to find a good tailpiece for it is rather difficult.  They're either too small or too big.
I may have to build one.

Last weekend I have ripped out all the summer veggies and planted the winter crop.  Here's the last of summer stuff! Nothing better than home-made veggies.


Now that the camera has been located, I'll clean out the memory card and get some more photos going.