Its time to finish up this guitar. The next step is to round over the body edges. I use a 1/4" roundover bit.Back to the neck. I cut fret slots with a square and a Lee Valley fret saw. As this will be a fretless guitar, I will fill the slots and fret markers with dark wood filler and sand them smooth.

Its starting to look like a guitar but still a ways to go.

The neck is secured to the back with 2 screws. This will allow for disassembly in the future.

Here's the neck with the fretboard and headstock veneer glued on.I prefer the feel of a hand shaped neck to a routered one. Even on a straight neck with no taper it makes a huge difference in feel. To me the neck is the guitar.

I start with a flap wheel on a grinder. This is very aggressive, but with careful control 80% of the wood is removed in minutes.

Next I take a rasp and smooth everything out.

I use an orbital sander to clean up the marks and then a sheet of sandpaper and hand sand to finish it. This neck has a great feel.

For side markers I could have just used woodfill but decided to show the method I usually use. After drilling the holes I cut a piece of contrasting wood into a 1/4"x1/4" strip. I sharpen it with a pencil sharpener. After applying a drop of glue, tap it into the hole. Cut it off and repeat. Sand everything flush at the end. This works very well and looks good. 

To drill for machine heads I first drill a small pilot hole all the way through. Next I drill from both sides to avoid tearout. Bit sizes depend on the type of machine head being used.

Time for a lot of hand sanding and finishing.

I wanted a bright color for this guitar. I wanted some grain to show, so I started by diluting cheap craft paint 50/50 with water. Wiped on and left to dry. Because the guitar isn't built with the best of woods, I gave it a second coat to cover a bit more of the grain. This was followed by 4 coats of brushed on Minwax Spar Urethane with light sanding between coats. 

The decal was applied after the first coat of Minwax.

The nut, bridge, and tailpiece are made from pieces of found aluminum and spray painted black.

Positioning of these pieces is critical. This is basically a slide guitar so the bridge has no angle. Intonation is done with the slide. I will mention here that this is 24" scale. 

Pot, jack, and knob were salvaged from an old non-working PA mixer head. There is a ground wire to the bridge. The mounting plate is cut from a scrap of 1/8" plastic. Note that the screws attaching the bridge and tailpiece are positioned so that they screw into the through neck. This adds strength and attaches the neck to the guitar top.. 

I measure to the center of the nut and cut that slot. I then measure equally from that point to the outsides and cut the last two slots. Because this is metal I start with a hacksaw blade and finish with a small file. 

Time to string it up. I like to use Darco Jazz Guitar Strings. For GDG the gauges are .024, .032, and.042. The high G is wound. This is just my preference, everybody has their own favorites. 

I might just add that I cut the slightest of notches where the strings cross the bridge. This holds them in place and insures good string grounding.

The only parts I purchased are the pickup, machine heads, strings and a bit of paint and clearcoat. Everything else is leftover and found items

This is not a flawless guitar.  Anyone who picks it up will immediately know it is homemade. This is its charm. I will spend a bit of time on setup and it will play perfectly..

Build time is around 20 hours.

I hope there is some useful information here. 

Thanks for looking.