Today, the finish was done (of course there is a chance that I'll have to touch things up later but everything is got finish on it) so I decided to venture into next steps.
First, I wanted to install fret wire into the fret slots on the fretboard/neck of the guitar builds.
Above, you can see the tools I use. I have two cutters, 1 flush and 1 angled. I have a nibbler to cut out the fret range to get around the binding around the fret board. I have a hammer with a softish plastic head. Lastly, a knife to help clean out any stubborn fret slots.
Sorry about this picture - I couldn't get the camera to focus on the fret wire. I'm showing the fret wire where I nibbled out the tang so that it can fit around the binding. The binding is the red wood in the picture (it's actually called blood wood) and as you can see in the picture, it doesn't have slots. The tang has small angled sharp pieces that when hammered into the slots, grab and don't let the fret wire pull out.
As of this writing, I have 2 of the 3 necks with fret wire and a bit of the 3rd. I still have to cut and file away the over hangs. That will be the next step and that will probably be followed by some fretboard clean up and neck finish touch up.
I did do one other thing today. I glued on the first bridge.
I had already located the bridge (when you look at the past postings, you saw the blue tape covering the location). I had already drilled out the bridge pin holes for the outer two bridge pins. I cleaned the bridge's back with acetone (it's a very oily wood so this helps to get the glue to bind to it) and then set the clamp through the outer two bridge pin holes and tightened up the clamps assuring that I get clamping pressure in the middle and outer parts of the clamp. The outer has two shims so as to not damage the bridge.
I'll keep doing the frets and the bridges until they are done then do any clean up or touch up. Then it will be to attach the necks to the bodies.
