Inlay complete

Last weekend I worked on the inlay.  Much thanks to Russell for helping me get this thing made.  I think it turned out great.  This is a Honduran rosewood inlay.  The inlay is 1/8" thick and the pocket in the guitar was 1/16" deep, so after gluing it in place with wood glue, I had to sand down the extra rosewood until it was flush.  The seems came out perfect.

I've also ordered the remaining hardware I need to complete this build.  I purchased a wooden pickguard made from East Indian Rosewood which will hopefully match my neck fret board.  I also found some rosewood knobs that should look pretty good.  I was originally going to carve the knobs, but I decided to buy them because I don't have access to a lathe.  I also bought some amber speed knobs just to see how they look against the rosewood pickguard.  I'm probably going to go with the wooden knobs, but just in case I bought the amber knobs as well.  Finally, I bought a set of Fender Custom Shop Texas Special pickups.  These should sound great and give this guitar a nice fat Texas blues tone.  The only thing I'll need to do is switch out the white pickup covers that come on these with some black covers, and then I plan to veneer the tops of those with rosewood to match the pickguard.

Here are some pics of the rosewood inlay in the back of the guitar:

Here is the pocket in the body, and the inlay pieces that will go in it

Super high-tech clamping device :)

Here it is after getting sanded down flush

smoothed to perfection

Getting ready to shellac.  Again, super high-tech equipment at work.

Alright, so now I'm ready to start applying the final finish to this bad boy.  I'll be honest..I've actually started this process, I just haven't taken pics yet.  I've applied the shellac layer and two coats of the Watco Medium Walnut Danish Oil.  Unfortunately this part isn't going so great.  I'll post some updates once I'm made some more progress....stay tuned.