Guitar Building

I started playing guitar about 5 months ago, and due to having a job can afford some guitars, and because i am a beginner, my logic automatically dictates that more guitars means better at playing. 

As a result of that, i bought a kit to finish and put together, what will be my third guitar. Im pretty sure it will sound like ass at the end, however It will give me an insight into the workings that I think I need.

This is the kit i got, It set me back £107 and should build a strat copy that I can use and abuse, as the cheap starter guitar i never had. I looked at all the bits and couldn't find any instructions. I figured its pretty much just lego, just put stuff together until it fits and then wham, you've got a guitar, that is until I saw;

What on earth is that thing. I had to ask a few friends, whom I didn't believe, and then after some intensive googling I found it was for the whammy bar, which i have no intention of using anyway, but would still like. As a result of this sudden reality check, I did some more intensive googling and found some instructions.

I desperately wanted to get started, and as i dont have any paint, I thought the best place to start was the headstock. I mean just look it that, its awful, its an abomination, it is the single ugliest thing i have ever seen, and something needed to be done. I looked around and the obvious choice for headstock shape would be the classic fender strat shape. Had i been more confident in my ability with tools, i would have done this, but the large curve in the top right corner put me off.

I settled upon this design. I figured it was easy, forgiving and relatively appealing. The large curve should be easy to cut while giving much needed impact to the headstock.

I rough cut that shape out, very rough. I used a basic hand jigsaw, and made sure i cut outside the lines, this way i've got plenty of shape to sand into. I've spent the whole day at work and i couldn't really be arsed to spend too long sanding.

Half an hour of sanding with a nice rough 60Grit piece of sand paper and i've got something relatively nice, I've sanded the top and bottom of the headstock so i can take the finish of the wood off. The next few nights will be spent with a much finer grit smoothing the whole thing out and slightly rounding the edges.

-AT