ShortScale.org

I see you've been downloading pics from my OnlyFans.

Modern clear coats tend to be acrylic rather than what people think as poly.

Here’s the thing, if the headstock is gloss, and you want to paint the headstock with the potential of return it to stock, you could mask the sides, key the face with 600 wet and dry and then shoot a couple of layers of gloss to cover the decal then sand back flat. Then put down your base. Then decal. Then clear again. Flat with 800, 1200, 1600, 2000. Chose your method to polish from there.

If it came to selling you could sand back to your sacrificial clear coat layer and polish to a gloss and it’ll look all original.

But honestly just get nitro from Manchester Guitar Tech. And a decent mask with P3R and ABEK1 filters. It’ll probably be less hassle in about six months time when you can actually get around to painting.

I think for some reason I was hoping it was easier to paint with modern paint. I not a nitro snob, I think poly / acrylic is fine. I also don't want the finish to rub off my guitar while I'm playing or melt if I leave it up against a guitar cable.

Use the little guys you get with airfixes.

That's me all lined up for some hardcore drilling action. Used the below guide for the bridge and went with some back of a fag packet calculations for the bridge cover. I've put a layer of masking tape on the underside of the parts of the covers that touch the guitar as well, in order to protect the finish and also just to lift them a wee bitty further off the strings. The pickup cover may need even more shim height, if I test the height by boinging the strings, the low E sometimes hits the cover.

I went with the stock position for the bridge cover. So that the pickup is just peeking out.

Looks great. The only surprise was when I realised that the treble side screw on the pickup cover is going into a cavity, so it's just screwed into the pick guard. I shit maself for a wee second cause I thought I'd somehow drilled right through the body.

I've been contemplating staining the Indian Laurel darker, but I feel like that could go permanently wrong and look terrible. Will add lemon oil, maybe tomorrow if I can be arsed.

I'm a big fan of the pickup cover look too - SX Vintage Series:

Aw, yeah. That looks lovely. I doubt I’ll bother with the tumbrest/tug bar.

Ain't never used it but it don't get in the way.
That laurel will probably look beautiful with a bit of oil - altho of the three laurel boards I have, one drank like a fish and sucked it down until it looked like rosewood, one was almost unaffected and one was in between.