I spent Father’s Day in the shop working on the Nadia build. Nadia is my Jazzmaster-style guitar, named after my daughter, and it is currently at that stage of a build where every task you finish reveals two more you didn’t know were waiting for you.
If you want to watch the whole thing uncut, here it is: Shop Session | Nadia Guitar Assembly
(Links in this post are Amazon affiliate links. Costs you nothing extra and helps keep the shop running.)
The Pickguard Situation
The pickguard on this build was cut on the CNC, which is great for precision and not so great for leaving clean, ready-to-install edges. I spent some time cleaning up the screw holes with a small drill bit, going slow because it’s aluminum and you only get one shot at not grabbing and pulling. After that it was filing down the sharp edges with a round file and getting everything fitted.
I used a self-centering drill bit to mark the body holes once I had the guard positioned. These are one of those tools that seem like a gimmick until you use one, and then you don’t know how you drilled pilot holes without them. You do still need a center punch as a backup if the guard wants to shift on you.
The Finish Problem
Here’s the honest version of what happened to the body on this guitar. I shot enamel spray paint on it, then shot Watco lacquer over the top. Those two things do not get along chemically. What I got was a cracked, flaking finish that looks like an intentional relic job from a distance and an active disaster up close.
The cool part is that it genuinely looks aged in a way I could not have planned. The not cool part is that chunks of paint are coming off when I breathe on it too hard. I tried thin CA glue to stabilize the loose sections, which helped in some spots and made a white haze in others. I was also eyeballing a can of wipe-on poly as a possible sealer, but I wasn’t sure it would play nice with what’s already on there. I’ll probably end up sanding the whole thing back and starting over on the finish. It’s my guitar, so it can be whatever I want it to be. But if it’s going anywhere outside this shop eventually, it needs to hold together.
Goto Tuners on the Nadia Headstock
The part of the session that actually went well was getting the Goto tuners installed on the Nadia headstock. I like Goto tuners. They feel solid, they look right, and they have enough of a track record in lutherie that you’re not guessing. The headstock on this build is an Amazon blank neck that turned out to have slightly inconsistent hole heights, so the tuners don’t sit perfectly parallel, but they’re on and they work and we’re moving forward.
The process: get the ferrules seated, rough-position the tuners, use the self-centering bit to mark the screw holes, pull everything back off, drill the pilots, reinstall. Going slow on the pilot holes matters here because you’re going into the headstock and you don’t want to come through the other side.
The New Shirts
While I had the camera running I mentioned that we just launched new shirts on the site. The designs came from my daughters. Zora drew hers. The backgrounds are Molly’s work. I’ve been wearing the Nadia design in this video and the Zora design has the same energy. These are real shirts made by a real family in a real small shop, not some dropshipped generic thing.
Where the Build Is
At the end of this session: tuners are on, pickguard is fitted and drilled, bridge trim is attached temporarily. The body finish is still a problem I haven’t solved. Electronics are next, and I’m planning to try push-pull pots for the first time, which should go great.
Follow along at @carverwoodworking on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. I stream uncut shop sessions most weeks and you can watch me figure this stuff out in real time.