Finally wrapped up the headstock “art”.  Quite tricky to get the relief done right and the stew-mac router jig is almost a necessity.  It allows some very fine control.  Using ebony as headstock veneer is far easier but decided to go with Koa.  After inserting the mother-of-pearl, I just didn’t like the contrast.  Using a spoon shader on my wood-burner creates a nice dark brown shadow along the inlay edges.  I’ll clean it up once I get close to the finishing process but the quick test looks good.

Prior to adding the frets, I polished the fretboard through various grits up to 12,000.  Micro-mash puts a real shine on ebony!  Adding frets is quite straight-forward using a dead blow hammer to set the frets and a special brass caul in a “drill press turned fret press” to lock it in.  Clipped the fret wire ends and called it a day.  I’ll do a first pass fret end dressing prior to glueing it onto the neck…tomorrow.