Happy New Year! Sorry it has been so long since I updated this. I was hesitant to do this blog in the first place as I have never been good at journalling and always waited until the last minute when I had to do them for school. Anway, a lot has been done since I last posted. In addition to the guitar work, I have taken a new position in "real work" and just started as a pump tech at work this morning. I am just training at this time and am working seven AM to seven PM, but once I am done training and on my own, I will work one PM to one AM.

Guitarwise, I have finished shaping the neck, fretted the fretboard, done initial fret leveling and crowining, test fit all components and installed all parts including the strings and I even taped the output jack in place to make sure everything was all hooked up right. Most recently, I have spent time painting the body and working on the headstock logo. I also have done some more work on the SG that I started when I first started this guitar. Sorry, I do not have any pictures of the painted body yet or of the SG as I have not had the camera with me the last couple times I worked on them. Here are some pictures since the last posting, mainly showing the fretwork and the parts fit up.

The first three show the neck, the headstock with cross inlay in bone, and the bone hand and fish fretboard inlays.

Next, here are some pictures of the guitar with all the parts fitted to it. The neck is bolted on at this point, but everything else is just being held on by double stick tape to get an idea of how it will all look and go together. The first picture shows the guitar with the neck I have built and the second picture shows a picture I posted earlier with a neck from a different guitar, for comparison purposes.

Here are some closer up pictures of the body and neck.

Lastly, I have given the guitar a serial number, it's RCG ST0601. The RCG is for Rugged Cross Guitars, the ST is for Stratocaster style, the 06 is for the year built (started), and the 01 is the number. Since this is the first guitar I have built to sell, I'm sure that once I become rich and famous making guitars, this guitar will be worth millions!

As always, thanks for viewing my blog, I know some of you check it more often than I do based on some feedback I have gotten. Lorri, here's your update, so now you can show John and friends. I hope to have more pictures soon with the logo on the headstock and showing the body painted. Later,

Aaron