Hello all you wonderful folks. Being visually impaired, I live on a fixed income. This often times means learning how to do some things that others might pay to have done. Here are some examples. Performing my own truck maintenance such as oil changes, tire rotation, brakes, tuneup, etc. Yet, I can not drive the truck. Maintaining the riding mower or gas trimmer. You get the idea. You learn these skills to save money for myself or the parental units. This also goes for musical instruments. A setup on a guitar for example. Do any of you choose to maintain your instruments yourself? Lets take a guitar, do you perform a setup, replace a worn out nut, polish frets, etc? I wanted a Stratocaster style guitar, yet could not afford a real Fender. I also wanted that wood look, yet could not afford those either. I decided to build a kit. Learning to build a kit taught me how to level frets, crown frets, how the guitar was built, how to align the neck, how to install the nut and file the nut to get a quality action. The kit cost less than a new Squire Affinity series, yet I had to do all the work. What you see here is a sanded body with boiled linseed oil applied with fine steel wool. Then wood paste wax. The idea was a natural flat finish. Is it Fender custom shop quality?, Nope. Did I learn and was it fun?, Yep. At the time of the picture, still unsure of the headstock.
Amazing 
Thank you. It was a lot of work but the effort paid off.
Beautiful instrument!
Thank you very much.
Good effort mate! Did you carve the headstock to shape in the end, or just leave it?
I tend to do some things with my guitars but not others for fear of ruining a perfectly good instrument (e.g. changing strings, setting up the bridge, I tend to stay away from the neck adjustment but touch wood I’ve never really needed to. I tend to differ any wiring because I suck with a soldering iron so bad (oh I’ve tried).
I did end up messing with the headstock. It ended up kinda “meh” like a weird mix of Fender and G&L . The pickups and pick guard were already wired as an assembly. All I had to do was solder three wires. The ground to the tremolo block (which is locked out to make the guitar a hardtail), and the +/- wires to the 1/4 jack. The kit came directly from Thefretwire. I wanted a maple neck compared to a darker rosewood. The kit I have has the so called pro alinco pickups compared to ceramic. Does it really matter?, Who knows. What you see there was at the time $135, about half the cost of a Squire Affinity series. To get a similar guitar from Squire, it was in their 70s retro line and was $600 I ghink. I could not afford that, so I made a replica. 
You can be proud of that, it’s come together lovely.
Thank you very much. It was a lot of small projects to complete the whole. Sanding by hand to make the guitar smoother. Leveling the fretboard, recrowning the frets, applying the linseed oil, waiting to dry, sanding, mire oil, drying, etc. All of the screw holes came drilled. Assembly was a matter of lining parts up with the holes, but while not stripping out the screws. I used a dab of oil on the threads to make sure they did not bind. The parts are not high end, the metal in the screws is soft for example. What is nice about a kit is that you can learn to build the guitar you want. What I learned was what you are paying for with a custom shop guitar is the labor cost and human time envolved. Here is the first and only guitar slide I attempted. It was made from a wood dow rod, then drilled out on a drill press with a hole saw. Sanded, stained, then sprayed with a light clear coat from a rattle can.
You must have a good drill press. My first Tele I drilled out the through body string holes and they came out kinda crooked. Learned my drill press table couldn’t be squared. Built a neck and discovered I’d never do that again. Crazy amount of time and effort. I’ve fixed the action on a half dozen acoustics. Built three electrics, and 8 cigar box guitars (cbg). CBG’s are fun. The most interesting thing I’ve learned in all this is using crazy glue as a finish.
The dill holes in the guitar were all pre dilled. I did not do any of that work. I sanded, oiled, and assembled.
Drill press was referring to the wood slide.
Ahhh, that. It is an old Craftsman drill press that was my uncles. It has xyz adjustment and I used a level. The slide is still wood rough, definitely not glass smooth. LOL
@BlindFarmer I line most slides with sel adhesive felt (snug and comfy). Ever consider bone? Smells kinda nasty drilling but works great, and takes a stain or dye easily.
No, did not think of bone. Interesting idea. Thanks for that.