Kit Guitar bespoke customisation work

This kit guitar was brought in as the owner didn't feel confident doing certain parts of the build.
He had ordered an upgraded neck, which traditionally is used on a different style of guitar than a telecaster, the main goal was to fit the neck to the body, so everything correctly intonated.
As the neck was designed for a locking tremolo nut, a traditional bone nut would need to be retrofitted to the neck. The bridge was also to be fitted to the body.
Then a custom rosewood scratchplate was to be made to replace the cheap plastic one that came with the kit.

The owner didn't like the yellow lacquer on the headstock, so this was sanded back before the work began fitting the nut.
A rosewood insert was glued in front of the intended nut slot, before a bone nut was hand cut to fit the new slot.
The sides of the nut and rosewood insert were then capped with small pieces of binding, to blend in the work with the existing look of the rest of the guitar.
Once this work was completed, the neck was fitted to the body of the guitar, the holes already drilled in the neck pocket of the body were used as guides when drilling the new neck.

Once the neck was fitted to the body, the bridge placement could begin.

The bridge was carefully positioned using string to work out the placement of the strings to prevent fall off of the strings from the fretboard when playing.
The bridge position was then carefully marked out and drilled. It  was going to be hit and miss, as due to the different scale length, the bridge needed to be closer to the neck. 
This however was limited by the pickup cavity and the fact that a scratchplate was to be fitted over the top.
Once the bridge had been fitted, the intonation could be checked, and further work could be done if needed.

The hunch regarding the neck/bridge position was correct, as the intonation was out due to the distance from the nut to the bridge,

As the bridge has already been positioned as close in as possible, the only option left was to move the neck closer to the body.
This kind of problem is common while making custom guitars from different parts.

The distance needed was carefully calculated then the excess wood was removed from the neck to bring the intonation and the tuning of the guitar into the correct distance.

The new rosewood scratchplate done, we also made a trussord cover to complement the work. The guitar was ready for the customer to continue on with the build. 
Once the guitar is finished, it will be brought back to the workshop for us to setup. We can't wait to see the finished result!