Adventures of a Squier Strat Episode VI - Return of the Strat

There are times when one must ask themselves, "How else can I put an unnecessary amount of work into a cheap beginner's guitar to see what happens?"

If the "Episode VI" didn't give it away, it happens rather frequently to me.

Damn straight I'm scalloping the fretboard.  Wish me luck, I'm already planning my next installment, to be titled "How not to scallop a guitar fretboard".  I'm not sure whether it will work, but I'm certainly learning in the meantime!

Starting from the 12th fret

A nice day outside to be slaving away on this piece of wood :P

 Notice in the pic above, I'm using a drumstick and several dowel rods wrapped in 60 grit sandpaper to take away most of the wood.

The small half round file above gets at the wood right against the frets

Two frets done, and the sun already going down.  Not a project for the faint of heart.

This feels like progress.

Some beautiful wood grain patterns coming through, now I'm feeling like this will actually be worth the effort!

The scallops feel great under the fingers, can't wait to find out how it feels to play!

 So with around 2 hours of effort put in I'm up to five frets scalloped.  It would sure be helpful to have a round file but options are limited.  If I don't get sick of it and burn the whole thing before I finish, this'll be a hell of a learning experience.