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I will jump in too. This will be my first build. Going to be an electric with a mahogany body. Probably mahogany for the neck and ebony for the fretboard. I dont have a clue about pickups yet, what I do want is something bluesy what I dont want is a big pickguard hiding the wood.
Here is a picture of the body, It was green when I first got it but I have had it drying for around 10 years now.

Welcome , Looking forward to seeing your build ! Glad you cold jump in !

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The wood looks good. Did you do the cut out yourself or order it pre-made?

As for pickups, look into Lindy Fralin or Bill Lawrence (under the name Wilde Bill...not that other guy). They make some really great pickups. I've got a set of Fralins in my Warmoth LP that I love.

A friend of mine give me this wood years ago. He was a truck driver and said he went to a place in Norfolk VA to make a delivery and they had a big crate full of this but would only let him have 3 pieces, this one was the only one big enough for a guitar.The wood was some kind of shipping crates. The other 2 are long gone and I really want to kick myself for it now that I think about the headstock.
I cut it, the bandsaw blade I used was 1" wide so the curves are ugly

I will check those pickups out, thanks

Finally got all my pieces and I have been making some full size drawings of the top and sides.

I have a couple questions about the pickups. I went with the Fralin p90s
1- Am I right in assuming the pickups can be installed with the wire coming off of either side?
2- Do I want the pickups sitting firmly on the body? or a piece of foam under them ? or something else/

I think they'll work either way, I always install them with the wire down towards the control cavity.
I like to screw the pickups directly to the body, if there's any tone contribution from the wood this method maximizes it.

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Several things combined to make me to chamber the body.
One was the body was on the heavy side 6 lb 4 oz before and it ended up 4 lb 5 oz after chambering.
The fact that I didnt have something that matched good for the headstock, and, I did have a nice piece of redwood that would work good for a top.

Now I am working to cut out the back where the pots will be. I am hoping to use the piece I cut out as the cover so the grain will match.

I do plan on cutting my own fret slots in the future but as you know this stuff gets expensive. So I decided to buy a slotted fretboard this time.
I was planning on binding the fingerboard with another piece of ebony that I had but the colors dont match and I dont want to dye it so I am now planning on trimming the fret tang back and filling the hole with some black epoxy.

When I was cutting the inlay I decided to put a dull chisel in my hands and I caused a small piece of ebony to chip out , you can see it in the picture. I am thinking there are 2 possible fixes,?? CA glue and some ebony saw dust OR some epoxy died black ? Right now I am leaning towards the CA glue fix ?

The inlays are just laying halfway in the cutouts in the picture, I still need to finish cutting to size. This is my first time trying inlay.

I got the inlays in still need to sand them down.

My plan was to use mahogany for the neck when I started. When I started I was under the impression that ONLY quartersawn wood was good enough for a neck but I have read here that some like flatsawn curly maple and I see that some suppliers sell it (flatsawn neck blanks) so it has me curious ? and since it is a bolt on neck that can be switched if it goes bad, I am thinking about trying a piece of curly maple I have.

The pickups should have a little spring that goes around the screw on the bottom of the pickup, like a ball point pen has around the ink refill. So you can adjust the height of the pickup to the strings.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Just when you think you have it figured out .... Oh well

I fixed the chip out with CA and sawdust and there is no sign of ever being a problem. I did get the inlay finished. I used stabilized redwood burl for the inlays. I also cut out a couple pieces of the burl that I could make some pickup covers with if I decide to, right now I am thinking black would look better ??

I love the inlays, looks very nice!

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Nice job on the inlays!