Body Shaping and Headstock Thickness

First I had to make the headstock thicker for the tuners.  1/2" wasn't going to give the tuner nuts enough to grab onto.  I epoxied a layer of 1/16" basswood onto the face of the headstock in an interesting fashion:

I figured I'd add to the front face of the headstock because I already had some extra string break angle over the standard Fender headstock.  This addition is raised and might look interesting.  Why not?  We'll see how it goes.

Then I set about to fix up the mahogany body.  First I sanded the glue drippings off the join lines.  Then I opened up the neck pocket for high-fret access.  Then I evened up the end of the body.  Then, because the body is 2" thick, quite a bit thicker than your average, I graded down to the neck pocket.  I did this with the bandsaw and a 1/2" skip-tooth blade.  For the first time I felt I really understand what a band saw is all about - this was like doing geometry, like sculpting with a laser.  The combination of easily-sawable wood with a blade perfectly suited to the task is a dream.

The end of the body is about 1" thick, which is the thickness of my S-500 under the neck pocket.  I re-cut the countersinks for the neck bolts.

Doesn't that look cool?