The Parts Have Arrived

Oh, happy day! Finally, after waiting for so long, the parts that I had ordered for my guitar have arrived at last. The parts had actually arrived a bit later than they should have, due to a routine bit of maintenance that they had to run on their CNC machines. No worry, the parts were soon milled and now they have arrived in all their wonderfully unfinished glory.

There. It looks like a guitar. All done. 

The package came in a surprisingly small box, with all of its contents wrapped in foam wrap to protect its precious cargo. Upon taking all of the parts out, I was happy to see that everything had arrived safely with no major damage (at least upon initial inspection).

The body was the first thing I inspected, probably because it was the largest thing in that tiny little 2' x 3' x 3" box. This was the part I was most worried about since I anticipated spending the most time working on this. I was surprised to find out that many of holes had not been drilled; only the bridge and the neck mounting holes had been pre-drilled. Before I even begin the painting process that I had been psyching myself up for, I will have to do some wood-work. You can also note that BYOGuitar put their logo in the cavity to the right, where the neck is mounted. I'm glad they put it in there, because that would mean that once the neck is secured, the logo will be concealed from the masses.

The guitar body. MM GIRL LOOK AT TH-... eh, too easy.

Since I seemingly observed everything that came out of the box by order of size, the neck was naturally the next part of the guitar to be inspected. The maple neck is smooth, and the head of it is already finished. The only work I have to do for this part of the guitar will be mounting the tuning keys to the top with some tiny screws. 

I probably could have fit the whole thing into the frame. I'm just too lazy, though.

Next, the pick-guard. For those that don't know, the pick-guard is a part of the guitar where all of the electronics are mounted to. I admit, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a chance to assemble this part. While I did know that soldering wasn't required for this to work, I was still hoping they'd at least let me mount some of these components myself. On the other hand, this does mean less work on my part. If I'm feeling really bold, I can always take everything off and put it back together.

The oft-hidden, inner-workings of the electric guitar.
The strings give the voice, these electronics give it lungs.

Last but not least, the rest of the small components came in plastic baggies. I think the biggest surprise by this lot was that they gave me a guitar plectrum (a pick, as they're commonly known). Like most guitar players, I already own about 2 billion picks more than I need, but I naturally cannot find any of them when I actually want to use one. Like some people and their shoes, a guitar player just can't have enough picks, so a pick here and there is a welcome addition. The rest of the contents consist of the bridge (left), neck plate, whammy bar, springs, tuning keys, and various screws for mounting.

These little bags make me feel like I'm assembling a chair from IKEA.

Happily, nothing seems to be missing and everything is in good condition. BYOGuitar's job is now satisfactorily finished. It now falls to me to pick up where they left off... those lazy slackers. 

Thanks for reading!