NGD - Monoprice Indio & Questions

I used a Harbor Freight Rotary Tool...(Dremel) to whittle away points on my Sawtooth Headstock. I also carved out a place to mount a Strat pickup and cut out the pickguard with the same too. Put in a Strat switch and on 2 and 4 you would not know this was a Tele. Good Luck with your project.

 

I looked into buying one of those, but I wanted a vintage bridge. It would be fairly simple if you use a top loader vintage bridge. Otherwise, all of the string through holes will need to be filled and re-drilled.

Reshaping the headstock should be easy. Mark the shape, cut close to the line with a jigsaw, then file to the line with a file or sandpaper.

 

Looks great! Coincidentally I just bought a couple of these (one in the same color as this and another in sunburst).

If you were doing these often and had money burning a hole in your pocket, a bandsaw would probably be ideal for rough cutting the shape and spindle sander would likely be ideal for fine tuning it. I purchased a few used bandsaws that I've been unimpressed with however and sticking to my jig saw on rough cuts for bodies & headstocks. I'm more eager to purchase a spindle sander as I work on more projects, since ultimately this will ensure the final shapes are flush... I've heard good things about this model from Rigid, just under $300.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-Oscillating-Edge-Belt-Spindle-Sander-EB4424/202459151

For the time being however, I've been doing a couple things for fine tuning shapes... I have a cheap belt sander that I just clamp on it's side to a table and then lock it on... if you have a belt sander that does not have this function, you can zip tie the trigger... making sure the sander is properly clamped before plugging it in of course From there, I just bring the piece to the sander... if it needs to be higher up to meet the belt surface, then you can just add a piece of wood, etc under it to make it level and even with the sanding area.

Lastly, I would take anything perfectly cylindrical in shape (jars, cans, etc) and wrap sanding paper around them (I sometimes also use spray adhesive to stick them on, but holding them around usually works fine as well) and do the same thing.... on a tabletop just keep the piece flush on the table and move the sanding object around it, but still keeping the bottom of it on the table to keep it flush @ 90 degrees.

Hope this helps if your headstock still needs any fine tuning or perhaps on your next project.

Nice work!!!

 

Sounds like you are already happy with the pickups... other than filing the sharp fret edges, which seems to be a expected on these and a lot of other inexpensive guitars, I'd say the tuners would be something I'd consider replacing. I've found some generic locking tuners on ebay for less than $20 (from US / new / free shipping)... which I've liked more than the type of tuners that typically come on these.

Rock on!