Update 4 (shaping, sanding)

The nice people at my local music shop were glad to help. I traced out the body on a sheet of large paper I got from the art department at school, refined it a little, then cut it out.

I ended up taking the template on the picture above, laying it on anothe sheet of large paper, and making an opposite template that would let me see exactly what the guitar would look like cut.

Over the course of the next few days I took the guitar to the band saw.

Rough cut

The body as it is now

(The stuff to the bottom right of it is just water drying up)

The second picture is after quite a bit of sanding, too. I went out and bought a 30$ palm sander that is working just fine. both the front and back surfaces are real smooth now.

I chickened out and decided I'd wait until I buy the neck to cut the top end of it out. I'll shape either sides of the neck after I know what I'm dealing with.

I orded my pickguard on the 11th, so it should hopefully be here this week. The genius behind the pickguard is that it'll tell me exactly where I need to make my holes for the controls and pickups, making that part at least a little easier.

I have one concern right now that's really bugging me; I think I planed it down too far. It's sitting at a little less than 1 1/2" and I'm worrying that this won't leave me enough room to route. I hope there's a way to work around it.