I re-faced the head stock on the neck. You can see below (meaning, the previous post) that it had been a rather unattractive brown mess (it was originally painted black, but I sanded it off hoping it would look nice underneath... no luck). The new face is a thin veneer of curly maple (1/42" thick). This will be same veneer I use on the sides of guitar body.I started by cutting a piece just slightly larger than the head stock and glued it on, using a flat block of wood and some clamps to ensure that it was pressed tight and flat against the face. After the glue dried I just trimmed the excess wood with an X-Acto knife and sanded it smooth around the edges.
Next came the holes for the tuning gears. I carefully drilled through the existing holes from behind and trimmed out the excess, again with the X-Acto. I then used a cone-shaped grinder from my Dremel kit and cleaned up the circles by hand (no power needed here, one might slip and make a huge mess). And viola! nice round tuning gear holes in the veneer to match the ones that were there to begin with. This is much easier and much more accurate than trying to cut the exact shape and the holes before gluing it up. The only issue that MIGHT be a problem is if you mess up your veneer while working on it, it's already glued on. I guess that's why they tell you to be careful.
The truss rod access notch needs a tad more cleaning up. I'm not too worried about the edges of the veneer beneath showing through, as this area will be hidden by the truss rod cover, which will be made of ebony.
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