when you put the neck in the pocket, lay the body flat on it's back. Align the neck heel over the pocket and press into the body. Straight down towards your table-top or whatever you are using for a horizontal working surface. The pieces fit together like a jig-saw puzzle; they are tappered with the wider part closer to the bridge. The heel cannot slide into the pocket from the end, and it will not fit if it is canted on some diagonal... unless you force it and like the look of finish cracks streaking from the corners of your neck pocket.
Use a poly square (-available super-cheap at most any hardware store) to line up your tuners in the headstock. -Eye-balling it looks like puke. -Ya wouldn't think so, but that "just a little crooked" tuner can be spotted a mile away.
For tiny screws (like pickguard screws) you may not wish to drill pilot holes; they may not have enough to grab onto to get tight. -But do use a center punch or scratch awl to press small starter holes in the desired locations (on center of the pickguard screw holes. -Just going at it with the screw can turn bad fast; the point of the screw can wander or start canted... then ya got crooked screw heads and stretching pickguard. -YUCK.
Lastly, use calipers to locate the center of the body thickness when choosing the spots for your strap button locations. Fortunately, your body has a transparent color finish; the end pin location will be easy enough to find since the seam in the two-piece body will be visible. But do measure the thickness and plop those pilot holes right in the middle; 'cuz, just like the crooked tuners, those off-centered strap buttons will be like sore thumbs.
Good luck to ya, and welcome to the 'boards.
