New Gear Day #2 - Fretworn’s AST-1FB

[Fretworn]

Wetting the top doesn’t bring out a lot of contrast, so I will probably have to look at some staining to accentuate the flame. There is a little bit of colour bleed from the binding if you look closely. Also the top is a bit rough and open grained below the f-hole. I need to think about grain filling this.

[Fretworn]

Only glue issues are in the usual areas, the binding in the cutaways. The end grain at the tail end will need a bit of work too.

[Fretworn]

The neck is dead straight. The dots are centred. Even the tuner holes are almost aligned, the A string is slightly out. And it came with a black nut to match the binding.

[Fretworn]

The veneer is pretty thin, but there were no glue spots that I could see on the front.

[Fretworn]

I’ll have to ditch the black plastic saddle for the neck plate as the holes were drilled too close to the edge. BTW it came with the holes drilled in the neck as well, and they lined up perfectly. The neck fits snug and straight and the scale length seems to be perfect.

The jack plate doesn’t fit snuggly though, I may have to enlarge the hole a fraction, but I need to check if the orientation to the jack itself is effecting it.

The routing appears to be deep enough for the upgraded switch. Its hard to tell from the picture but there is about a mm clearance.

[Fretworn]

I didn’t get any photos of it with the neck on, but everything lines up perfectly.

[Andy40]

What a beautiful kit Fretty. I'm a little jealous. Well maybe ill be the second for the new kits we'll see.

[Bakersdozen]

Looking wonderful! Will be keen to follow this build.

[Fretworn]

The headstock is now shaped and the neck sanded to 240.

[Fretworn]

I’ve been testing colours as well. FW Golden Teak, with or without popping the grain with FW mahogany first. I’m going to test Tru-oil in the tremolo cavity to see if the back can get away with just that. I really like the natural colour of the alder.