Build number (lucky) 13 - AST-1SW

[Simon Barden]

That's all nice and fine.

[m0j0]

Working my way through the clear coats. About 12 coats in, aiming for 40. Light sanding after every 5.

[McCreed]

Those colours look great.

What are you applying for clear? I only ask because if it's a wipe-on like Tru Oil or poly, 40 coats will be fine (or even more!).
If you're spraying poly or lacquer, 40 is way too much. It would take forever to set.

[ross.pearson]

I did 30 coats of wipe on poly and still managed to sand through with a fairly non aggressive 800 grit wet sand. Right on the flat of the back.

The more the betterer for wipe on coats in my opinion.

[m0j0]

Those colours look great.

What are you applying for clear? I only ask because if it's a wipe-on like Tru Oil or poly, 40 coats will be fine (or even more!).
If you're spraying poly or lacquer, 40 is way too much. It would take forever to set.

Yes, it's Tru Oil. Making sure they're going on nice and thin.

I did 30 coats of wipe on poly and still managed to sand through with a fairly non aggressive 800 grit wet sand. Right on the flat of the back.

The more the betterer for wipe on coats in my opinion.

Indeed. I put 40 coats of Tru Oil on another build I've got going at the moment and just last weekend I managed to go through to the colour on the back and through to timber on the headstock while doing the wet sand with 600 grit. The back wasn't so bad and I managed to patch that up with a few thin coats of clear, but the headstock is kinda ruined. Probably a good thing because I wasn't overly happy with the way the stain came up on the flame veneer on the headstock so I'll eventually strip that right back and go with an opaque finish. For now, I just want to get it finished and playable so I'll just try to not look at the ugly spots.

[m0j0]

I've not updated this for ages because I got to the stage of wet sanding and once again I managed to sand through the clear coats and colour on a small section on the back. Didn't think I was going all that hard so it goes to show that even 40 coats of Tru Oil isn't very thick. So, I got the shits and just put it aside and didn't touch any builds for about 18 months.

Finally decided a few weeks back that it was time to finish it. I decided against trying to fix my mistake - it's right in the cutout on the back so it's hardly ever seen and I could just put it down to wear. I'm justifying this to myself by saying it adds character. :-D

So, I just continued on with some light wet sanding and a light, low-gloss polish to avoid making the same mistake again. Wired it all up and surprisingly made noise the first time I plugged it in (I usually stuff up something in the wiring process). This is still not 100% complete as I still need to check and adjust the neck, file the nut slots, do the fret leveling and the intonation, and install the Pure Tone jack (which will require drilling out the hole in the jack plate a little more). At the moment, the tuning is all over the place as I go up and down the neck. Open chords are particularly bad due to the height of the strings at the nut. Figured I'd update this post anyway and will post a video when it sounds better (and when I can convince my son to play something on it because he plays a lot better than I do).

Upgrades from kit:
1) Tonerider Classic Blues strat set
2) CTS pots
3) Vintage braided wiring throughout
4) Locking tuners
5) Bone nut
6) Pure Tone jack (when I get around to installing it)
7) I upgraded the switch, but can't remember what I got.

[m0j0]

[Trevor Davies]

Looks great Mojo. Did you stain inside the f-hole cavity?

[ElleBrooke]

That looks awesome! I love the light on the front, dark back. I have one I'm going to wet sand in the next couple weeks, and I'm sort of dreading it. I'm worried I'm going to sand through, too, even though I've more than doubled the number of coats since the last time I've done this. I think yours turned out beautifully!

[m0j0]

Looks great Mojo. Did you stain inside the f-hole cavity?

I gave it a few coats of the dark colour I used for the back. It was a bit fiddly and I wasn't able to get full coverage up the side walls inside the cavity but unless you look at it closely, it's not obvious. It looked a bit crap with the bare timber look and needed darkening. I was getting low on that colour so that was the best I could do and I didn't want to have to order more just for that.