Ash Stratocaster: Finally Got the Blues

Well, finishing and assembly is finally completed on the Ash Stratocaster build. The Colortone blue and Acrylic finish has come up a treat, especially with the ebony Timbermate to pop that gorgeous ash grain. To be honest I couldn't be happier with how she has come out.

A few people out there have questioned the choice of a Vintage Amber neck, and if I had my time again I'd probably go a natural neck with the blue body colour. But all in all, I still think the amber and blue combination works well.

Despite issues with pin holes in the Acrylic clear coats, the finish finally came up beautifully. The pin holes were caused by the ash grain not being completely filled and completely sealed before the lacquer went on. While I solved the problem in the end with repeated application, it's a lesson to be learnt for next time.

I still need to do a complete setup before I can call her 100% complete. This includes a fret level, adjustment of bridge saddle height, and the filing of a brand new bone nut. She already plays very nicely indeed - straight out of the box as it were. The Tru-Oiled neck is so smooth! With a fret job and new nut I'll be able to dial the action in and she'll be a real joy under the fingers. Stay tuned for more updates!

Ash Stratocaster: Assembly

Today I got the polishing finished on the body of the Ash Stratocaster. One round with Meguiars ScratchX 2.0 was enough to complete the shine and allow me to move on to assembly. I decided that I really liked the look of the white pearloid scratchplate with the gold hardware, and was keen to forge ahead with getting all electronics moved over from the original scratchplate. With this done (and the back of the scratchplate shielded with copper foil at the same time), it was on with the neck, the tuners, the bridge and the tremolo springs, in short order.

The bridge saddles needed to be raised quite a lot to get above the 22nd fret and allow me to intonate the two E strings. The neck heel is quite high off the guitar body, and I'm hoping it won't lead to overly extended saddles when all is said and done. Anyway, I got the E strings intonated with only a slight tweak to the saddle's factory positions, and followed this up with the installation of the back cover plate.

The gold hardwre and white pearloid really set the blue off nicely.

The gold screws and neck plate give the back some style as well.

In the end, to get the new scratchplate to fit between the bridge and the neck was a bit more effort than I had envisioned. Strat scratchplates are all the same size right? Wrong. Unbeknownst to me, the new scratch plate was a little larger than the original plain white one that I used to do my mock build. In the end I needed the help of my trusty dremel to take some material away from around the neck heel before the bastard would fit. In the end it all worked out however!

Tomorrow I'll be gunning down the home straight with this build. I have just to shield the control cavity with copper foil, ground the shielding, and solder the output wires to the jack. Three whole solder joints! You gotta love a Stratocaster kit huh? By tomorrow afternoon this baby should be singing.

Once she's making noise, I can take my time with doing a good fret levelling and creating a nice low bone nut. All this, with a generous helping of Dr Ducks to condition the rosewood fretboard, should result in a nice low action and a slick feel. Fingers crossed!!