Tag: Fesley

Categories
Lutherie

The Fesley Guitar is Finished!

A day late, but I have a few excuses. First off, because of the holiday weekend and I chose to stay home, a friend asked me to watch her dog while she went to her cottage. A big dog, so I couldn’t bring her to my house, so I was over there a few times each day to feed her and take her outside.

Secondly, I spent the little bit of free time to finish my kit guitar. Yes, after months of plodding along doing a little at a time each weekend, this weekend I put all of the hardware on, mounted the neck to the body, and did the whole set up. This was the Fesley Stratocaster kit I purchased back in May of 2024. I really didn’t start working on it until this past January, and had a few bumps in the road with finishing the body. The final finish has a distressed look with shades of light blue.

After putting the hardware on, which was relatively easy, especially with Fesley providing a thorough instruction manual, I got into the set-up, which I have always enjoyed doing with all of my guitars since I started playing over 40 years ago. For anyone starting off playing guitar or any other stringed instrument, you will never realize how important a good set-up is until it is performed. On an electric guitar, this includes neck bowing adjustment, string height, and intonation/adjusting the bridge saddles. I have discussed guitar maintenance before, and I highly recommend anyone even a little bit interested in playing guitar regularly to be familiar with what goes on, Watch YouTube videos as well as secure a good guitar maintenance/repair book like Guitar Setup & Maintenance by Chad Johnson (Hal Leonard Publishing ISBN 978-1-4584-1824-1).

Once fully set up, I plugged her into an amp to test her out. This kit happened to be pre-wired, so the pickups, switch, volume/tone controls and wiring was already complete – all I had to do was drop the wired pickguard into place. The pickups give off a good Strat sound, although are a bit noisy when a single pickup is switched on. I plan to take the pickguard off soon and line the body cavity with some aluminum foil tape to hopefully suppress some of the buzz. In the 2 and 4 switch positions, which combines either the neck/middle pickups or the middle/bridge pickups, the noise cancels out, and it was a nice warm sound. These two settings have always been my favorite on a Strat, giving off a glassy tone.

Speaking of which, I have never really been a fan of the volume/control configuration for most Strats. This consists of one volume and two tone controls (one for the neck/middle pickup and one for the bridge pickup). Tone controls on most electric guitars are passive, meaning no amplification is there, and the controls only act as cutting back on the tone, namely the high end. Rarely do guitarists mess with the control and usually keep it at 10, since cutting back on the treble also means cutting back on the output of the pickup. In my younger days when I really experimented with guitar wiring, I would often mess with the tone control by re-wiring it to a low-cut control or adding a switch to turn the tone control completely off. Perhaps with a later kit, but this one I just wanted to get it together and see/hear the finished product.

As an added touch, I named the project an Ambertone. I always like the color of ambertone (sort of a honey color, just slightly darker than a natural finish), and Amber is also the name of a co-worker that does a lot of woodwork who has taken some interest in this project.

I may jump into the next kit soon. I have another Strat, a Telecaster, and a Precision Bass kit waiting in the wings. I know that for the bass, I plan on doing a lot more customizing by adding a second pickup, so that one may have to wait for a while. For either the Strat or Tele, I am interested in finishing the entire body with only the Tru-Oil finish (https://luegra.design.blog/2025/05/10/tru-oil-for-guitar-finishing/). I also still want to attempt to finish one of the guitars with a special green stain dye that I ordered sometime back.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Lutherie

Tru-Oil For Guitar Finishing

This week’s blog will be short due to a busy schedule. I wanted to talk briefly about my continued work on the guitar building project.

The neck that was in the Fesley guitar kit had an extremely light finish coating on it. It left the neck smooth, but I could tell that it would wear down to the bare wood after some playing and may cause some unneeded damage from sweat and grime. I wanted to put another coating of finish on it, but not with the polyurethane that I would be spraying on the body.

After doing some research on the internet, I found that there were a few recommendations to use Tru-Oil. This is a varnish-like liquid that is primarily used on rifle and shotgun stocks. It is very easy to apply with a cloth or sponge, and if applied thinly with a few repeats, will give a smooth finish as well as protective coating.

A small bottle usually goes for about $10.00. I had a tough time finding it in my area. I went to three gun shops, and none of them had it. I finally found it at a Dunham’s sporting goods store. According to internet searches, it seems to be available at Wal-Mart and Cabela’s as well, and can be ordered from a number of sources. I just wanted to get my hands on it right away, so I drove around until I found it.

The neck is maple with a rosewood-like fretboard Fesley calls “Techwood.” If anything like rosewood or ebony, it is best to keep unfinished (and oiled with lemon oil during cleaning or changing of strings), so I taped it off (along with the plastic/bone nut) before finishing. I applied three coats total, letting each coat dry 24 hours before the next. Tru-Oil is extremely thin, almost like water or a thin furniture polish, and I applied it with a soft cloth. A little goes a long way, and after the three coats, I still had about 3/4 of the 3-ounce bottle left. Once the third coat was dry, I hand rubbed the neck with OOO-grade steel wool.

I am pleased with the result. The back of the neck is just as smooth as before, yet you can see that varnish-like sheen to offer protecting from sweat and grime. I made sure to apply each coat thinly so as not to have any drips.

I would highly recommend the use of Tru-Oil for this type of finishing on a guitar neck or even a bare wood guitar body (I have seen a few examples online, and I may try it on one of the other solidbody kits that I have), especially if you do not want to fully spray polyurethane or do not have the equipment to do full spraying. It is easy to apply, and gives a great protective finish.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Music Lutherie

Getting Ready for SPBGMA/Fesley Body Finishing

I leave for Nashville in less than two weeks for the SPBGMA conference, and I am getting ready in more ways than one. Packing clothes and medicines will get done a few days before, but what I am doing now is getting things done for my networking down there.

I have already posted two new songs on my ReverbNation page, and I may tag on one more before the week is over. I have learned that it is easier and less cumbersome to upload songs on the ReverbNation page and hand out business cards than making a bunch of demo CDs and handing them out. My problem is still getting the nerve to approach artists that I don’t already know.

I really didn’t do any jamming last year, so I plan to try and get into it more this year. I’ll take the Sevillana guitar down with me. Last year I took way too many guitars and a bass with me, and hardly opened up a case let alone jammed. Plus, It takes up way too much room in my small car.

I have already set up some time with one songwriter to hopefully do some co-writing. The conference ends Sunday, but I’ll be sticking around Monday just for the reason of possible songwriting work.

I’m not sure if I will be doing any contacting for article writing. I haven’t heard back from my editor at Fiddler Magazine in a long while. I sent in an article recently, and ever since the magazine went online-only, It has been hard to stay in touch.

I’m also taking down a lot of 12-packs of Vernors Ginger Ale. This is a Detroit staple, and I know a lot of friends down there that crave it and can’t get it in Nashville.

If the weather is behaving, I will probably hit Rosine, Kentucky on the way down and pay my respects to Bill Monroe. It is a time-consuming detour, but I feel it has to be done when the opportunity arises.

Of course, I have to hit the Waffle House, Jack’s BBQ, and I hope to visit another Nashville eatery institution, Prince’s Hot Chicken. The original location is just a few miles from my hotel down there, so I don’t have an excuse. While I’m not a big fan of hot chicken, I do like to try places that are featured on food-related television shows and YouTube channels. I’ve seen some great stories about Prince’s, so it is a must!

Changing topics, I decided to get started on finishing one of the guitar bodies. I’m starting with the Fesley Strat body, since it was the best set-up already smooth sanded. I buffed it a bit more with OOOO grade steel wool. It is too cold to do spray painting outside, and I don’t have good ventilation for spraying inside the house, so I’m trying my hand at stain/finishing it with a combination stain and polyurethane coating and a brush. It is a lot more difficult to work with than I imagined, as the stain does not seem to go on that even, perhaps due to the polyurethane. I will probably end up doing at least five or six coats and sanding between them. I do like the color that came out. I am using a stain labeled Mahogany, and on the mahogany body, it darkens it nicely. The label says you can do sanding and re-coating after an hour, but I plan to let it dry for a day and see what happens.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Electric Guitars Lutherie

Inexpensive Guitar Kits

A few weeks ago, I was watching a video from one of my YouTube subscriptions called The Bald Shredder. He is one of the many guitar experts (i.e., nerds) that reviews guitars, amplifiers and effects. This particular video has him reviewing a Strat guitar kit from Fesley, available on Amazon for $89.00.

His opinion was what I figured. For the price, it is a good way for the beginning guitar builder or luthier to learn the basics. The actual finished guitar is in no way comparable to a Fender Custom or other US-manufactured Strat. He had the Amazon link for the kit in his video description, so I took the plunge and ordered one for myself. With shipping and taxes, it came out to just under $100.00.

The kit came in the mail a few days ago, and it was everything that the Bald Shredder stated. All of the parts are there, the neck and the body are both unpainted (there are painted versions of the kit available) with a clear coat on them, so they have a great smoothness to them. The neck back is smoother than a lot of other guitars that I have used. Like the Bald Shredder, I plan to keep the body in its natural clean finish. The grain is nice, nothing outstanding but not fake looking either.

The kit comes with a great manual for assembling the guitar, as the instructions are easy to follow and extremely useful photos. I haven’t started putting the guitar together yet, as I just got it a few days ago and have a lot to get to around the house before this. Maybe during a rainy day or perhaps during the winter when I am forced to stay inside.

While ordering this kit, I also came across Tele and Strat kits from Ktaxon for $59.99 each. For kicks, I decided to order the Tele kit, which after taxes and shipping came out to a little over $80.00. I found this kit on my porch yesterday (thank God there are no porch pirates in my neighborhood, and luckily I have two larger shrubs that block the view of my porch from the street), and was also what I expected for the money. The body and neck are rough sanded, so will definitely need some final sanding before I do any finishing. The pickguard/neck pickup are already mounted, so that will need to be removed for any body finishing. The instruction manual is practically useless, so fortunately I have some experience with working on electric guitars. It does have everything needed, including a cheap guitar cord and strap.

Again, I don’t plan on working on this kit for a while, and this one I do plan on putting on some finish to the body. Once I get the final sanding in, I may attempt to stain it with a unique transparent color before clear coating. I also need to check out the tuning gears for their quality, as they may need replacing. However, I don’t want to invest too much, as I don’t play electric guitar much (and have better guitars for any time that I do), and am looking at these kits for more lutherie experience than playing.

NOTE: The Fesley kit sold out a few days after I ordered mine and is currently unavailable. If interested, keep checking Amazon for re-stocking. The Ktaxon kits are still available as of this writing.

https://amzn.to/44n3McG

(Sorry, WordPress wouldn’t let me upload the Ktaxon link. Go to Amazon and search “Ktaxon Guitar Kit TL”. I’ve also seen this kit on eBay.)

Chew on it and comment.

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