The wood had nice woodgrain, but I found some wood filler that had been applied at the factory in China, so I painted it instead of staining it. The wood was very porous so I used 6 coats of brush-on sanding sealer and spray primer, followed by several color coats and more clear coats, sanding between most coats. I used mild abrasive polish on the clear coat after the clear coat cured for a few days. I replaced the existing pickups with ’62 style Strat pickups and pickguard from Fender and replaced the strings. In addition, I purchased the copper shielding tape separately. As I was tuning it, I found the strings lying on the frets, and I couldn’t adust the the strings away from the frets with the truss rod or bridge, so I had to add a shim between the neck and body. Also, paulownia wood used for the body is very soft and the wood broke at the tremelo bridge. The assembly instructions were not the greatest. After I was done I found better instructions online from BYO Guitar. Now I need to build a new body. This time I’m starting from scratch with a block of white ash. More photos for that build later.

Launch Gallery