Demonstration website by Coastworks AI. Fret and Grain is a fictional publication.
Fret and GrainNo. 12Written on a workbench, Sunshine Coast

Old wood,
honest tone.

Guitars worth playing, the workbench skills to keep them alive, and the eye to spot the ones everyone else walked past.

Inside: why the 70s got a bad rap, unfairly Workbench: your first fret polish Spotted: a $400 pawn shop lap steel
Latest articles

Reading for players, tinkerers and hunters.

No. 34

The evolution of the electric guitar, told through 6 instruments

Free read

From lap steels to superstrats: what actually changed, what only looked like it changed, and the one design nobody has improved since 1954.

No. 33

Service your own guitar: the full setup, one honest afternoon

Free read

Relief, action, intonation and a proper clean, with the order that matters and the mistakes that cost you a fret dress.

No. 32

How to spot resale gold: 9 checks before you hand over cash

Members

Serial ranges, neck heels, finish checking, the smell test (really), and the 2 minute routine that separates a bargain from a refin.

No. 31

Why the 70s got a bad rap, unfairly

Members

Heavy ash, 3-bolt necks and the years the big factories allegedly lost the recipe. The truth is more interesting, and cheaper to buy.

The workbench

Keep yours alive.

Tools: 20 minutes The string change that settles in tune

Stretch, lock and seat them properly and tuning stops being a personality trait.

Tools: an afternoon Fret polish and fingerboard feed

Masking tape, micro mesh and the oil argument settled like adults.

Members: full course The complete setup, step by step

Twelve short videos, one loved guitar. Filmed on the bench, not in a studio.

The hunter's eye

Spot the one worth buying.

Pawn shops, marketplace listings and deceased estates are full of ordinary guitars priced as treasures, and the occasional treasure priced as junk. Members get the field guides that tell them apart, model by model.

Field guide sample: is it a refinish?
01Check finish in the neck pocket against the body: factory colour hides where sunlight never reached.
02Overspray on the neck heel or in the cavities means someone has been busy.
03Finish checking should follow the grain and the decades. Uniform crazing from a freezer trick looks like graph paper.

Play it. Fix it. Find it.

One long read a week, free. Members get the field guides and workbench courses, delivered to their inbox.

Demonstration form. Members $6 a month on a real site.