After months of waiting (since 4 June 2026), Faith finally came home today.
She had travelled from Culver City, California, through Memphis and Anchorage, crossed the Pacific, reached Singapore, cleared import, and then spent an extra couple of days sitting in FedEx limbo because an import-tax email had quietly been waiting for me to discover it.
Her final landed cost was S$3xxx.
For a one-man boutique builder, that still feels like a remarkably good price.
Faith is a Pipe Dream Fretworks Model S 6-string multi-scale electric guitar, built by Rob Page in Culver City and completed on 4 August 2026. She weighs only 5 lb 12 oz, with a poplar body, quartersawn ash neck, birdseye maple fingerboard, Hipshot hardware, and a 25″ scale with a 12″–16″ compound radius.
Her colour is officially documented as ATOM-20071 Russian Green 4BO, an acrylic paint from AMMO by Mig Jimenez.
That colour has its own little story.
Rob first tried phthalo green. It wasn’t right.
He also bought a can of NATO green as another possibility. That one never made it onto Faith.
Faith chose Russian green.
She snubbed NATO. No pun intended.
The arrival
Because I couldn’t be home for the delivery, FedEx left Faith at the doorway behind my long bench.
So after all that anticipation, I finally came home to find my new boutique guitar quietly waiting for me.
There was no dramatic unboxing ceremony.
There wasn’t even a gig bag.
That was the first little anti-climax.
Then I noticed that the satin Russian Green finish wasn’t quite as pristine as I had imagined. There were marks and hairlines here and there.
But after looking at her for a while, I changed my mind.
Perhaps that’s exactly right.
Faith isn’t supposed to be a museum piece.
She is supposed to be a workhorse.
A guitar that already looks like she has a few stories waiting to happen.
First problem: the E string
Rob had deliberately tuned the strings way down for shipping.
I wanted to bring them back up.
Then the high E decided to make the first move of her own.
It snapped out of the Hipshot locking tuner.
I had never used that particular locking mechanism before and couldn’t immediately figure out how to feed the replacement string through it.
Eventually, with some patience and a little struggle, I managed to install a spare high E.
Lesson one with Faith: learn the hardware before blaming the hardware.
Then came the buzz
I plugged Faith straight into the Fender Pro Junior IV.
The cleans were lovely.
But there was no immediate edge of breakup.
I added the Triple Threat and got some very nice echo and overdrive.
Then I brought in Dorcas.
Faith went through her little workstation:
- clean;
- Team Medic;
- VOX Straight 6;
- JHS Bender.
There were lovely sounds everywhere.
But there was buzzing all over the guitar.
I grabbed a small Allen key and raised the saddles.
The buzzing disappeared.
Simple enough.
I decided not to overthink it on the first day.
Faith meets Dorcas
Eventually I took Faith and Dorcas out to the Laney Cub8.
This was where the day finally stopped feeling like an arrival inspection and started feeling like a guitar session.
Clean tones were enjoyable.
Dirty tones were enjoyable.
The Cub8 and Faith seemed to get along very nicely.
I had already spent enough time dealing with FedEx, strings, tuners and saddles.
There were chores to do.
Dinner had to be cooked.
So Faith went back to her place.
The proper first evening
Later, after everything else was done, I finally managed to settle down.
Faith went through Dorcas into the Cub8 again.
And this time I wasn’t troubleshooting.
I was playing.
The cleans were enjoyable.
The dirt was enjoyable.
That was the moment I felt the anti-climax beginning to disappear.
Faith is light.
Very light.
The neck is easy to play despite the multi-scale design and the relatively narrow string spacing. Nothing about her felt like a clever engineering exercise that I had to tolerate in order to enjoy the result.
She simply felt playable.
And that matters.
I don’t need to understand everything about Faith yet.
I need to make music with her.
There will be many more days for that.
Rob’s note
Inside the box was an A4 sheet from Rob.
It wasn’t just a specification sheet.
He had written:
“Francis, thanks again for your support. If you ever have an issue or need help, shoot off a text.”
He explained that he had tuned the strings way down specifically for shipping and gave me instructions for maintaining the tung-oil-and-Briwax neck.
Then:
“Ok brother, I hope you like it. Love your color choices for this guitar. Great call.”
That “brother” stayed with me.
Rob didn’t charge me for the additional paint he bought while trying to get Faith’s colour right. The phthalo green was rejected. NATO green remained unused. Russian Green made the final cut.
He also sent along a new box of Schaller S-Locks, Allen keys for the truss rod and saddles, two selector knobs and two new hex nuts.
Most importantly, he left the door open:
“Please feel free to send or post up vids or pics.”
So Faith didn’t arrive merely as a guitar.
She arrived with a little piece of her builder’s handwriting and an open invitation to stay in touch.
Faith
Faith’s first day was not spectacular.
There was no perfect unboxing.
There was no immediate “this is the greatest guitar I’ve ever played” moment.
There was a missing gig bag.
There were finish marks.
There was a broken high E.
There was a locking tuner I didn’t understand.
There was buzzing.
There were saddles to raise.
There were chores.
There was dinner.
And yet, by the end of the evening, Faith had done the one thing that mattered.
She made me want to play her again.
That is probably the right beginning.
She doesn’t need to prove herself in one evening.
Faith has arrived.
Now we make music.