Les Solo

Sometime last year, I started watching countless Instagram videos of a British Colombia craftsman

This is my spalted maple top. 

There are many like it, but this one is mine.

who makes guitar bodies (and tables and cutting boards, and necklaces, knife handles, etc.) from driftwood collected in the Kootenays of southeastern BC.  Logic told me that I could do something like that, and, on my Holiday wishlist of 2018, I firmly placed my wish for an unworked guitar kit where I could live out my luthier fantasies and design my own electric guitar for a fraction of what it would cost for a similar instrument.

I picked out a Les Paul style guitar.  For those who don't know, Les Paul's are manufactured by Gibson, and a standard guitar in this style starts at $1,000.  Way out of my price range.  Even Gibson's lower end Epiphone Les Paul guitars start around $500.  Formerly competitors, Gibson bought Epiphone in 1957 and today many of the solid body models with high end components can be found cheaper as Epiphone models with extremely capable parts.  Think of it as NEEDING a Land Rover, or being happy and satisfied with a really nice Subaru.  Anyway, at $500, still a bit much to ask someone to get one for me.  I guess I could save up, but where's the fun in that.  I wanted a challenge.

After discussing this with a high school friend who had better pick-ups (read: guitar mics) than what typically comes with a kit such as this, I committed to build one of my own, and, last December, was blessed with a kit from my family, purchased from Solo Guitars: a Les Paul style guitar with two humbucker pick-ups, mahogany body and spalted maple veneer, and a bolt-on neck.

Nicked to imperfection. 

Raw wood is already gorgeous, but I had in mind a color scheme for it.  I was think about a blue burst top with a red-brown body and neck.  While the kit comes with all the hardware you would need (i.e. tuning pegs, bridge, electronics which would need soldering (more on that later) and strings), naturally, you'd have to own or buy the wood-working tools necessary to really put your stamp on this, now, one of a kind instrument.  I flooded my Amazon wishlist with an orbital sander, buffing pads, wood stain, wood glue, wood sealer, lacquer, clamps, and all kinds of wires and soldering equipment.  Come January, with all of that collected, it was time to start.

Except, that, upon further review, there was a chip in the veneer on the headstock.  I called the company, who indicated that they'd look for a scrap to send me so that I could repair it.  No luck.  Instead they gave me a 10% discount on an additional purchase at their store.  Um...hm...ok.  Thanks for nothing.  I went back to Amazon and bought a veneer sampler to see if I could custom cut a piece just to fill that spot.  Problem solved.

With that completed, I stained it...and stained it...and sanded it down, and stained it some more.  I wanted to have the pattern created by the spalted maple featured, but have the look of a "burst" where the color gets less intense in the middle, but more concentrated around the edges.  This was a slow process.  However, by the end, things were looking good.  I accented with (Amazon purchased and gifted) feather decals designed to echo the mother-of-pearly inlay present in the provided guitar neck.

I used a TruOil gunstock finish to seal the guitar and make it a bit more shiny while protecting the color.  I also wanted to keep that spalted maple top obvious and preserve those lines, otherwise, what's the point of having such a fancy veneer.  The TruOil was, again, easily found on Amazon.  However, it needed some serious time to dry, and this process took the longest.  Also, I couldn't do it in the house.  TruOil produced enough vapors that using it in a highly ventilated space was recommended.  For me, that meant the garage with the door open.  I needed to wait for the weather to give me several days over-45 degrees (F) so that it would properly dry between applications.  I know Trump doesn't believe it, but the last month gave me several of these late-February Global Warming days where I could apply the oil, buff out any bumps, and let it set.  The last day was this past Friday when I was able to put on the last two coats in 65 degree weather and begin on installing the hardware.

Soldering wasn't an issue with me.  I had some really thin lead-free flux-core solder (from Amazon) and plenty of colored wiring (also Amazon).  However, installing the pick-ups proved difficult as the mounts weren't the right ones (they weren't curved to the body, again, Solo, thanks for lack of attention to detail).  Also, the pots were pre-soldered, and confusing.  All wiring diagrams used uniform wire colors, and between the new pick-ups and the pre-connected potentiometers (pots, a.k.a. guitar dials)  things got confusing quickly.  The pick-ups given to me by a friend were infinitely more complicated than the cheap-os that came with the guitar.  Finding a proper wiring diagram and color code for the wires proved impossible, even with the power of the internet.  All in all, I was able to get the basics put together, but the wiring had me beat.  It was time to call in the professional.

It sounds like I was throwing in the towel, but really, everything else was done.  Think about it as if  you try to do some plumbing or electrician work at home, you mess things up so that you're forced to call the repair guy.  If that's not you, it's definitely me.  Yes, it'll cost me a little extra, but at the end of the day, it's going to an expert who will make this thing sing.

I brought it to HelpMyGuitar in Scotch Plains.  It's a small shop, but I've used their services before.  The gentleman behind the counter was responsive to my interest and flattered my by answering so many questions I had about this kind of work.  He's an expert and a perfectionist and, in addition to figuring out my wiring problem, he's going to replace the pots with ones that will be more reliable and "set-up" the guitar which involves manipulating the neck, pick-ups, bridge and so-on to ensure that it's absolutely playable when he's done.

So, that's where I am now.  I should get it back at the end of the work-week and will let you know how it turns out.  Until then, I guess I'll play my acousic electric, or my bass, or my acoustic, or my son's Fender Fat Strat knock-off.  In other words, I've got plenty to practice on to ensure that this new guitar was well earned!