This is a great business… here is the start of a damn fine instrument…
Hi Phil,
I just finished spraying the guitar and thought you might like to see what I came up with for color. I haven’t buffed it out yet and I see that I missed a spot on the heel, I’ll fix that before I polish! These are really poor shots, the guitar looks a lot better in person. I’ll try to get some better shots when I’m further along.
Many Thanks,
Here is Bob’s guitar. Man oh man, he did this beautifully.
I used RIT dye for all the staining then many coats of spray on nitrocellulose lacquer.
Back & neck scarlet/brown stain rag rubbed. Top mixed some brown, rag rubbed the top & sanded all off (to highlight the deep maple grain). Mixed yellow/ small amount orange then rag rubbed. I used same red stain from the back to rag rubbed the burst, used more yellow/orange, to mix down the red to have a faded burst. Lacquer.
Headstock mother of pearl inlayed.
Check it out…
Anthony’s quilted maple beautiful. I just absolutely love the look of this! The quilted maple cap looks liquid, like it’s moving. Wow. Love it, great craftsmanship.
“Hi Phil, I thought you would like to see the finished article. It sounds and plays like a dream, many thanks.
Pickups are Lollar Imperials with the bridge pickup being the high wind option.
Electrics are CTS 500k true vintage taper pots, Luxe bumblebee caps, switchcraft selector with braided wiring.
I’m hoping to capture a vintage bluesy tone in the neck and a sweet singing tone with a bit of scream at the bridge. The guitar is becoming an international affair with parts being sourced from all corners of the globe; the filthy swine at British Customs are having a field day.”
This is Keith’s first build.
Here is the order of what he did to the quilted maple cap. Ends up being beautiful.
Pic 1
Here it is dyed with red mahogany dye as the base layer
Pic 2
Here is the first colour session. You can see where the colour absorbed more on the perimeter in some places, so it was destined for another layer.
Pic 3
Here is the how the final dye session turned out. I found that I had to over-concentrate the dye about four times the recommended strength that the dye suggested in order to get the yellow to come forward the way I wanted. Like I said, I will send you a good picture of the finished product all strung up with close to eight hours playing time on it. I just have to go take it first. I just finished it up last Sunday at about 11pm, so it is still adjusting to string tension, but man does it sound great.
Pic 4
Here is a photo of it before I strung it up. It’s strung up now but I don’t have any photos of it as it stands. The sound and sustain is incredible, I used all vintage pots and resistors so I could get an old school vintage sound. Can’t beat the sound of a vintage guitar so that’s what I was going for, and I achieved it.
He is going to send me along some pics of it strung up. Will post them when I get them.
Here is what he says:
“Just wanted to send a few pics of my guitar. This guitar is amazing, sounds like a $3000.00 one. You guys do quality works, thanks a lot.”
“Hi Phil,
Thought I would send you pics of the finished product from your body/neck kits. The second kit I bought (the blacktop), had obvious improvements over the first one (purchased a month earlier). I really appreciate the fact that you are constantly improving the product. The Blacktop is simply a superb guitar, the fit of the neck was perfect, the routs were exact, and the neck/fretwork was perfect as well. Not that the earlier one was a problem, I just had to massage the cavity covers a bit, and the truss rod access is a bit different. Overall, I couldn’t be more pleased with the results.”
Pure cool craftsmanship. This is a stunning guitar.
“Hi Phil…I am very happy with the way this build went. You really got this thing right!
Excellent foundation for a one-off custom guitar.”
I asked Steve how he built this guitar.
“I started by gluing down a fine sheet of walnut burl and routing the binding channel. Then I enlarged the control cavity and made the tummy cut and the PRS like cut at the bout. then the body got a very light stain and many coats of lacquer.
The peg head has an ash burl veneer with lacquer, the rest of the neck is tung oiled only. I installed a General guitar gadgets booster circuit and used a .047 oil and paper type capacitor on the tone pot. The pick-up is a DiMarzio P-90 with a walnut cover homemade. The guitar has a nice feel and sounds good. Will probably build one of your LP kits next fall.Thanks again, Steve”
Just thought I’d send you pics of my finished guitar. The kit was purchased last year for Christmas. Finish it during last summer. Everything came out pretty well. It plays awesome.
Features: Custom Headstock Inlay by me. Engraved truss cover. Sperzel Trim Lok tunning machines, Tone Pro’s locking bridge and tailpiece, Jimmy Page style electronics and Seymour Duncans P-59 pickups. The finish is Nitrocellulose lacquer.
This is our LP kit, with a simple beautiful finish. The plain maple cap wood grain shows up so nicely on this. Here is what Eddie as said about our kits.
“Thanks for a awsome kit. it plays better than my $%$#@ guitar.
Great fret work. waiting for a prs style kit now. I used trans tint amber and cherry and mixed them till i got what i wanted it went on darker than i wanted so i took clean wet towels and rubbed it down till i got the color i was looking for.i kept the neck and back natural and the maple on the side is like binding like on a prs.
Thanks again
Eddie
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Here is one of our LP kits finished and out for play…
From Joe:
I started this from an LP with P90 routs. After a couple months working
with a friend on the finishing process, we sprayed the last of the clear
coats and then we let it dry for about a month. Here are some before and
after shots of the guitar in process..
Great neck, good wood, and great action.
