Congratulations goes out to Johnny Maximum for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for April 2024.
Johnny used our JMK-90 kit as the basis to create his guitar.
“This guitar is the very first one I’ve built. I’d been thinking about it for a while, but I didn’t dare to start. I’ve been a guitarist for several years, but I didn’t really have any experience in lutherie. I thought to myself that the worst that could happen would be that I’d keep the guitar at home, away from others’ sight. Haha!
My initial plan was to make an all-black version with “racing” red stripes. Then, while browsing Pinterest for finishing ideas, I came across a series of images that reminded me of paintings I had done a long time ago. Painting is a hobby I hadn’t practiced in a long time, so I thought I could combine the two projects, painting, and guitar building. So, I quickly made a Photoshop montage of images to get an idea in advance of the overall look of the guitar before diving into painting.
I started by sanding the guitar body with very fine sandpaper, then applied a sealer to prevent the paint from penetrating the wood. Since I planned to use acrylic paint, I simply chose to apply Mod Podge. I applied 4 thin coats of Mod Podge, with a light sanding between each coat.
Once this step was completed, I freehanded the major lines of what I wanted to paint. I continued with the painting. I used very basic acrylic paint, the cheapest I found at a crafting store in my city. I had the model mounted in Photoshop on an iPad in front of me, and I freehanded the entire design on the guitar. The complete painting took about 30 hours.
I knew that hand-painted acrylic would result in some texture here and there, so I wasn’t expecting a completely smooth and glossy finish in the end. However, I still wanted to protect my work, especially after spending all those hours painting. So, I chose to apply SprayMax 2k Glamour High Gloss Aerosol Clear. It’s an extremely durable aerosol clear coat (many people use it for automotive body repairs). This aerosol is very chemical, so it needs to be applied in a well-ventilated room, wearing professional-grade respiratory protection and gloves.
I applied six coats of clear, with good sanding with ultra-fine sandpaper (800 and 1000) between each coat.
The only piece that’s not original from the kit is the nut. I replaced the plastic one that comes with the kit with a graphite nut. For everything else on the guitar, they are the original kit pieces.
Then, I assembled the neck with the guitar body. The initial position gave me a very high action, so I shimmed the neck with some pieces of cardboard to give it a different angle. The action is now lower and consistent everywhere.
I had also ordered a pot of Solo Pro Black Conductive Shielding Paint that I applied throughout the cavity where the electronics are, as well as on the back of the pickguard (I also had Shielding Tape for the pickguard, which can be seen in one of the photos).
I then assembled all the remaining pieces, did some soldering for the pickups and potentiometers, nothing too complicated.
I’m really happy with the final result of this first guitar. The process was straightforward, even for someone inexperienced like me. I’m already looking forward to building my next Solo Guitar Kit!
Thanks for everything and long live Solo Guitars!”
-Johnny Maximum
The post Guitar Of The Month – April, 2024 appeared first on Solo Guitars.