Guitar Of The Month

Congratulations goes out to Luigi Rostirolla for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for May 2024.

Luigi used our LPK-100BN kit as the basis to create his guitar.

“This is my third Solo Guitar kit build and for this one I used the LPK-100BN kit because I wanted to do a 3-pickup LP style guitar. I had come into your store to pick this one out with the help of your awesome sales associate Chase. He was a great help and I really enjoyed talking with him, probably for an hour.

I named this guitar “Amethyst Sparkle” as a tribute to my cat Sparkle that passed away last April after being with me for 18 of her 20 years. The purple and rose colours remind me of an amethyst gem. The custom mother of pearl inlayed truss rod cover is in tribute to her as she had a four-pointed star shaped marking on her back that looked like that. I also got a custom laser cut metal “R” medallion for the top of the headstock for my last initial (from Etsy).

On this Solo Guitar kit build I decided to customize the body and neck joint once again with an eye to aesthetics and comfort. I added a comfort carve on the body and I contoured the neck-body joint to flow better and be more comfortable in hand. I am getting better at it. I basically did all the carving by hand with rasps, files, and a palm sander. Once I finished the carving, I sanded the neck and body up to 320 grit. I couldn’t do the final sanding until I glued in the neck, but that had to wait until I dyed the top. I just find it easier to work on the top without the neck in the way.

I used Angelus leather dyes and Oxford Guitar Supply products again on the body and neck. I used full strength purple dye on the rear and sides of the body and neck and did an amethyst burst on the front of the body with jet black, purple and light rose dyes.

Before dyeing the top, I used 3M vinyl tape to mask off the binding and regular painters’ tape for the neck pocket. The vinyl tape works great for the binding because it conforms to the curves very well. I then started the dye process by using full-strength jet-black dye on the top, let it dry a day and then sanded it back leaving only the perimeter of the top full black. I wanted to accentuate the flame figuring in the maple top, so I left enough of the black in the grain to do so. I then applied the light rose dye all over the top, then blended the purple around the perimeter with the black border. My first attempt was a failure, not enough rose in the center of the burst so I had to start over. Good thing this kit has a solid maple top! My second attempt went well, and I tried something new that I learned from Big D Guitars on YouTube. I learned to take out some of the dye colour with 0000 steel wool before sealing it in. I was amazed at how well it worked, especially in the center to lighten up the rose colour. I did have to do some minor scraping on the binding before applying the sealer (the vinyl tape worked well). Then I spray applied 2 light coats of sanding sealer by Oxford to lock in the dyes. That’s when I knew the colours were right. The flames on the top popped.

I was very happy with the top burst and proceeded to glue in the neck. It was a perfect fit and aligned perfectly (I checked with the high and low E strings first). After letting it set for a day I could finish the neck-body carve with more final sanding and tweaking with wood files and palm sander. Once that was done all the mahogany on the neck and body was filled with Oxford grain filler in natural colour. I let it dry for a day and then sealed everything with 2 or 3 coats of Oxford sanding sealer.

The Oxford clear gloss nitro lacquer in spray cans was next. A couple of coats, let dry a day, sand with 800 grit, repeat. I lost count how many coats I applied, probably 10-12. I was very pleased with the outcome. The flame figuring on this top is beautiful. I let the lacquer harden for a month before buffing. I used the buffing compounds that come in Oxford’s Deluxe Aerosol Finishing Kit and lots of elbow grease. It’s very satisfying when you’re getting all the swirls out and seeing that high gloss shine at the end of the process! I also applied 2 coats of Solo Pro Black Conductive Shielding Paint in all of the body cavities before installing any hardware.

Since this is a 3 pickup LP I wanted to do the Peter Frampton style controls (3 volume knobs and 1 master tone). That’s not something I would know how to do myself so I had AxeKool guitars in the UK make me a prewired harness. All I had to do was solder the pickups, switch, jack, and bridge ground. It’s not pretty in there but it works.

For the hardware I did not use the pack that came with the kit even though it would be fine. I wanted to make this a special guitar. I went with a black and gold theme to compliment the purple. Highlights of the hardware I used are as follows:

Three DiMarzio pickups with gold covers and black screws: PAF 36th Anniversary in neck, Super 2 in middle, and Super Distortion in bridge position.
Gotoh gold locking tuners
Black and gold knobs
Black metal pickup rings
Graphtech TUSQ XL nut
HellParts Brass Gold Chequer Switch Washer
Solo Pro Gold Gibson Style Toggle Switch Tip
Planet Waves Elliptical End Pin – Gold
Solo Pro Roller Saddle Tune-O-Matic Bridge – Large Post – Gold
Peter Frampton style wiring harness by AxeKool guitars in the UK.
Nebula Straps-“Cleopatra” (hand-made in Winnipeg)
Custom truss rod cover by WEC Inlay (hand-made in Winnipeg)