Congratulations goes out to Eli Davidson for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for March, 2025.
Eli used our LPK-90 kit as the basis to create his guitar.
“This is my recently christened Goldtop Mut. My goal was a P90 LP style guitar, but I wanted to incorporate a trapeze style tailpiece.
This may or may not be relatable, but I spend a majority of my time playing electrics guitars without an amp on my couch. So, I have come to value the acoustic quality of an electric guitar above all else. For me, it’s the most important characteristic when evaluating the outcome of a build. I noticed long ago that trapeze style tailpieces offer more sympathetic resonance, more frequencies, and just more projection overall. Thus began my love affair with trapeze style builds. It is really fun to incorporate them into builds and makes an otherwise “traditional” guitar feel custom and bespoke.
I started by plugging the stoptail bridge post holes with some oak dowels. After setting the neck, I levelled and dressed the frets. Then cut and installed a bone nut.
I only applied 3-4 light coats of metallic gold, then 2-3 coats of a satin clear coat. I am an incredibly impatient finisher and don’t spend much time or energy on sanding and polishing. I am quite happy with a satin finish, and any blemishes or imperfections are generally ignored. These guitars are just for my personal enjoyment, so I don’t feel any desire to achieve a factory finish, nor do I have the skill or patience. Plus, I feel that imperfections, scratches, dings and dongs just add character and remove any heir of preciousness. I for one, enjoy the guitar relic’ing world, though I don’t approach my builds with that specific objective.
The hardware was cobbled together from various vendors and older cannibalized builds of mine. I used premium electronics and wired a 50’s style loom. The P90’s both register between 7.5k-8.5k. Initially the PUPS were out of phase in middle position, and not in a “cool” way. So, I flipped the polarity of the bridge PUP and now middle position sounds excellent.
The last aesthetic touch was a Dendritic Agate mounted on the headstock that was donated from my wives’ collection. She is an artisan Jeweller with lots of interesting inventory. I have unintentionally started a tradition of mounting one of here pieces in the headstocks of my builds in lieu of a logo.
Thats it!
I am consistently impressed with the quality of these kits, and I really appreciate the joy and mindfulness this hobby gives me. Thanks for viewing and keep cranking out cool kits for us basement builders.”
– Eli Davidson
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