Congratulations goes out to Steve Mastoris for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for April 2026.

Steve used our STK-15 kit as the basis to create his guitar.

“After watching Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour “Black Strat” sell at auction in 2019 for $4M, I was intrigued by the guitar’s history.  There was an abundance of information and pictures on the internet so I decided to build a “Black Strat” tribute guitar using the Solo STK-15 guitar kit.  The kit turned out to be the easiest of the seven Solo kits that I have built so far.  I knew that I could reproduce the look of the “Black Strat” with just one can of black paint but wanted to get more accurate on the details.  Solo Guitars had all of the materials needed to get as close to the real thing within a limited budget.  Serendipity, during the build process the “Black Strat” was resold at auction this time fetching $14.5M so I knew that using a Solo kit would be quite a savings 🙂

There was very little modifications needed to the STK-15 kit and the assembly was fast and easy only needing the fret ends to be filed a bit.  As with all of these kits, the more patients and effort you put into the finishing process, the better the results.  Knowing that the original “Black Strat’s” finish was heavily worn over its fifty-year history, I knew it didn’t have to have a perfect finish.  By using images from the internet, it was easy to duplicate the wear with a couple simple tools.  Adding the mini toggle switch for the ‘Gilmour wiring” was the biggest challenge.  I bent a piece of thin plate steel (Z shape) and made a bracket that mounted under the first two potentiometers to allow only the mini switch tip to protrude through the pickguard like the original.  With this feature and winding two of the three pickups (using Solo wire) to the Gilmour specifications and using the Seymour Duncan SSL-5 bridge pickup, the guitar sounds amazing.

Build Notes:

Neck

1. Reshaped neck headstock close to Fender style with sand paper and sanding block. Sanded the corners to round the sharp edges at the 22^nd
2. Added skunk stripe by masking off neck before applying walnut stain (Truss rod opening too)
3. Apply approximately three coats of Oxford neck amber tint
4. Apply personal decals made using waterslide material from hobby store and printer.
5. Using 400 and 600 grit sand paper wrapped around popsicle stick, sanded wear pattern from images of the Black Strat
6. Applied Solo’s Oxford clear coat to headstock and back of neck
7. Applied one coat of Oxford aged clear satin to fret board and final coat on back of neck for playability

Body

1. Using scribe added the indication of the Gilmour tremolo and jack repairs
2. Sanded the sealer with 400 grit sand paper
3. Stained body yellow
4. Added red stain to noted wear spot from images of Black Strat
5. Applied Oxford black lacquer to body after masking off wear spots (Note: Roll back edges of tape to avoid sharp lines
6. Using small chisel and 1000 grit sand paper, I relic’d the body to as close to the original black Strat from internet images.

Hardware

1. Added Solo’s Kluson style turners (and conversion bushings)
2. Changed to Fender tremolo assembly and arm (shortened the tremolo block by 1/8”)
3. Shorten tremolo arm to 4.25” length (first straighten in vise then cut off 1 ½” and re-bent to final curve)
4. Relic’d some hardware with 600 grit sand paper
5. Sprayed pickguard with Solo’s Oxford sanding sealer then Oxford black lacquer paint
6. Lightly sanded knobs with 400 grit then light coat of brown stain
7. Sprayed pickup covers and knobs with Solo’s Oxford aged clear satin

Electronics

1. Wound middle and neck pickups to Gilmour specifications using Solo’s pickup wire
2. Changed to Seymour Duncan SSL-5 bridge pickup
3. Changed to Fender five-way switch
4. Added Solo’s on-off-on mini toggle switch for Gilmour wiring
5. Changed to Allpart output jack.

Case

1. Stenciled black case exterior to match Gilmour’s case sold at auction

Solo offers everything that I used to build this guitar including what is needed to wind the pickups.  I think this is a great project for David Gilmour fans and anyone can build one cheaply or they can go all out and do all the upgrades and still be well below the cost of a Fender Custom Shop Black Strat that is no longer available from Fender.  My neck relic looks light when compared to Gilmour’s but I know it will wear in much closer to the original by the way I sanded and added one aged topcoat.

– Steve Mastoris