Guitar Of The Month – August, 2021

Written by: Kevin Strom On: Sep 7th, 2021

Congratulations goes out to Jeremy Sivak for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for August 2021.

Jeremy used our TCKPH-1 DIY kit as the basis to create his guitar.

“I’ve played guitar for over 40 years, and have been building amateur woodworking projects for the past 20. Like many enthusiasts I’ve thought a lot about the features my ideal instrument would have. For me, the appeal of a kit build was to learn about customization and set-up, as much as it was about building something beautiful. After considering the options I ordered a Solo Telecaster style TCKPH-1 kit with paddle headstock as a starting point. The basic kit that arrived was of impressive quality, with a great test neck fit. It provided an excellent foundation for the upgrades I had planned, including a new nut, tuners, pickups, wiring scheme, and custom pickguard.

I  used hand tools to add contouring to the back of the body for ease of playing, and cut out a custom design on the paddle headstock with a jigsaw. For the body, I liked the workmanlike look of the simple basswood and considered a variety of finishing strategies. After some testing, I chose a two-step staining approach to give it a strong colour, yet still allow some grain and depth to show through. This method resulted in a lightly distressed look that I hope will wear well. First I sanded off the factory sealer, added a conditioner and used a Red Oak oil stain.  This alone did not look particularly attractive, but served it’s purpose to bring out the grain under the next step.  I let this stain dry completely and then applied two coats of Fort York Red milk paint from Homestead House, diluted to a bright stain. Milk paint is a non-toxic traditional water based paint that is very easy to work with. I allowed this layer to completely dry over several days and then finished with 8-10 coats of wipe-on poly followed by fine sanding and buffing once it cured.

In contrast the neck was lightly sanded and then simply finished with a few wiped on coats of Tung Oil. Although the shipped neck and fretwork were fairly well done, I leveled and recrowned the frets anyway, as something I wanted to learn how to do.  In addition to the finishing work, I upgraded to Solo Pro staggered locking tuners (which work great!), and added a synthetic TUSQ replacement nut. The Solo staff were very helpful with some questions about the nut replacement, which I took extra care with to achieve the right height.

For pickups, I upgraded the neck to a Fralin Humless P90, and the bridge to a Seymour Duncan Little ’59, which turns out to be a nice match in output. Note that wiring each of them in their standard configuration initially put them out of phase, but this was easily fixed. I like the solid string-through bridge design that came with the kit and so kept it as is.  However, a little Dremel filing of the bridge plate and chiseling of the neck pickup route was needed in order to get a perfect fit.  Before wiring up I used copper tape to line and ground the cavities.

In order to increase the playing options I added a push/pull volume pot to put the Little ’59 in series or parallel, which keeps it nicely hum-free in all settings. This arrangement presents a wide range of tone options to fit a variety of styles. Finally, I reversed the control plate for easy volume knob access, and customized the pickguard to a minimized shape.

Overall, I had a great time building this guitar, and surprised myself with how playable it is.  Assembly and set up were fairly straightforward, and the neck fit was perfect. It sounds and plays exactly like what I had envisioned, and I learned a lot from the various customizations. With affordable kits of this quality, it’s easy to justify the learning curve. Looking forward to my next one!”

-Jeremy Sivak