Guitar Of The Month – August, 2022

Written by: Kevin Strom On: Sep 12th, 2022

Congratulations goes out to Nick Clarke for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for August 2022.

Nick used one of the blanks from our Body Blanks Section as the basis to create his guitar.

“I’ve always been a fan of double neck guitars. Something about them always had this badass almost godly like essence about them to me. Everyone talks about Jimmy page when it comes to the double neck, but it was Alex Lifeson in concert as a kid that made me look back in awe like how is he playing that. The alpine white was a must have from then on. 

I’ve had the pleasure of building a couple of kits from Solo now, but I wanted to do something totally different. I had seen pictures of people splicing Strats and Les Paul’s together by cutting each one in half, but the arch top body of the Paul and a flat Strat top didn’t blend well and often resulted in body filler which I wanted to avoid. Plus, you don’t see many 12 string Les Paul’s so I drew up a template on some old maple at the house and reached out to the guys and gals at Solo to see their thoughts.  With Solo offering custom CNC work, Vatche and I sat down and made it a reality. Combining my favourite aspects of many guitar styles, I stole the neck of one of my late 90s Jackson’s king Vs and made it really interesting. 

To keep the weight down as much as possible we went with 2 pieces of Okoume for the body. The lightweight body helped not only for shoulder pull, but also balanced the guitar and took a good chunk of neck dive away.  For the 12-string neck, a bound 12-string maple neck was picked up from one of the Double-Neck kits offered by Solo out of the B-stock pile. 

After sanding the body with 400 grit to prep for paint, I gave it a couple of coats of primer (sanding between coats) followed by multiple coats of “Dupli colour championship white” auto body lacquer paint a few days apart. I got this straight from a friend’s old muscle car shop for extra speed and classy look.

Before finishing off the clear coat I made the last-minute decision to sand off a small edge around the body for a natural binding look. With the natural reddish brown of the Okoume popping through it was an excellent match for my strap plus great contrast to the white around it. To achieve this, I used sensitive frog tape to tape off a straight line, and carefully hand sanded off the paint with 220 followed 800 grit to make the grain pop. After I was happy with the binding, I finished off the clear coat with 6 coats of spray max 4K clear (roughly a can and a half) and wet sanded with 1200 grit sanding blocks provided by Solo. I opted out of buffing for hopes of relic’ing faster rather then later. I love the look of played guitars so it’s been left with more of a matte finish that is still gorgeous in my opinion. If it were all shiny and buffed, I’d be more scared to ding it or dent it more then without. Funny logic I know. 

With the 6 string neck taken care of, the 12-string neck didn’t need much fret leveling and minor sanding to be happy with. After 10 or so coats of Tru-oil gun stock polish to seal the back of the neck, I left it at that for a natural feel and room for some extra wear/character over time. I also changed out the stock nut for a GraphTech Tusq pre-slotted nut. 

I wanted to get as much out of this guitar as possible for tone so I went with entirely Seymour Duncan pickups. The 12-string was fitted with a Pearly Gates for the neck and a 59/Custom Hybrid for the bridge. The gold selector switch on the bottom horn switches between these two, and the classic Les Paul toggle switch chooses the necks. I had a Seymour Duncan Dave Murray loaded pickguard laying around that I parted out and used the middle JB Jr. and Hot Rails neck pickups from and added some EVH influence with a Seymour Duncan 78 Bridge pickup. Those three are wired up into a 5-way blade switch for versatility all attached to a Solo Pro tortoise shell HSS pickguard.

You don’t see Floyd’s on double necks so of course we had too! I mean why not? We opted for Gotoh’s 1996 Gold trem for a budget friendly option. I love that these come stock with a brass block. I fitted the back of the neck with an Allen key holder for easy string changes as well.  The bridge on the 12-string was taken off an old 70s Japanese electric build which added a great touch as it’s hard to find Gold 12-string tune-o-matic parts these days. The guitar was broken anyways so I had no fear about it being taken apart. Both necks have matching gold Wilkinson EZ locking tuners, and Gold Schaller locking strap locks were added for stability and trustworthy hold. To finish it off I used an old leather Gibson hummingbird strap for classy look and comfortable feel.

All wiring was completed using braided wire and shielded with some foil tape from a recent HVAC  job. It worked like a charm. To throw another curveball into the mix, a killswitch was added that functions on both necks. I strung up the guitar using D’addario 9-46’s on both necks and she’s ready to rock and roll! 

For the most part all finishing supplies and parts were purchased from Solo as they really have everything you can possibly want readily available.  It’s every guitar players dream and they helped me to create a crazy idea into one of my proudest creations! I am beyond stoked with the turn out and even more stoked on the friends gained at the shop! I can’t thank the crew enough for the customer service and provided confidence consistently every time I go there. 

I’ve already got my next build underway with an LPK-100BN kit from Solo.  I’m fired up about where it’s headed as well.”

-Nick Clarke