Guitar Of The Month – February, 2021
Congratulations goes out to Mark Desmarais for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for February 2021.
Mark used our JMK-90 DIY kit as the basis to create his guitar.
“Considering myself lucky to still be employed through this pandemic I also found myself having way too much time on my hands being at home 24/7. If you’re a guitar player and semi-proficient with basic DIY skills in this situation what do you do? Well, you order a DIY kit from Solo Guitars of course.
After completing a TCK-1 kit a couple of years ago, I had been wanting to get my hands on the JMK-90 kit, so when it came available in January, I should have bought 2. With no formal training in wood finishing, I found that if you are patient enough you can achieve a satisfactory finish with readily available materials from your local hardware store. Also, it’s a fun learning experience, especially from the mistakes you make along the way.
I started with sanding the headstock, back of the neck and the body with some 220 grit paper then really cleaned everything up with some 600 grit paper. I wiped everything off with mineral spirits and let it sit. Having taped off the neck slot on the body I started spray painting the yellow base coat, lightly sanding with 800 or 1000 grit where needed to smooth over some rough spots and or spray paint drips. Once I had a satisfactory base coat I basically did the exact same thing with roughly 4 clear coats to build up some layers. At this point it was looking good but still needed a dash of something, so back to the hardware store for a $5 can of silver glitter paint. I did a test patch on a scrap piece of wood and decided to just go for it. Miraculously all the imperfections in my novice spray paint were camouflaged. I did the same for the headstock and the same on a black base for the back of the neck. From there I drained at least 2 more cans of clearcoat on everything.
I added chrome knobs and painted the P90 covers black. I might change those to white along with the position switch to match the whammy bar as the yellow I chose just didn’t match the cream knobs that came with the kit. The last step was to wipe the fretboard with some mineral oil and to set it up and play. I filed the nut slots on each string to leave .0020″ on the low E A and D and about .0018″ on the high strings.
Wiring was straightforward and the p90s provided in the kit coupled with a basic compressor and equalizer give a myriad of different tones, especially if you are the player type that knows how & when to also use the volume knob.
After incremental adjustments, this JMK-90 is playing better and better everyday. To describe how this sounds in one word I would have to use the word “Crisp“
-Mark Desmarais
2 Responses to “Guitar Of The Month – February, 2021”
Great job…I especially love the glitter on the paint job. How was the glitter paint added? I know this may be a stupid question, however I have to ask. I’m so close to getting a kit and the painting is the one area I’m a bit nervous about. I would hate to get the kit together and screw up, the paint job. I’m wanting to go for a deep blue, like a midnight blue glitter type color or maybe a deep green on both body and head stock.. Thanks…..✌️
Hey Mickey,
thank you for the comments, there ain’t no stupid questions! I bought the Krylon brand glitter paint which you can get for sure in gold, silver and copper (and i’m sure other colors as well) and did a test patch to see how light or heavy i wanted to spray this on. After the glitter was on (it dries really fast) I then hit it with several acrylic clear coats.
I have deep green Ibanez TBM-300 Bass with a glitter finish, this is where i got the Idea and that Bass looks dope.
I would suggest also looking into wood dyes, they are usually a powder pack that you mix and apply by brush like a wood stain, so you can gradually deepen the color with every coat and keep the woodgrain. That’s gonna my next approach.
Cheers !