Congratulations goes out to Gord Smith for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for January 2026.

Gord used our TCK-12 kit as the basis to create his guitar.

“Having never owned a 12-string guitar, I decided to take on something a little different by building Solo Guitars’ 12-string Tele-style kit. I had been toying with a Celtic, Game of Thrones–inspired “Winter Is Coming” theme, and this project felt like the perfect opportunity to bring that idea to life. I also had a colour-shifting spray paint—transitioning from green to copper—that I had been saving for a special build. As an added challenge, I wanted to try my hand at chip carving, and the basswood body included with this kit made an ideal canvas. The final design was inspired by our wonderful dog, Tessa.

Upon receiving the kit, I did a full inventory and test fit to ensure all hardware was present and everything aligned properly. The fretwork was more than acceptable for my needs, with no sharp ends and a nicely polished finish, so I was happy to get started right away.

I began by sanding the entire body, working through grits from 120 to 240 in preparation for carving and finishing. I then removed the stock black binding and routed a deeper binding channel. For the carving, I attached my pattern to the body using a glue stick for easy removal and began the chip-carving process. While time-consuming, it went very well and added a lot of character to the build.

To replace the original binding, I installed a double binding of tortoiseshell and pearl using the binding tape and acetone method—a technique that has always worked well for me. Once cured, I used a cabinet scraper to level the binding flush with the guitar’s face and filled any minor imperfections with automotive spot putty. The face was then sanded again up to 240 grit.

After masking off the binding, sides, and back, I applied two coats of gloss black as a base, wet sanding with 400 grit between coats. This was followed by four coats of colour-shifting paint, again wet sanding between coats. To highlight the carved areas, I filled the carving with a copper metallic paint pen and added a few additional accent colours.

A two-part acrylic epoxy was then applied over the entire face of the guitar to fill and level the carved surface. The back of the guitar was base-coated with copper metallic paint, followed by a crackle medium and a heavy white acrylic topcoat to achieve a weathered, aged appearance. The back design was created using a LaserJet-printed image, which was glued in place. I then carved a circular border around the image and filled it with copper leaf. After masking the surrounding area, this section was also sealed with the two-part epoxy.

The pickguard received the same treatment as the back of the guitar. As expected—and desired—the polyurethane finish yellowed slightly over the white paint, enhancing the aged, weathered look. The entire body was then finished with approximately 20 coats of Minwax wipe-on polyurethane over the course of a week, wet sanding with 600 grit after every other coat.

The headstock was painted to match the guitar’s face, with the addition of printed paw prints applied before the epoxy coat. The neck was sanded up to 600 grit, and after masking the fretboard, I applied boiled linseed oil thinned 50/50 with mineral spirits to the neck and back of the headstock. I also added a waterslide decal of my logo to the back of the headstock and painted a faux copper binding around the headstock face.

Once all finishing was complete, everything was wet sanded up to 1000 grit, polished with Turtle Wax fine rubbing compound, and hand-buffed to a high sheen using automotive liquid wax. I used all of the stock hardware but swapped out several screws for gold-coloured ones, added gold strap locks, and paired the guitar with a beautifully aged white Celtic-design strap.

Assembly and wiring went smoothly. While setting up a 12-string initially felt a bit daunting, it turned out to be quite straightforward—if a little tedious. I did need to do some additional research on installing and using the string bar, but everything came together nicely in the end.

The guitar plays very well, and I’m extremely pleased with the stock pickups, which deliver a beautiful tone on a clean channel. I’m thrilled with the final result and already looking ahead to my next project. Thanks again to Solo Guitars for a fantastic kit!