Guitar Of The Month – May, 2021
Congratulations goes out to Randy K. for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for May 2021.
Randy used our LPK-150 DIY kit as the basis to create his guitar.
“This guitar build is my attempt to create a five colour sunset style fade. For this project I chose the LPK-150 kit with the flame maple veneer top which offers a great grain pattern to highlight and blend multiple colours.
Looking for an interesting finish design I searched for a set of colours that could work with the existing fret inlays and came up with a number of colour combinations. Flamed maple always looks good with an amber base so the sunset color pallet would work nicely with the veneer and the inlays. So my colour combination for this top would be blue, purple, red, orange and yellow. And, to carry this finish across the entire top of the guitar I chose to cap the headstock with a similar flame maple veneer and extend the colour scheme. To finish off the look I chose to lay the colour down in the style of a dragons breath fade. Something I always wanted to do and it also works well over the semi-hollow body f-holes.
For the back of the guitar, I chose to do a medium tone brandy colour on the body and a bold Cordovan colour on the neck to complement the body while providing contrast with the fretboard. Cordovan provides a brown/blank finish with a slight red tone. I think both these colors look good on Mahogany grain.
The project kicked off with the requisite sanding and more sanding to get rid of any glue around the binding and seams as well as removing all the scratch marks that can form a trough to catch the colour when applied. I sanded the top to 400 grit which I find helps when blending the colors. On the back I stopped at 320 and used a fine wire brush to open the pores of the grain. I do this to let the colour settle in the pores which helps to darken the grain pattern.
With the sanding all done – and I still hate sanding – I masked the binding and applied the colour to the back. For this part of the process I used Angelus leather dyes as I like the depth of colour and way it settles into the wood. Two coats are rubbed into the wood to provide even distribution and after a day of drying time I buff out the excess dye with a scotch bright pad to obtain the final look. To seal-in the dye and prepare the surface for top coats, I applied mist coats of Crystalac sanding sealer followed by two coats of Crystalac grain filler. After sanding the grain filler smooth I applied several more light coats of the sealer and sanded the surface to completely fill the grain.
Switching to the top I used Angelus yellow, tan, brick red, purple and blue to create the sunset fade. I started by laying down the yellow, then tan and blended the two for the fade. Next, I applied purple followed by blue and faded those colours. Finally, I worked in a touch of red at the transition from tan to purple. This created the dark transition I wanted from the orange tone to the purple. As I write this it all sounds pretty straightforward and easy but it was very challenging. Sealing and filling the top was pretty much the same process as the back. Next was the process of scrapping the binding. This part was time-consuming but I look at this as being somewhat therapeutic, especially if you listen to music while doing it.
To finish the guitar I applied at least a dozen or so light coats of Crystalac Bright Tone gloss finish. I applied two to three coats per day lightly buffing with a fine scotch bright pad after each coat dries and level sanding each morning. With all that in the rearview mirror the guitar finish was left to cure for two weeks then leveled and polished.
Assembly was pretty straightforward. I upgraded the switch, used Solo’s locking tuners, clear knobs and added a Graph Tech TUSQ nut. Over time I will likely upgrade the pickups and electronics after playing the guitar for a while. To finish the headstock I capped the truss rod cover with a mahogany veneer and finished it in Cordovan like the neck.
The LPK-150 is a good quality kit. The neck fit was snug and the angle was such that, when set, the bridge height is only a couple of millimeters off the body and the saddle could be set flush with the body. I leveled and crowned the frets. Finishing them with micro mesh pads and polishing them with my Dremel. With the nut height set and the truss rod adjusted the rest of the set up went well. The guitar plays well and sounds great.”
– Randy K.
2 Responses to “Guitar Of The Month – May, 2021”
Wondering about the sealcoat that was applied by factory. Did you sand it off? What grit?
There was no factory sealer on the kit.