Guitar Of The Month – June, 2022

Written by: Kevin Strom On: Jul 7th, 2022

Congratulations goes out to Silas Bastian for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for June 2022.

Silas used our STK-1M-SD DIY kit as the basis to create his guitar.

“For Christmas of 2020, when I was 12 years old, my parents bought me the Solo STK-1M-SD DIY electric guitar kit I had asked for, two years after I had built my first electric guitar, the Solo TCK-1SM. I had started liking Jimi Hendrix, and I had wanted to get a Strat-style guitar. It took me a while to get to building it since I was distracted by things like school. But last summer I got the chance to start working on it. 

The first step was to Lichtenberg burn the entire body and headstock of the guitar, with guidance from my dad’s friend. With fractal burning like this, I have no way of guiding the electricity. I have to let it do its own thing. It went surprisingly well, and I was thrilled with the outcome. The product of this type of burning is entirely unique and unrepeatable. 

Although it looked very nice without any dye, I decided it would look even better if it were red. I experimented with different combinations of powder-based dyes on some test pieces of wood, and in the end, I went with a highly saturated red colour. I put three coats on and was satisfied with the look. Some places look like they got stained unevenly, in part because I didn’t do a great job of sanding off all the sealer. It is most noticeable on the sides, but I actually think it looks kind of cool. 

The next step was to apply a finish. I went with a high gloss polyurethane finish. I only put on 10 coats, which was a mistake that I fixed later. Ten coats are not enough to get a glass-smooth surface on top. I started with 600 grit on a random orbital sander and worked up to 2000 grit sandpaper. I used some automotive polish to try to make it look all glossy, but that was unsuccessful. In the end, I used some rubbing compound, which did the trick. Later, I took my guitar apart and sanded it with some 400 grit sandpaper so I could put 14 more layers of polyurethane onto the body. With 24 layers, you do have enough for that glossy look. I then left it to dry for two weeks. I added 5 layers of spray-on polythene and then I let it dry again. Finally, I sanded it with 1500, and then 2000, grit sandpaper, using a random orbital sander followed by a rubbing compound and polish.

The neck was straightforward. The headstock was burned the same way as the body, but something about the density of the wood caused different results. I used Tru Oil for the neck, which is an excellent choice for guitar necks because you can get a nice gloss or a satin look by rubbing it with steel wool. I also like how the smooth feel helps my hand glide while playing. I kept the gloss look for the headstock and fretboard.  

I acquired some aftermarket pieces, such as a black mother-of-pearl pickguard and some black retro-looking tone and volume knobs. I had originally bought some solid black pickup covers but I later took them off when I upgraded to some sweet Fender Player Series pickups. I think the white pickup covers contrast with all the dark colours well. The rest of the stock hardware is excellent, and I see no reason to change any of it.

I am very happy with the kit and I think the overall quality is great. It was easy to assemble, and after some tweaks, it is probably one of the best guitars I have played – it is definitely my favourite. I love how easy it was to modify this guitar. The customer support of Solo is excellent, and when I had some issues with the nut of the neck, they sent some maple shims, which fixed my problem. Another tweak that I needed to do to the original kit was to sand down the neck’s “heel.” (where the neck contacts the body) for better action. Theoretically, I could have put shims to make it tilt outwards, but sanding that spot is the proper way to do it. I measured 2 mm around the heel and made sharpie marks on those points. I used painter’s tape to line all the dots to make sure I sanded it evenly and used a belt sander to slowly but surely got it to the right height for a professional setup. I then got a professional luthier (my guitar teacher) to fret dress and set up my guitar. 

I have played this guitar so much that the frets have gotten flat in some places! Some day I will have to get it re-fretted with steel frets so they don’t wear out as fast. I am also hoping to do some fretboard inlays in the future.  

I am looking forward to buying another kit from Solo sometime, and right now I am thinking about doing a relic Les Paul-style electric guitar, probably from the LPK-90 or LPK-100BN kit. Or maybe an SG. I don’t know yet. It was a great experience, building from a DIY kit. I would recommend a Solo for anybody looking to build good quality, reasonably-priced guitar.”

– Silas Bastian