BUILDING AN LP-STYLE

From Edgar Nunez

Dear John,

I have included a couple of pictures of the building of a Saga LP Guitar. The building process took me a lot of time and effort, most of the time was on mistakes.

Initially I was going to paint it clear but I sanded too deep and ruined the top finish. So I decided to paint it blue using Duplicolor "Body Shop" paint, primer and clear.  The primer went fine.  However, painting was more painful because every time I painted the result felt rough like snake skin.  When I sanded something went wrong like sanding too much, or went to the wood on the corner. This happened a couple times.

After researching I painted the first pass as if I was dusting, then more wet then a couple of wet passes. I sanded and applied the clear and using the medium and fine polishing compounds from StewMac the results came as I wanted.

For the headstock inlay I used acrylic used for nails. For the final assembly I used the pickups that came with the kit.  I got a wiring kit, Les Trem and bridge from StewMac. The only major problem I had was adjusting the neck with shims on a trial and error approach until I got almost right.  This took some time!

I'm happy with the sound and proud of my first build.  I will be replacing the pickups with some p-rails in the future, but in the meantime I will be playing it every day.

Note:  The paint referred to is not in a spray can.  It is available at AutoZone and similar car stores.  You can use this paint with PreVal sprayers available at HomeDepot.  It is thinned and ready to spray.
 

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