Rock Lord:
New Instrument Build

I started on a quest to build a new guitar and wanted to build a hardtail single cutaway Les Paul type guitar.
I didn't want a Gibson or an Epiphone Les Paul I wanted to build my own. Set it up myself and possibly improve on end result.
I know the Gibson purists will be calling foul. LOL but that's okay to me they are over priced and completely over rated in that sense.
I started with a DYI kit which had some excellent woods better than I was expecting. But after close inspection the wood here rivals
any production line lumber. It is Mahogany with a Maple cap. the neck is Mahogany with a Rosewood fretboard.
The body has no weight relief it is solid although it does have a section glued to make the full body.
The Maple cap is very well flamed and even the Mahogany has deep flaming.
Light and dark flashes reflect from the flaming as the instrument is moved.
I used Aniline dyes to stain the woods and did an near Boubon Sunburst on the top.
The rear I used Golden Brown and Fire Engine Red to create a nice reddish brown tint to the Mahogany.
I used a Potassium Silicate (liquid glass) ground coat which is what I prep my violin builds before varnish.
I used a Polyurethane finish on it which has to be sanded between coats unlike Nitrocellulose which burns into the previous coat.
The purists again would argue the Nitro but I want the guitar to age well and not crack and yellow.
There is a few spots where the glue from the binding caused some imperfection in the stain but I am trying to mask
and correct these as not to subtract from the overall beauty of the instrument.
The electronics appear to be of good quality and I will run them through and eliminate any inferior components.
The humbuckers were potted and it has CF 500K pots in audio and linear taper as well as decent wiring and .047μ tone capacitor.
The frets will need a good polish as they are still raw but hey this all a part of a proper set up guitar anyway.
It is called Rock Lord serial # MY357809210
Here are some pics during build process:



and the back:


and finished

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