My first guitar build. I started with a simple guitar. It was one I'd wanted for years, but was never in the right position to buy - a Les Paul Junior. My yearning began as I was flipping through my dad's Sweetwater and Musician's Friend catalogues (a frequent pastime for a young Lazerdisque). Some of my earliest internet deep-dives were into the LPJ Billie Joe Armstrong was playing during the music video for their collab with U2.

I loved the Les Paul Junior. It was simple, growly, and effortlessly cool. It looked how punk music sounded to little Lazerdisque. When big Lazerdisque realized how (comparatively) easy it would be to build one from a kit, I couldn't help myself.

I couldn't help myself from making it green, either.

I'm really proud of this guitar. The Solo Guitars kit makes it pretty easy, but still, it was a big endeavor taken at a time in my life where I wasn't doing so hot. I'm proud of myself for sticking to it, giving it my best shot, and producing a pretty kick-ass guitar in the process.

This is the second guitar kit I built - a Solo Guitars telecaster.

My father's favorite color is blue (the color of his first bike, I believe), and he had been wanting a telecaster for a while. He bought me my first few guitars, so I figured I might be able to return the favor. The galaxy pickguard was mostly to show off my spray painting skills.

After the build, my family and I made a trip back to my hometown, lugging the blue tele along the whole way. Gifting my dad the guitar was a really beautiful moment. He teared up, we shared a hug, and despite my exhaustion from the 12+ hour drive, we stayed up talking about music and instruments for a while.

Admittedly, the build isn't perfect. I should've done another round of sanding, I should've done another round of staining, and I should've taped off the binding - Still, it plays well, and my dad loves it.

This picture and my memories are all that remain of this guitar. I hope it's in a better place.

Given to me by my uncle Ramon, I took this Squier Strat for granted. I was incredibly grateful for the gift, but the more I realized I wasn't good at guitar yet (still working on that!), the more I resented the guitar for being boring.

If I had just held onto it a few years longer, I would've been able to remedy that with some paint, but alas, I covered it in black stripes made with duct tape, then gave it to a musician friend of mine a few years later. He ended up selling it.

This guitar never sounded good on the rare occasion I plugged it into something, and I never really liked Stratocasters anyway, but I still regret getting rid of it. It was my first guitar, after all! We could've had something special.

I got this at a barcade that doesn't exist anymore. It hurts to play.

A gift from my father to usher me into college. By his explanation, it's good to have something you can pick up and play on a whim. You know, I have to agree. This thing is my forever friend. I've learned on it, written with it, jammed with it, and I've afforded myself the freedom to use it with abandon. I'm not trying to destroy it, but a little patina never hurt anybody...

In an effort to personalize it more, I agreed for my partner to paint a design onto it, which turned out really nicely! I'll be buried with this thing.

This is the first electric guitar I got after gitting gud (intermediate). I'd been plucking on The Beater long enough that by the time the pandemic hit, my gem of a dad knew I was ready to upgrade. After some discussions about what I was looking for in an electric, this beauty arrived in the mail.