October Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in September 2016)

[Wayne.Mumford]

A top job Arch, looks great.

[wazkelly]

Damn, that looks superb.

If I was to build one of these it would either be nude blonde as you have done here or maybe red like my J Bass.

[TenEighty]

Hi Guys, another first timer here with an ES-1G. I used to muck around with making acoustics from scratch in Margaret River about 15 yrs ago, and a few months back a friend of mine got me onto the Pitbull website for a look. What can I say, I was instantly hooked and ordered a kit straight away!!

I actually wanted to go for a lighter Indigo Blue colour but when I put this Angelus leather dye on I decided it looked so good I'd just go with it at full strength. It's had about 10 coats of Dulux Duramax clear gloss (from Bunnings) and was polished by hand with Meguiars Ultimate and then Scratch x 2 (from Auto-One).

The neck stain was a blend of maple with a touch of red and brown in there to make it a bit more vintage (Bunnings).

All electronics are standard issue from Pitbull except I split each of the the pickup wires apart to separate the coils then and wired in two push pulls on the volumes for coil split and series/parallel.

The only thing I stuffed up was that I used a foaming glue for the neck join which just bled and bled forever. It was late on a Sunday and I just couldn't wait to buy some strong PVA the next day so I just thought bugger it, I'll glue the sucker. The neck join was a great fit so no problem there, it's just I had to keep wiping the excess as it foamed to avoid spoiling the finish. Not a disaster though...

The headstock has some purfling inlay that I had lying around in the drawer from making guitars 15 yrs ago. Not my best effort, but it looks OK. The next guitar I do will be better with a decent router base for the dremel I hope (lesson learned!). The name Lansejita is a bit of a pun really, I knew that the kits probably come from China and Lan se ji ta is Chinese for "Blue Guitar". 1080 on the truss rod cover is a nickname that some mates call me.

I have compensated the nut as a bit of an experiment (found googling late one night) and surprisingly it works amazingly well. The intonation is spot on and chords are in tune everywhere on the neck.

Anyway, loved the build process and I'm already lining up #2, probably a Les Paul or maybe a flying V. Cheers and any questions welcome.

Dave

[FrankenWashie]

ooooooo that BLUE, mmm Vibrant. Great job TenEighty like the headstock detail as well, is that a compensating nut you got on there?

[TenEighty]

Thanks FrankenWashie. Yes mate, my first attempt at comp nut and while the look might put some people off, the result is unlike any setup i've ever done. Absolutely consistent intonation at any fret. Maybe it's a case of six of one - half a dozen of the other compared to saddle compensation but it really does seem to work.

[Dedman]

another stunner! It's shaping up to be hollow month

[Dedman]

keeping in theme and all. My ES-5V
Green fountain pen ink, black and clear is auto acrylic. Tuners and tail piece are Kluson, pick up is a mini humbucker ( the neck one from the pair I bought for my JR-1 build), Ebony knobs, push pull on the volume to split the humbucker. Headstock logo is 1mm brass inlay. Replaced the fretboard dots with Abalone. Brass nut. (Missing a couple of gold screws for the truss rod cover) .So a few firsts for me, first hollow body, first burst, first inlay attempt,first go at replacing dots. Over all I'm pretty happy with it, it sounds OK acoustically, but really shines plugged in with a tiny bit of reverb.

[Zandit75]

Nicely done Dedman, looks great.
It's going to be another close month!

[FrankenWashie]

I think i just messed myself. Dedman, that's an outstanding axe. Wonderful work.

[Dedman]

thanks guys.