June GOTM

[Brendan]

June GOTM

Guitar of the month Comp time again! While for this there are no fortunes (just fame - or at least within the BYOGuitar fraternity) there's an opportunity for fame for the best guitar completed in May 2017.

May Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in May 2017)

Enter your finished guitar or bass here to be judged for the Pit Bull Guitars June 2017 Guitar of the Month.

Please remember:

For Guitars or Basses finished on (or before) 31 May 2017

One guitar/bass per member per month
It must be a Pit Bull Guitars kit (mods and upgrades acceptable)
Guitar or Bass must be finished and playable

We need at least 4 photos:
· full guitar shot from the front;
· close up of the body finish;
· shot of the back of the guitar; and
· close up of the headstock (please, no brand name logos)


Please post your photos in this thread. If you are having issues posting photos on the forum, please email them to brendan (at) pitbullguitars (dot) com

Please note: This competition is open to amateur guitar builders only. If you are making and selling guitars for profit, you are ineligible. Also while there are some stunning guitars around - you never know what the judges are looking for, so we encourage anyone who's built a Pitbull during the month to enter!

Competition for May closes 31 May 2017.

The sorts of things we judge on include:
· How well has the body and neck been prepared
· Is the choice of finish for the style of guitar appropriate
· How well has the finish been applied
· How well has all the hardware, pickups, etc, been installed
· Does it have the "Wow Factor"
· Which guitar would you make a beeline for in a guitar shop. That is, which one would you most like to take home.

I'm a personal fan of demos - no matter how simple - everyone likes to hear how an axe has turned out!

Also worth thinking - we've got a range of judges and who knows what they'll like (or not), so don't be afraid to enter your guitar - no matter whether you think it's good enough to win or not - on the day, you may get a couple to swing your way!

BTW - remember that the winner is invited to be a guest judge the following month!

[stan]

Lots of cool builds on the verge of completion, get them in folks!

[Marcel]

I'll give it a go...

Marcel's PBG kit LP-1SSP (Kit Purchased via Ebay 14/04/2017. Completed and playable 4pm 15/05/2017)

This guitar build boasts the following....
French polished Shellac on all spalted Maple that has been coloured with my own mix of Yellow & Brown Keda dye, then U-Beaut wax buffed to shine.
FW Jarrah stain on all Mahogany then covered with 2 coats of BC sealer filler and then 4 coats of BC Tru-oil.
Push back cloth wiring (A.k.a .'50's style wiring) on all signal paths.
Earthed Copper foil under/in both pickup cavities and under volume/tone controls.
Brown drop 0.047uF caps.
PBG neck P90
Yibuy bridge P90
Standard PBG kit tuners, knobs, bridge, switch.

Nil fretwork required so far and nil fret buzz.... Some players might want a little work on the nut but I'm okay with it as is...

[wazkelly]

Hmmm, very nice. Would love to hear how it sounds with those P90's.

Cheers, Waz

[Marcel]

Waz...

Seriously.... I simply got blown away.!!!

My P90 loaded girl sings to my heart... Clear tomes with plenty of harmonic content.... Through the home brew JTM45/2204 amp set to clean and the Celestion Vintage 30 and G12H75 loaded cabinet behind her I could almost believe I was listening to an acoustic guitar, but way much louder.. This girl is the best sounding build I've done so far and IMHO sounds sweeter than my Gibson '50's tribute...

Haven't tried her on dirty or crunch tones yet... That will only have to wait until I introduce her to Mr JVM210C in the very near future...

[pablopepper]

Damn, that's pretty. That top hasn't got much going on in the way of spalt, but the flame! The flame!

[wokkaboy]

great looking build Marcel well done. Keen to hear a sound demo of the P90's

[billb]

Hi there,
This is the first time I’ve done anything like this and I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Thanks to the members of the forum for all their help and to PBG for facilitating this sort of fun :)

The bass is named “ETB Basses – Tali”. ETB were my father’s initials – he used to love working with wood, so this is sort of an homage to him, and Tali is one of my dogs.

This certainly isn;t my last build. Paint is coming along nicely on the next one – “ETB Basses – Kirra”, and plans are afoot for ETB -Nissa and a couple of others :)

Details:
• PBG JBA-4 Jazz bass shape, Ash body. The body is fairly heavily routed and reshaped around the front horns and the rest of the body had a lot of rounding off done on it so it is really comfortable to hold.
• EMG Hz passive pickups, with lots of copper foil shielding throughout all the cavities.
• Pickguard – cut by Pablopepper – Thanks!
• Gotoh bridge and machine heads
• Dingobass bone nut
• Abalone fret markers
• Warwick strings
• Straplocks, string retainer and neck plate from ebay
• The strap was bought for me by my wife a while back - I think it really suits this bass though and is now permanent on Tali.

Finish:
Body – After reshaping and sanding I used dark Timbermate to seal the body and highlight the grain. Then DingoTone Coolangatta Gold (3 coats each of stain, intensifier and final). This was polished with car polish and then a final coat of Gilly Stephenson gun wax to give a smooth, satin finish.
Neck – Lemon Oil on the fretboard. Feast Watson Old Baltic stain on the maple and then lots of Tru Oil over the stain for a nice smooth, fast surface.
Headstock – Tru oil. The ETB Basses logos are waterslide decals designed by my brother-in-law – Thanks Jace! I’ve coated them with Tamiya gloss laquer from a rattle can.

Setup
After a good fret level, crown and polish everything went together nicely. The action is a fast and quite low. There’s no fret buzz (unless I miss the fret when I’m playing it), nor is there any hum/crackle/noise etc. from the electrics.
The tone is pretty even across the fretboard, even up above the 12th fret where no self-respecting bass player should ever venture!

Noises
It's already had a lot of use, and I think it plays really well and sounds like I was hoping it would, the Ash body also gives it a really nice weight and balance. There’s a lot of variety available through the controls, esp. the tone knob, and I’m really happy with the way the whole thing turned out!
Now I just need to be a better player!

Sorry for the essay on to the colour and noise.

Photos

[billb]

I like how the grain turned out in the routed out lower horn. This was after one coat of colour and before I tidied up that glue seam and before the intensifier or final coats.


awww shucks, you named it after me...


Sound Demo
https://soundcloud.com/bill-bowe-438626460/tali-demo
4 repeats.
First one is neck pickup volume at 80% and bridge at 60% with the tone between low and medium.
Second has the same pickup settings but the tone between medium and high
Third has neck at 80% and bridge at 0% with the tone rolled all the way to low
Fourth is neck at 0%, bridge at 80% and tone still all the way down

[wokkaboy]

great looking entry BillB, love the customisation you have done with the body shaping and pickguard. Nice hardware upgrades and the stain colour works really well. Some judges will give bonus points for your dog in the pic I'm sure haha

Just heard the sound demo, sounds great, well done