April Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in March 2018)

[Brendan]

April Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in March 2018)

Enter your finished guitar or bass here to be judged for the Pit Bull Guitars April 2018 Guitar of the Month.

Please remember:

For Guitars or Basses finished on (or before) the end of March 2018

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 April closes at the end of March 2018 (Perth Western Australian time).

The sorts of things we judge on include:
· How well have 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.


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

[Ahabs_beard]

Hey guys, first time posting - hope you'll enjoy!
Here is my 3rd Pitbull build, after my Les Paul Junior and my SG3 (a nice lesson in routing). With a working name of "Morning Wood", "Treebeard", "Sherwood Forest", "Woody" or "Victor Wooden".

It all started with the STA-1M Ash Stratocaster - the grain looks great, and I have a hard time justifying a rosewood or ebony fingerboard on a Strat. Immature and reductive, I know. But maple fingerboards just seem right.

Body
- Phase 1: 220/320 sand down the body and applied Feast Watson Black Prooftint stain. Then sanded the entire thing off. I read somewhere that this improves the contrast of the grain. I can't cite it and I have brought shame to my name. Sorry.
- Phase 2: Coat of Feast Watson Sanding Sealer, and then a 320 sand. Done twice for optimum smoothness.
- Phase 3: Cabott's Walnut Water-Based Interior Stain
- Phase 4: Two coats of Tru Oil and then smoothed it out with 00 steel wool. Repeated this process for a total of 4 times - so 8 coats of Tru Oil.
- Phase 5: Two coats of Howard's Feed-N-Wax. Smells great and makes for a great finisher on a body

Neck
I straightened the neck and levelled out the frets by using the tips from Guns and Guitars' amazing video Make pro guitar luthier tools out of stuff you have - it was the most boring part of the build, but it DEFINITELY made a difference on the finished product.

I pretty much copied Ben Eller's method for re-finishing necks; while adding a Feast Watson Golden Teak Prooftint stain.
Two coats of Tru Oil, smoothed out with 0000 steel wool, done twice for a total of 4 coats. And then two coats of Birchwood Casey Gun Stock Wax. I love the feel of the grain of the neck and the satin smoothness of the Tru Oil. Can't recommend this stuff enough!

Hardware
- Amber knobs
- Ash pickguard and backplate
- Gold pickup selector switch
All from eBay. Everything else was stock - including the missing screw for the bridge, which Adam quickly sent over for free after I contacted him.

Pickups
Guitar Fetish Premium II Strat set w/ Kwikplug harness - 250k pots and a .047uf tone cap
This was so incredibly simple to install. Sweet Strat tone, without the wiring headache.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy the photos!

[FrankenWashie]

Noice. Very noice. Great work mr Beard.

[Sonic Mountain]

Very nice way to kick off the new month, well done..

[Wayne.Mumford]

A very cool look with the timber scratch plate and covers, how does it sound.

[Bill Jackson]

Maybe not the 'wow' factor.....but plenty ($$) on the 'whoa' factor. What you see -- and recognize -- is only the half of it. But I know that we, the amateurs, still anguish over detail and the pursuit of perfection. But when it comes to winding your own pickups, it won't be cheap....and it may not be pretty. I paid $79.00 USD for a 'dead' Rickenbacker toaster pickup. I figured it could be repaired? WRONG. Try rewinding it with.44 awg copper wire. Talk about focus. The Thomas wonder was $215.00. But all that aside, it (the pickup) finished @ 6.2 ohms. It RINGS !!! Grover tuners, Rickenbacker bridge and cover, Allparts trapeze tailpiece, heavy duty 3 way switch, Les Paul type jack and jack plate, and to top it off, Pyramid Gold flatwounds. Now, there are some clear coat lacquer flaws ( it's winter up here!!), but quite honestly, the sound is equal to it's appearance. And as I mentioned to Adam Boyle, " all's well that ends well".

[JohnH]

Yeah, that pickguard looks great

[adam]

GR-1SF Build from Martti in Finland

"The name of the guitar is Mal after the late great(est rhythm guitar player ever) Malcolm Young. The colour on the surface was done with stain, brown to top & bottom and red to the sides. Finished with shell lack, also brown and Pickups were upgraded to tv-jones bridge classic and bridge plus (neck is the plus) and tune knobs upgraded to Wilkinson knobs.

[FrankenWashie]

Onnea Martti! Very nice work!

[Ahabs_beard]

A very cool look with the timber scratch plate and covers, how does it sound.

Cheers mate!
GFS market the pickup as sounding like Mark Knopfler, and I tried to see what all the fuss was about. When I was setting the guitar up, the closest amp was my Gallien Krueger 400rb - a bass amp. Figuring I'd just plug it in and have a go, it blew me away! I had a jam over Sultans of Swing (because how much more of a casual fan can you be?) and it fit in perfectly in 4th position. Plugged into my Thunderverb and I couldn't fault it, though I'm more of a fan of an HB in the bridge. GFS pickups are proving to be an up-and-coming favourite of mine, mainly due to their ease of installation, as well as the price...and I guess it helps that they sound great