September GOTM

[ozzbike]

Well there is a good start to the GOTM.

Yepp. Gotta agree how good is simple and done well. That is a beautifullly done job. Wow.

[ozzbike]

And a second wow.....how deep and brilliant is the purple rig. Love the wrap around bridge and the single pickup of the Junior design....SG body for the win...so far so wonderful.....amazing.

[geddyfan]

Over a year and a half in the making…











Started with a Pitbull RC-4 Kit

Planed off the top of the body down to the bottom of the binding

Added tummy cut with grinder

Added forearm contour with grinder

Glued on 1/4" thick quilted maple drop top (cut kerfs in the back to bend it over the forearm contour)

Routed for 3 MM-style humbuckers (GFS -- painted with conductive shielding paint)

Rear-routed for control cavity (routed top material a bit thin, so reinforced with fiberglass -- painted with conductive shielding paint)

Stained fretboard black

Sanded everything up to 400 grit

Applied black and red dye/stain to top and the truss rod and control cavity covers made from scrap maple (StewMac ColorTone – took two tries to get it the way I wanted it)

Applied nitrocellulose lacquer, black to back of body, neck, and headstock, then everything clear gloss (SteMac ColorTone, many, many coats -- FYI, Rickenbacker sprays their fretboards, so I did, too...and I like it)

After cure, wet sanded and used StewMac kit for polishing

GOTOH bass tuners

All Parts BB-3533-003 Black Quick Release 4-string Bass Bridge (had to mount on 1/8" spacer because of neck angle, custom-made and painted gloss black to match bridge from left-over maple)

4 black dome knobs (I’ve got black chrome skulls with red eyes, but maybe that’s a bit too much)

3 Volume, 1 Tone (CTS pots, "Orange Drop" cap)

3 SPDT black mini toggles for coil tapping

Black electrosocket jack mount

Mushroom head style strap buttons (black)

Black Rotosound strings

[geddyfan]

Two more pics (headstock and logo):





Sorry...phone usually does a little better...gotta bust out the Nikon and take some real pics.

[Andyxlh]

Wow that's fantastic!!!

[Dedman]

so that's what's causing the tremors!

[Sonic Mountain]

Whoa. Two builds out of nowhere this month. That's a pretty great interpretation of that kit.

[geddyfan]

Thanks, guys...this was my first try, and I really bit off more than I should have, but it was a lot of fun and I'm really happy with it (and it's as loud and obnoxious as one might imagine). Can't wait to start another one

[Marcel]

Among all these glittery guitars there has to be a runner up.... So as it's finished & playable & intonated today I'll throw in a few photos of my IB-1Q build.
As they say, gotta be in it to win it...

The initial theme is I suppose is stolen from the Ibanez Jiva. An S type HSH Ibanez with fancy inlays etc.. etc.. etc ... But this has a Dragon inlay so I went with a fire breathing beast that amongst the seemingly burnt bits has a looked after yet well worn lots of use kind of feel...

The body has a Brown base stain with a light Black burst sealed in with Poly, then micro-scrubbed flat to 12000 and Duck feather wheel polished.
Back and neck is Black stain washed out to a Charcoal then rubbed back with 400 before a few coats of Tru-oil
Headstock front face is also Brown then with a sanded Black burst and then covered in Poly

As it's a Floyd bridge and locking nut I kept the kit tuners.

Copper foil in all cavities...

The two HB's were changed to a set of very hot DiMarzio IBZ PU's. The SC PU is stock from the kit. Interestingly the kit SC matches reasonably closely the HB when in SC mode, so all the PU can balance out rather nicely in the right configurations.
A pull/push switch on the 500k Bournes volume pot determines if the HB are in HB or SC mode, and the pull.push switch on the tone knob reverses the phase of the SC for additional interesting variations in the middle three positions of the kit supplied 5 way selector switch.
Needless to say that 'High-Gain' is easy to run with this build... and cleans are loud clear and distinct...

The neck isn't as thin as one would hope for a shredder yet the action is more than capable... I've set it at about 1.6mm @ 12th fret with the knowledge that 1.1mm is well within its abilities (ATM) for a soft handed strummer. Maybe one day I'll get the 120 & 240 grit out and slim down the neck but as nearly every other guitar I play regularly has a '50's neck that day may be quite a ways off...

[Sonic Mountain]

Don't write yourself off Marcel. That's a great build.