October GOTM

[Brendan]

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

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

Please remember:

For Guitars or Basses finished on (or before) the end of September.

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 October closes at the end of September (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!

[ozzbike]

The Build Diary....

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=10588

Standard Electronics, bone nut, Gotoh Tuners, Switchcraft jack, recessed jack socket.

Spray can black body finish. Stained and Spray poly neck and fretboard.

[ozzbike]

Just two more....

[ozzbike]

Nice looking bass. Black gloss finish is sparkling in the pictures.
How does it sound?

The pickup has six magnetic pieces in it and the fat E string does not really get heard as well as the other three.

That being said...I am amazed by the sound from this pickup and the standard kit electronics. The output is low...compared to ToneRider, Seymour Duncan, Entwhistle pickups I have here in other basses. But, the mid range and top end this pickup brings is amazing in use. I had to play with my EQ on my Amp and now I am loving the bigger sound....more noises make more smiles. :)

Thank you for the kind words....it is not a good finish...and not a good path for me. I have no idea what I am doing with paint...and to me it shows. I am tempted to hit the body with 80 grit and do a stain and some spray polyurethane.

Sadly though as per page one of my build diary I wanted to try and get close to the Photo of the Black Body with a yellow neck Squier as I posted there. I think I did pretty well with that goal.

In summary....It sounds different yet amazing from my other bass guitars...it has some weight to it...the neck feels amazing...the body is a site for a future upgrade.

[Sonic Mountain]

Gloss black is the hardest paint to do really well. I think you’ve made a great effort. Getting that really high gloss requires the right products, and while possible by hand, is best done with an electric buffer. Personally I think this has a lovely vintage look. Once it gets a bit of wear and tear I think it’ll look great.

[ozzbike]

Gloss black is the hardest paint to do really well. I think you’ve made a great effort. Getting that really high gloss requires the right products, and while possible by hand, is best done with an electric buffer. Personally I think this has a lovely vintage look. Once it gets a bit of wear and tear I think it’ll look great.

Sonic, thanks for the nice comments.

My idea was classically simple like the photo on my first page of my build thread. I hope I got close.

She plays really well. 😎

[Simon Barden]

4 years after joining the PB forums and ordering my first of many guitar kits, I've finally finished one of them! Its the SGJ-1, which just happened to be one of the two kits that arrived in May this year.

I didn't use any of the kit hardware except the control cavity backplate. So we have:

Bare Knuckle Nantucket 90 P90 pickup.
3.0mm fibreboard shim made for the pickup.
CTS pots
Pure Tone 1/4" output jack
WD Music PIO 0.022uF capacitor
24-spline knobs for CTS pots and metal pointers from Axesrus.
Musiclily adjustable wraparound bridge
Kluson revolution 19:1 vintage style rear locking tuners
Bone nut
Schaller strap locks
3-ply truss-rod cover
Bespoke 3-ply pickguard more in keeping with a vintage SG Jr pickguard shape.

The body was first grain filed with dark brown tinted Aqua Clear grain filler, then stained with spirit-based Vintage Cherry stain. It was then sprayed with some clear nitro lacquer, then some vintage cherry tinted lacquer to help cover up the odd wood blemish and centreline join line that I felt were too prominent on their own, and more clear lacquer on top of that. Various sand-throughs saw localised touch-ups with brown Sharpie and vintage cherry nitro.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/7334/5vcqXg.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/4175/aIhyj7.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/3554/JbJG20.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/9722/B27toy.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/6181/CypBoD.jpg

The headstock had a 0.8mm thick fibreboard veneer fitted on the top face, which helped give a nice solid edges and corners. It's so easy to round off the basic wood headstock when sanding, whilst the fibreboard is far harder and keeps it shape so much better.

The SB logo is a thin pearlescent vinyl disk with a black decal over the top. And then much clearcoat.

The locking tuners are a bit heavier than the standard vintage Klusons, but the guitar still balances well on its strap. At 6.2lbs/2.8kg, it's a nice light guitar to strap on and play.

The neck has a good vintage Gibson feel to it. It's quite rounded in feel, but not too chunky and comfortable in the hand. Certainly different to the more ubiquitous modern C-shape that most of the kits have. the fretwork was pretty muck spot on, with no rough fret ends. I did do a token fret level, but it really was minimal and I could have got away with not doing one. The neck joins the body at the 22nd fret, and with the SG cutaways as well, there's certainly no limit to upper fret access. In fact this shifts the neck forward a bit, rather like on a Firebird, one reason that SGs are prone to be neck-heavy. It does mean that the guitar is very long, and you'll need an extra long case to fit it in. I bought a Gator XL ABS case for it which is 4cm longer than standard, and it fits in with 2cm to spare.

Action is low, rather than super-low (my normal set up), so about 1mm on the treble side and 1.5mm on the bass. Below that it does get a bit buzzy.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/5451/RhFaZT.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/241/JPI7Mf.jpg

It's obviously got a P90 with a wide flat coil and is very liable to pick up hum, a lot more so than a Strat or Tele single coil does. So the pickup cavity and control cavity were foil shielded, and I must say that it's very effective. There is some very slight hum, but no more so than even a humbucker equipped guitar, as long as the guitar isn't placed right next to an amp (where the hum is then more magnetically induced from the transformer than from RFI).

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/9986/zZiubS.jpg

I've wired it up in the 'vintage' way, with the tone circuit connected to the volume pot output, rather than input. This certainly saves any need to fit a treble bleed circuit, as it cleans up really nicely without losing any top-end when the volume is reduced. And if you want a clean sound and have any gain at all dialled in your amp, then you'll need to turn that volume control back to get a clean sound and stop the guitar from overdriving the amp, as it does have a lot of output. Certainly fatter than a bridge Strat or Tele pickup is, but still with a lot of clarity, just how I envisaged it would be.

[blinddrew]

Can't believe it's your first submission! That front finish is sublime :)

[fender3x]

Amazing attention to detail. It looks like a faithful better-than-original

[Bugeye29]

Looks fantastic Simon, a great effort.

[Sonic Mountain]

Really nice Simon, kicked of with a couple of classics this month.

[DarkMark]

Hi Folks, finally finished my custom ES-3.
CTS pots and push back cloth wire.
TUSQ XL nut.
Tonerider Alnico II Classic Humbucker.
Floating rosewood bridge.
Rosewood veneer pickup ring.
Rosewood knobs reused off my ES-5V.
Rosewood truss rod cover made from veneer.
Rosewood veneer headstock with gold glitter inlay.
Gold tailpiece, output jack, screws and gold Gotoh tuners.

[DarkMark]

Body is gloss poly.
Neck is satin poly rubbed with 0000 steel wool.
Fret board is stained with Japan brown and coated with satin poly.
I really like the chatoyance in the headstock wood.

[fender3x]

It's a beaut! It looks like you did something custom with the fretboard inlays as well?

[DarkMark]

It's a beaut! It looks like you did something custom with the fretboard inlays as well?

Hi fender3x, nothing custom about the fretboard inlay. That’s actually stock standard on these models.

[fender3x]

Very cool, nevertheless ;-)

[Phoenix]

Hi guys,

Some really excellent builds already entered this month, so it feels like certainly haven't chosen the right month to finish my guitar! Nevertheless, here is my first build, a TLA-1F. After years of dragging my wife through guitar shops my goal was to create a guitar that she would stop and look at. To achieve this I wudtone surfer girl Green on the guitar body's face and some of the headstock to allow the wood to show through. The back of the guitar is done with a colourless wudtone finish, while the neck is the colourless wudtone neck finishing kit. The sides of the guitar feature a pyrographed Paisley design that features imagery symbolic of musical influences and other things that are symbolic of our lives. This was also clear coated using colourless wudtone.

For hardware I used CTS 250K pots, CRL 3 way switch, pull-back cloth wiring, new chrome bridge plating, a 6 saddle bridge, Seymour Duncan hot tele pick ups, switch craft output jack coupled with an electrosocket jack mount, orange drop capacitor, a custom Paisley pick guard, chrome switch knob, chrome and abalone control dials, copper shielding throughout, as well as a new bone nut and gotoh tuners on the head.

While I've always preferred the strat style headstock, I wanted to pay hommage to the telecaster roots of the guitar. So I cut the headstock to a strat shape and used the colour tone and a faux binding to seperate the two while also linking them to the body's colour scheme. "simcaster" was the name I chose, not just because this is a simulation telecaster, but my wife's name is Simone! I made the design on my phone, printed it on some waterslide paper and applied it. To get it to bed in I had to use several coats of clear rattle can poly which I then sanded back before applying wudtone,so the finish matched the body.

The neck is standard except for the inlays. I drilled the centre of the black dots out and filled them with NZ paua shell. This was all finished with the wudtone finishing kit and 0000 steel wool.

That's about all there is too it. The guitar sounds incredible, and I'm delighted with the finished product. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/30b607d3417f393435f8ea2aa290920d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/e7726b6362c63328322020ad308762eb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/cb81464feeb0875004f01428c3fc0c91.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/08b880da211792518935ccb8ffb9d1ec.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/b449ad877ca2132f0bd2dc3ab8e318d1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/c6a0b13dafda9ce5bed8c2728fd77e69.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/6f30955e29d3e8c8fd56727c3090c840.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/3cfd4ad0fea0b33e2eae1eac8baeef89.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/9e79d04a57bd69c01e451baf91bbad59.jpg

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

[ozzbike]

Hi Folks, finally finished my custom ES-3.
CTS pots and push back cloth wire.
TUSQ XL nut.
Tonerider Alnico II Classic Humbucker.
Floating rosewood bridge.
Rosewood veneer pickup ring.
Rosewood knobs reused off my ES-5V.
Rosewood truss rod cover made from veneer.
Rosewood veneer headstock with gold glitter inlay.
Gold tailpiece, output jack, screws and gold Gotoh tuners.

Mark,

Once again your skills have come through. This is an amazing build. Simple but with slight personalisation. Love that finish.

[ozzbike]

Hi guys,

Some really excellent builds already entered this month, so it feels like certainly haven't chosen the right month to finish my guitar! Nevertheless, here is my first build, a TLA-1F. After years of dragging my wife through guitar shops my goal was to create a guitar that she would stop and look at. To achieve this I wudtone surfer girl Green on the guitar body's face and some of the headstock to allow the wood to show through. The back of the guitar is done with a colourless wudtone finish, while the neck is the colourless wudtone neck finishing kit. The sides of the guitar feature a pyrographed Paisley design that features imagery symbolic of musical influences and other things that are symbolic of our lives. This was also clear coated using colourless wudtone.

For hardware I used CTS 250K pots, CRL 3 way switch, pull-back cloth wiring, new chrome bridge plating, a 6 saddle bridge, Seymour Duncan hot tele pick ups, switch craft output jack coupled with an electrosocket jack mount, orange drop capacitor, a custom Paisley pick guard, chrome switch knob, chrome and abalone control dials, copper shielding throughout, as well as a new bone nut and gotoh tuners on the head.

While I've always preferred the strat style headstock, I wanted to pay hommage to the telecaster roots of the guitar. So I cut the headstock to a strat shape and used the colour tone and a faux binding to seperate the two while also linking them to the body's colour scheme. "simcaster" was the name I chose, not just because this is a simulation telecaster, but my wife's name is Simone! I made the design on my phone, printed it on some waterslide paper and applied it. To get it to bed in I had to use several coats of clear rattle can poly which I then sanded back before applying wudtone,so the finish matched the body.

The neck is standard except for the inlays. I drilled the centre of the black dots out and filled them with NZ paua shell. This was all finished with the wudtone finishing kit and 0000 steel wool.

That's about all there is too it. The guitar sounds incredible, and I'm delighted with the finished product. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/30b607d3417f393435f8ea2aa290920d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/e7726b6362c63328322020ad308762eb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/cb81464feeb0875004f01428c3fc0c91.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/08b880da211792518935ccb8ffb9d1ec.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/b449ad877ca2132f0bd2dc3ab8e318d1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/c6a0b13dafda9ce5bed8c2728fd77e69.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/6f30955e29d3e8c8fd56727c3090c840.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/3cfd4ad0fea0b33e2eae1eac8baeef89.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200925/9e79d04a57bd69c01e451baf91bbad59.jpg

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

This is such an original build. I like the individual design elements that come together to make this an impressive guitar. Really well done. Nice choices.

[Sonic Mountain]

This is a heck of a month so far! Going to be super hard to split these builds.

[Andy40]

O....M....G.....:eek: unbelievable. I reckon this is going to be one of the best months of builds....

[Brendan]

Comp closed. Will kick off the next one shortly!

[Brendan]

So to the judges comments:
Ozzbike's TL-4B
Love it! So simple and elegant, you nailed this one Ozzbike.
Classic look that matches what it was aiming for. Nicely finished and clean overall look. The small logo makes the headstock look a little plainer than it is, but fits with the styling. Nice build.
Nothing flash? But a great job. Can’t see any issues from here.
Nice neat, classically styled bass. Finish is quite good for hand buffed black. Colour combo and overall look is spot on. The headstock logo is maybe a bit too subtle and the spacing of the machine heads on the back is very clearly uneven. A really simple build done well can be brilliant and this one is very close. A solid effort.
Lovely crisp guitar. No frills and completes faithfully on the initial idea of the build.
Finish is first class - black is notoriously difficult. Tuning pegs not perfectly spaced but could just be the photo.

Simon Barden's SGJ-1
Wow!! You hit this one for 6, Simon! Can’t fault it.
Stunning, refined and classically beautiful. The care and attention to detail (obsession?) has produced something special. Fantastic deep finish on the neck and body, and excellent headstock finish and logo. Great upgrades, and a very high quality overall result.
Pete Townsend’s calling, he want’s his guitar back! Incredible looking guitar.
Another classic approach to a nice simple kit. Very nicely executed with lots of well considered upgrades. I actually can’t find a lot to fault with this one, but perhaps the pickguard where it curves around the P-90 could be a little neater? Otherwise a very well realised build from one of the most active and knowledgeable members on the forum. Very surprising that it’s the first entry into this comp from Simon.
Excellent piece of craftsmanship with what looks like an almost perfect finish. I particularly like the headstock logo which was a bit of a journey - but it paid off handsomely! Maybe could have done with a bit of colour variation or personalisation.

DarkMark's ES-3
Just Beautiful!
This is a real beauty. The natural look suits these ES-3's, and this is a stunning example. The rosewood with gold hardware, and even the stripper glitter, all work beautifully together. Really nice build.
A jazz-beast. Can easily imagine Herb Ellis or Joe Pass comping on this. Looks great.
Another classically styled, simple and well executed build making the first three entries quite difficult to split. Dark Mark has certainly carved out his own unique approach and style in his previous builds and this one is no different. Very nicely finished with some great custom touches. Subtle and lovely and I can’t find anything in these pics that could be improved. Well done.
Beautiful and flawless. Definitely one I would make a bee-line for and want to take home. Clever work on the headstock and purfling, lovely bridge. This build took 2 years but it was worth it and the workmanship shows. I cannot fault it.

Phoenix's TLA-1F
I love the details on this build, a very sophisticated aesthetic. You must be very happy wih how it turned out.
A really nice TL that would stand out in any store. Excellent pyro work that blends well with the overall look. Always good to see a variant of the Tele/Strat mashup headstock, and this is a great example. Good upgrades and a really fantastic build. Well done.
Lots of patience went into this guitar. It looks like you left the grain open, but this may have been the effect you were after.
For a first time builder and entry to this comp, this one for me is a bit of a stand out. As much as I really do like a well done classic, there is something about being able to create something with its own unique personality and still have it work as a cohesive whole that I do appreciate. Some nice upgrades help lift it above the usual kit quality and the additional artwork/personal touches are always worth an extra point from me. The finish is great for a first timer and really does the approach justice. Some of the other builds in the thread show a level of maturity in building, where as this one you can really feel the enthusiasm of a first time builder forging something that is truly unique. Well done.
A high class build on this T-caster! Very good attention to detail. The fit and positioning of the parts are perfect. I love the headstock - very clever. It almost looks like you get 2 headstocks for the price of one.
Very talented example of pyrography on the sides of the body. The unevenness of the stain on the body is the only point that lets this down for me.

[Brendan]

Overall the scores were fairly close - with the runner up with his first entry - Simon Barden!

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/7334/5vcqXg.jpg

But the winner - pipping Simon at the post was DarkMark's ES-3 -

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=37467&stc=1&d=1600915077

Both beautifully finished and turned out nicely. Congratulations to all though - a tight field this month!

[Simon Barden]

Very well done, Dark Mark.


So to the judges comments:
Simon Barden's SGJ-1
I actually can’t find a lot to fault with this one, but perhaps the pickguard where it curves around the P-90 could be a little neater?

I thought about changing it but checked on pictures of vintage SG Jrs on the web and that's pretty much spot on for how they were.

[Phoenix]

Congrats on the well deserved win darkmark, and congrats to you too Simon on a very classy build. Very impressive stuff from you both, bravo!

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

[blinddrew]

Beautifully simple and simply beautiful guitars. :)

[DarkMark]

Ozzbike, Simon and Phoenix, I thought it would be one of you. Your guitars turned out great. Thanks for the comments and I would like to give Simon an honourable mention as he would of contributed to many GOTM (and non GOTM) over the time I have been involved.

[jonwhitear]

Congratulations DarkMark and Simon - two beautiful guitars. Simon, I can't stop looking at the finish on your SG - that's something else!

[king casey]

Congratulations DarkMark. Of course it was the demo that nailed it.

cheers, Mark.

[ozzbike]

Well done guys....really great guitars this month.

[Fretworn]

Congratulations

[HarmonIser]

Wow, just great work on all these builds - I wouldn't have liked to have been the judge, and have to pick just one!
Congratulations on great work, all of you guys!

[m0j0]

Very nice from every one involved. This is why I'll never embarrass myself by entering one of my builds in GOTM.