November Guitar of the Month

[Brendan]

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

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

Please remember:

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

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 November closes at the end of October (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]

My last build on the table, and may be last one for some time, life does get in the way.

The kit was a customer return on the sales/seconds list. Maple neck, real rosewood fingerboard, Mahogany body with a thin zebrawood veneer.

The build thread is here....

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=10785

...and she made 36 guitars/basses in my possession.

Issues along the way, as is the norm, and some very helpful ideas and suggestions from the forum. Thank You all.

Highlights for me:-

The veneer has pores and holes all over, and lots and lots of glue squeeze out on the top....showed as white dots and marks all over. (Thank you Simon for the tinted spray poly idea...worked well.)

The neck and fingerboard were super easy using my norm of Feast Watson Fine Buffing Oil and then Gillys cabinetmakers Wax and Carnauba Polish. That went through really easy.

The body finish only came together with the use of C.A. glue. The glue filled the pits, pores and holes. It sanded really well and gave a solid and very smooth, plastic feeling though, finish. Spray poly from both Cabots and Bondall stick to it like glue.

The front has many coats of CA glue and then about 6 coats of spray Cabots gloss poly. It then has one lot of three coats sprayed 10 minutes apart of the Bondall tinted poly gloss....Jarrah colour I think.

The back and sides are stained with Feast Watson Prooftint Maple stain....alcohol based. Then three coats only of the C.A. glue. Then just 3 x lots of 3 spray coats of Cabots poly.

Remaining issues:-

The neck height and the bridge saddles are pretty good now....three different lengths of cut up business card to create a slope is the answer.

The E string, as you can see in one of the pictures, is just too thick to push down on the ZERO fret. I will let it settle and then try again. I don't want to strip out the thread on the light cast string mounts and locks. So, the E string when played open has an annoying rattle...at the Zero Fret. It is therefore an #$@% to tune on that string.

The pickups are the normal low output humbuckers that come in the kits. I just punch the AMP a little and it sounds great.

Overall it is just weird to play with no headstock and no tuners. The weight is ALL down low and it lends itself really well to a strap even sitting down. However, it still remains quite light even with the OVERLORD bridge.

So ladies and gentlemen I present to you the TIGER. :)

[ozzbike]

Some left over pics.

[blinddrew]

Much better job than mine! :D

[andrea.astarita]

My third assembled guitar and first with Pitbull Guitars neck and body:

Mahogany body - Maple top - Transparent blue satin finish
Mahogany neck with blue satin finish
22 Fret Ebony Fingerboard
Duesenberg Diamond Deluxe Tremolo Short Nickel Bridge
Allparts Locking Roller Tune-o-matic
Seymour Duncan '59 Model pickup
Kluson Self-locking MBT33N Tulip Button tuners
3-position selector
3 Volume and 1 Tone Controls

[Sonic Mountain]

Woah, great build Andrea, nice headstock logo.

[andrea.astarita]

Thanks Sonic Mountain!

[JohnH]

These both look great! I'm particularly into that blue

[Alexej]

Both are nice and accurate.
The tiger looks really wild :)
Also like the suble charme of the blue, a deep sea...

[andrea.astarita]

Thanks JohnH

[andrea.astarita]

Thanks Alexej

[Brendan]

Last minute entry - from my mailbox - Jon Franklins JRM-1DC.

"Finished my junior style build. This is my first attempt at a kit. Used mahogany stain, Grover mini locking tuners, Martin A Smith hound wound P90 PU and I made the wiring harness using CTS 500k pots, cloth covered wire and 600v 223j Orange Drop cap.
Some minor tweaking to do, but sounds and looks pretty good."

[Brendan]

And some more...

[Brendan]

Comp closed - new one soon.

[Brendan]

Judges comments are in!

Ozzbikes custom SHB-4
Wow, 36 builds and another fine example of your craftsmanship. Love the colour & tiger stripe look on the front. Definitely something I would want to own & play & will forgive you for no headstock logo on this occasion.
A really nice clean looking build that has overcome many obstacles to produce an excellent finish. The colour works well with the beautiful grain of the top and the CA looks to have solved the pore issues. The blonde neck suits it nicely. Very well done. Obviously, points off for no headstock logo
Impressive gloss finish. Great job.
Interesting build from one of the forums most prolific contributors. The tiger stripe grain looks great and the finish looks good in spite of the multiple issues encountered. Good choice of colour, really sets off the theme. Very clean and well put together, the experience of having built a fair few already clearly showing. Shame about some of the issues with the zero fret, but I’m sure over the course of settling and playing with the setup you’ll get it sorted.
Andrea.Astarita's AGM-3F
Blue can be a hard colour to work with but this one looks the goods. Love the headstock shape & logos plus lots of nice hardware upgrades.
The satin blue looks fantastic, it wouldn't be my first choice for colour on something like this but it really works. A liitle roughness on the bevels perhaps, but its hard to tell from the photos. The neck and headstock look great with nicely done logos. Excellent hardware and upgrades. Very nice.
Love the colour and hardware choices. Impressed!
Great use of colour and finish, very different to what you’d normally see on one of these guitars, but still works beautifully. Good attention to detail and some great hardware upgrades. Commercial looking headstock decal, with good font choices really sets it off.
Jon Franklin's JRM-1DC
Double Cut Jnr on what looks like a Basswood body. Nice & shiny colour and the extra mods should make it sound great. Marks taken off for using someone else’s logos.
Beautiful deep wine colour that really suits the build. Traditional black headstock face looks great and balances with the black plastics, but a logo would've been a nice addition. Simple, clean and really appealing build. Very nice indeed.
It’s a shame you didn’t put your own name on the headstock, rather than the one you’ve blacked out in the photos. Own your originality.
Pretty good effort for a first build, photos make seeing some details difficult. The overall style looks right and the mahogany stain is a good choice. Stain application looks a little uneven and may have been improved, by sanding back and reapplying. Shame about the headstock logos having to be blanked out. Action appears to be quite high, even with the bridge on the deck, so perhaps not quite enough break angle on the neck. Some well considered upgrades. All in all a solid effort and no doubt a lot was learned for the next one.

[Brendan]

So - to the runner up -
Congratulations Ozzbike - your 36th build is pretty awesome.
https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=37568&stc=1&d=1602023933

And the winner -
Take a bow andrea.astarita - the AGM-3F ticked all the boxes from colour choice to build quality.
https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=37628&stc=1&d=1602537504

[wazkelly]

Congrats to all entrants.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

[blinddrew]

Three lovely guitars there! :)

[ozzbike]

Wow,

Thanks guys.

Congratulations to the winner.

That is for me now. I shall lurk with intent. 😎🎸

[andrea.astarita]

Thanks a lot. I am very proud and happy to have won the Guitar of the month. Congratulations to all the other participants.

[Muzzajon]

Thanks for the comments, both good and bad. I learned a lot from doing this build, particularly about applying stain. Lots of trial and error had... I replaced the bridge with a standard wrap-a-round and sanded the bottom of the Tusq nut to get the action lower. This JRM-1DC plays and sounds as good as the guitar it was inspired by. Loving the tones from the P90 plugged straight into my Ceriatone JTM45. I cant believe the versatility and range that can be achieved by rolling the volume and tone pots. This is the most played of my guitars. Love it and happy with the results. Thanks, Jon.