December 2014 Guitar of the Month

Well done Ben looks excellent. Can you please tell us what stain you used? How does it play and sound?

WOW! Ben that looks so great.

Rick

Wow Ben, awesome job. I've never really looked twice at this kit, but yours looks sensational!! I'm definitely looking now :).

Cheers,
Gav.

Hi

This was my first guitar build and not without a few wrong turns, but I am reasonably happy with the outcome. The finish is was done using Feast Watson Liming White and Feast Watson oil based mahogany stain. The liming white was a total pain in the butt. I was originally planning to all liming white all over, but I was getting very uneven coverage especially on the end grain. I was about to sand back and start all over when I thought I would just try putting the mahogany around the edge. I was happy with the result so kept it.

I was really keen to do some inlay work as well to make it a bit special. This was also my first attempt at inlay and discovered that some specialist tools will probably be needed to if I am to continue (which I have subsequently started to acquire and use on my next build). I used celluloid sheet rather than real shell, for two reasons - it was significantly cheaper and I thought I would probably waste a bit (which I did) and real shell is hard to find in bigger, uncut sizes. It worked out quite ok, was very easy to work with and the end result has been pretty good. The design is a from a tattoo I designed for myself and is stylized skeleton.

The guitar plays quite well and I am enjoying playing with single coil sounds after spending the last twenty years as a dedicated humbucker guitarist. I did spend a lot if time on the setup. The frets were very uneven and required a lot of filing to get a reasonable set up. It still actually has a bit more to go and I think that it needs a new nut as the one on the next has set the strings to low according to the setup tutorials I have consulted. But I really, really, enjoyed the build, and am currently 3/4 of the way through my next build and have my next 4 guitars planned.

Anyway, here it:

Thanks Stuart

a couple more showing the mahogany edges:

Good job, looks great and like the headstock and decal on back of neck. You've done well with the FW products, I have also struggled with them and found even coverage very difficult especially the liming stain.

well done Stuart for a first build, looks like that liming white is a tough colour to get perfect. Some original touches on this build.
Sounds like you have big plans for 4 more builds !

Another GOTM round full of winners ... and those "first builds" are truly impressive! (jealous? ... me? ... hell, yes! :D )

Three stunningly lovely LPs, an absolutely gorgeous ES, a truly super sweet FVB, that transcendently stunning white ST-1 ... and of course Mr Gav's TL (superb, as usual Gav ... curse you! :D )

Not only are the quality of entries just getting better and better but it seems that whenever I enter a GOTM there's always a Turner masterpiece to compete against! (I'm beginning to think you've just got way too much time on your hands, Gav ... you need a hobby! bwahaha :D)

Anyway, with 5 G's and only 2 F's I thought I'd throw the "Scrapper" into the ring just to even things up a little ... though not with much hope considering the damn fine quality of work being entered this month

... and with the "Scrapper's" industrial, "no frills" finish it really seems like the "thorn amid the roses", but what the hell!

For your judging (and my playing) pleasure ... the Scrapper.

... and just a couple more ...

(you'll have to check out the build diary for details of the all the fancy bits hidden beneath the surface! :D )

nice one Scott, love the logo very clever use of words ! Your wiring mods in the build diary sound interesting.
Another extremely tough month. I'll be entering mine on the weekend, got a choice of 2 G types and 2 F types