Guitar of the Year 2016 (Non-Pit Bull Guitar kits and Scratch Builds)

Hey Doc, agree with the ply showing. I was going to paint it a solid colour, but I cleaned it up with a wet rag after I sanded it and loved the ply straight away, so changed my mind to a stain!

It sounds very good. I like the special combinations that the 'MegaSwitch' offers! It really gives a good range of tones and the Entwistle pickups sound very good, especially considering that they're pretty cheap!
Play-ability could be better. The neck is quite narrow and I think it's a bit tilted toward the low E side, so the low E string is very close to the edge... I'm used to it now, but I've been thinking about moving the bridge and pickguard a bit to the right (when looking at the guitar from the front) to make up for that.

It's on my list of to-do projects for January... but I've also got to finish the R2D2 strat who's been curing for a few weeks now, and I can also hear the SG with 3 pickups calling my name from its box at night... I think it wants to be worked on too! :-)

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Originally Posted by FredA

Hey Doc, agree with the ply showing. I was going to paint it a solid colour, but I cleaned it up with a wet rag after I sanded it and loved the ply straight away, so changed my mind to a stain!

It sounds very good. I like the special combinations that the 'MegaSwitch' offers! It really gives a good range of tones and the Entwistle pickups sound very good, especially considering that they're pretty cheap!
Play-ability could be better. The neck is quite narrow and I think it's a bit tilted toward the low E side, so the low E string is very close to the edge... I'm used to it now, but I've been thinking about moving the bridge and pickguard a bit to the right (when looking at the guitar from the front) to make up for that.

It's on my list of to-do projects for January... but I've also got to finish the R2D2 strat who's been curing for a few weeks now, and I can also hear the SG with 3 pickups calling my name from its box at night... I think it wants to be worked on too! :-)

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You can fix that neck tilt to some extent by losening-off the neck-bolts and pushing the neck sideways towards the high E-String side a bit, then just tighten the neck-bolts back up again, if the neck wants to shift back towards the low E-String side, you can put a thin shim in the neck-pocket to prevent that from happening.

Didn't think of that! Thanks for the idea Doc.
I'll see if I can find some sort of shim.
I'll have to see if it doesn't leave a gap too visible too as the neck currently sits nicely along the pocket side with no gap...
Humm... Let's experiment! 😎

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Originally Posted by FredA

Didn't think of that! Thanks for the idea Doc.
I'll see if I can find some sort of shim.
I'll have to see if it doesn't leave a gap too visible too as the neck currently sits nicely along the pocket side with no gap...
Humm... Let's experiment! 😎

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No worries mate, the other way you could fix it is to make a shim for the neck by gluing two pieces of sandpaper of the same grit back-to-back, and then cut it to fit the bottom of the neck pocket, then re-install the neck back in the neck pocket, the downside is that you'll most likely have to re-set the string-action of the guitar, but what should happen is that the friction generated by the sandpaper should stop the neck from shifting sideways in the neck-pocket once it has been properly aligned.

The neck pocket on the STA was slightly loose so I used a few off cuts of copper shielding tape on the sides to tighten it up

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Originally Posted by FredA

Hey Doc, agree with the ply showing. I was going to paint it a solid colour, but I cleaned it up with a wet rag after I sanded it and loved the ply straight away, so changed my mind to a stain!

It sounds very good. I like the special combinations that the 'MegaSwitch' offers! It really gives a good range of tones and the Entwistle pickups sound very good, especially considering that they're pretty cheap!
Play-ability could be better. The neck is quite narrow and I think it's a bit tilted toward the low E side, so the low E string is very close to the edge... I'm used to it now, but I've been thinking about moving the bridge and pickguard a bit to the right (when looking at the guitar from the front) to make up for that.

It's on my list of to-do projects for January... but I've also got to finish the R2D2 strat who's been curing for a few weeks now, and I can also hear the SG with 3 pickups calling my name from its box at night... I think it wants to be worked on too! :-)

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I can relate Fred. The Cliché LP experimentation continues, FrankenWashie needs a resolution to the hole in the face, the SV-1 needs it's next coat of paint and then there's the TLA-TH1 that needs me to decide what's to happen with it. In the background we are playing around with scratch built neck blanks and redrawing a proposed neck through baritone. My projects list is booked until at least June. Then there's the important stuff (What the better half wants me to do!!).

Hey Adam
When are submissions closing for this 'contest'?
I'm about to gut my shed, as in get rid of the clutter.
After that, if I can get a few days run on my first build, it COULD be done by Christmas.

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Originally Posted by adam

I’ve added restorations, refurbs and refinished guitars to this GOTY Comp.

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What about having a couple of different categories?

Suggestions for categories:
- Complete non-PB kit builds
- Complete scratch builds
- restoration/refurb
- refinish

Hey Muzza the very 1st post of this thread Ads says closes 31st December so I presume as long as its posted on this thread before new years hits Perth you should be eligible so you get a bonus 2 hours of time !

I agree with your categories for next year's competition. When you enter just name the closest category to what the entry is. It's not really fair to compare a kit with a scratch build or a re-furb or re-finished axe

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Originally Posted by Muzza

Hey Adam
When are submissions closing for this 'contest'?
I'm about to gut my shed, as in get rid of the clutter.
After that, if I can get a few days run on my first build, it COULD be done by Christmas.

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Hey Muzza, thanks for the prompt. Now I've thought about it, it's guitar/bass of the Year so we should give it to the 31st of December.

We can then open the polling for all of January and then announce the winner in February, as we did with GOTY in 2014.

Hope that doesn't upset anyone.

So, go for it Muzza.

No categories please.. the judges already have a hard enough time. I am sure they will judge on the level of complexity vs final result to pick a deserved winner... I say that with confidence as our good friend Brendan will probably be in charge and nothing gets by him. (sorry BP, but you have set the benchmark)