April GOTM

April Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in March)

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

Please remember:

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

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 closes at the end of March (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!

EDIT: Looks like I will have to wait until April! Duh! Congrats to the winner!
Here is Impatience, my first ever guitar build. I wanted to create a guitar similar to the beautiful "Merle Haggard Tuff Dog Tele". I hit a few challenges along the way, but nothing that couldn't be overcome. I had wonderful support from this amazing community. Thank you all! I can't put this guitar down. I like it better than my MIM Strat.

Attachment 34096
Attachment 34095
Attachment 34091
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Looking like a quite month so feel free to flick me into next month if entries are too low.
Customised GR-1SF. No hardware, f holes and neck pocket hole only, dot fretboard markers.
Modified headstock with rosewood veneer, Sorry judges, no decal.
Bone nut.
Rosewood neck heel cap and truss rod cover.
Mahogany stain, gloss polyurethane (steel wool used on back of neck).
Nylon string, pickup glued under floating rosewood/gold roller bridge.

Back of guitar.

Headstock. Rosewood veneer.

Close up of finish. Japan brown and satin poly on tailpiece.

Man that's pretty...

That is a fine thing! :)

Utterly stunning work. I stand and applaud.

Yeah as the others have said, this is really cool. The sheer amount of mods is impressive enough, but the finishing and overall 'Tastfulness' of it really bring it home. I wouldn't want to be up against it in the comp.

That is simply stunning it could possibly be the only entry for many months as I can see all other potential entries cowering in the corner

Agree! Pack 'er up boys and girls, we're done here.

Mind = blown

A ridiculously impressive instrument, DM. Fantastic work.

Looking back in March GOTH, brandanop has an exquisite Tele which missed the cut for that month and would be most unfortunate to get forgotten about as I haven’t seen it reappeared this month.

Moved the post - should be good now.

Hey Ya'll!

Just finished my build of the TLB-4M. The fit was very good and other than a few hiccups on the painting, it went rather smooth. It's hard to tell by the pictures but the color is a metallic copper with a glaze clear coat. I used a light stain and linseed oil on the fretboard and the back of the neck.

Cool, what is the pickup?

Hey Cliff,
The pickup is a Seymour Duncan SCPB-2.

Cool, I have been eyeing off a NORDSTRAND 51P, thinking about making a 5 String with their 51P5S HUM-CANCELLING pickup.

Sounds like a good choice. That SD hums a little bit when is sit next to electrical stuff but I us a Shure wireless pac and move around until I don't hear the buzz. I grounded and shielded real well so the buzz isn't that bad. I purchased an inexpensive 5 string about 6 months ago and really like it. It takes a few minutes for my brain to compute from 4 string to 5 string.

Comp closed - will open the next one shortly.

So the comments...
Brandanop's ATL-1QB
nice looking tele. The tobacco burst and gold hardware go well together, custom pickguard shows a bit more grain ! needs a headstock logo
A really great looking first build, and excellent homage/replica/tribute. That top looks fantastic. Great combination of colours and hardware to closely align with its inspiration. The sides appear to be a little more textured than ideal and it would have been nice to see a logo on the headstock. Overall, very nice.
The part of me that loves pretty TLS adores this guitar. It might be a trick of the light, but it looks like the finish on the sides isn’t quite to the high standard of the front.
A really neat looking Tele here. No photo of the back of the guitar and a little hard to tell from the photos regarding the fine quality of the finish. But overall a really well put together kit. Lovely burst, taking on the advice sought in the build diary too, thanks for getting involved in the community. And a great first build mate. Looking forward to the next one.

DarkMark's GR-1SF
nice finish and the colours work well with this model. Is the neck heel supposed to be a lighter colour or did you miss a bit of staining ?
A beautiful and deceptively simple looking guitar that belies the complexity and effort involved in the build. The nylon string and modified headstock combo is a work of art - and profoundly messes with my head (especially when viewed from the back). Fantastic overall look, and huge respect for the work involved. I love the headstock face, but to me the rosewood on the back of the headstock and heel cap looks a little light in colour compared to the rest of the neck and body.
Such a brave build & it is finished in your blood, sweat & tears. I had my doubts that we would see this finished, but you have completed it to such an impeccable standard. Incredible job.
Oh baby. This thing just looks like it needs to be snapped up from the guitar shop and taken home to be strummed. A really great, in-depth build diary, tackling all of the trials and tribulations of this build. You came a long way with this one and overcame many issues, however you pulled off your gutsy inception in the end in a fine fashion - you should be proud DM. A lot of customization and patience paid off in the finish and overall quality of this build. I can't fault it at all mate well done.
Awesome amount of rework on this to get the headstock just right. Colour is spot on – love the cloudy red sort of effect – goes really well with the cream binding and other customisations – also love how you’ve gone totally acoustic. Amazing job.

TrailerTrash49's TLB-4M
got to love a tele bass ! interesting colour, looks like its fun to play. No photo of the back of the bass ?
Wow, this is one beautiful Tele bass. Simple, clean, and gorgeous. Nice headstock and overall finish, which has produced a really appealing bass. It's a shame the copper colour doesn't show through better in the photos, as I think I'd love it even more.
A unique look & a unique colour. I really like this and the finish looks really well done.
A really neat and tidy bass you have presented us with here. Interesting choice of colour, which i am sure looks a lot different in real life than in photos. Hard to tell the fine quality of the finish as no real close up or shot of the back of the bass. Headstock decal is cool, but may have benefited from being buried in the clear coat to hide the obvious edges. Worthy upgrade in the pickup there, would love to hear how it sounds. No build diary on this one that I could find, so a little hard to see the progress from inception to completion, however thanks for sharing with us.
Love the Tele bass – makes me want to finish mine all the more. Great work. Can see the challenge with the decal on the headstock, but otherwise immaculate.

OK runner up - Brandanop's ATL-1QB - nicely finished and great outcome.
https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...6&d=1582323715

And the winner - no one could fault DarkMark's GR-1SF.
https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...1&d=1584596470

Well done to all entrants and hats off to @DarkMark

Did I just post in the wrong month? I built a HB4 Violin Bass. Finished in early April.

Yep don't stress, Brendan can move it over to the other comp for you.

Nice one DM, that's such a classy build.

Some brilliant builds here and sadly for the others DarkMark's had it won as soon as it went up.

I know we’ve all had more important things on our minds at the moment, so thanks for the interest and complimentary comments. In fact I was a blown away by the comments. The Tele’s were great, I’d take either one home. Thanks once again, keep doing the right thing and stay safe everyone.

Well done all, but especially so DM. It was always going to be tough to beat that epic build,

Some cracking builds again, remind me to never finish a guitar the same month as DarkMark though... ;)