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 April 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!
Here is my entry for this month.
GHQ-1 – FACTORY SECOND
Mahogany semi-hollow body with F Holes and single ply cream binding
Headless Mahogany set neck with Ebony fret board
22 frets 25.5″ Scale length
Dual Humbucker pick ups, The neck is a high output Warman unit, bridge is stock.
Volume and tone knobs and 3 way switch
Double locking bridge
I had been watching this kit for a few months as it had just sat on the seconds page unloved. I have wanted to do a headless for ages and the price i got was just the push i needed.
This kit came with some significant issue to overcome. The Fret board damage was the first part and the veneer was in a pretty poor state. A bubble, several chips, dents and lots of glue issues. (I knew all this before i ordered).
Just in case the veneer was salvageable i did stain it to see if it could be rescued. Lets just say it didn't look good.
My choice was always to do a solid finish and the veneer made a nice flat (Once I has sanded it) surface to start on.
I laid several coats of primer, sanded then used Venus Orange followed by the gloss top coats.
To repair the fret board i sanded back the affected areas and kept the dust to mix with super glue. Some fine sanding and careful Dremel work and you can barely see the damage. To finish the look I have added some interesting fret markers as well.
The zero fret was also an issue but i had a plan for that as well. I was getting buzz and tuning issues as the string were not in contact with the fret.. It is strung with a 7 string set from the top down. Effectively a 7 without the high E. It is tuned to B standard and it is a beast.
To compliment the guitar I have also made a carry case utilizing the left over orange paint and some car painters tape.
Here's my entry. It's my first ever build and I think it turned out OK. An ES-1F finished in 2K clearcoat with a combination of black & blue fabric dyes and green food colouring underneath! Let's see how the colours hold up. Should be OK because of the UV protection in 2K clearcoat. I opted for the gold hardware, bone nut and Grover locking tuners.
I'm not sure if you can ever say a self-build guitar is ever truly "finished" but it's finished for now. Looks OK and plays OK. The Law of Diminishing Returns certainly came into play on this! I'd say the final 20% to about 80% of the time. One thing I can say for sure is that you really don't save money by building your own. I could have bought a very nice finished guitar for less, but that's not the point. It gave me something to do for a couple of months on & off, I have the guitar I want and I have the feeling of achievement that the thing actually works and sounds good. Now I just have to be learn how to play it properly!
Greetings! This is my first build and I think it came out decently, although I admit that it's a crude attempt compared to some of the other guitars I see on this site. I play a lot of surf rock and I thought it would be fun to give the kit a bit of a nostalgic vibe. It was a fun project and I learned a lot to be sure!
Kit JBA-4L Swamp Ash Body
Finish: Body -natural boiled linseed oil with Polyurethane clear coat
Head stock: Enamel two-tone (decal was from a defunct brand but I covered it for forum rules)
Modifications: Minimal. Replaced kit screws with better quality hardware, installed Fender style ashtray bridge cover, Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings.
The kit went together fairly straightforward. My only note is that next time I will not go with a natural finish on swamp ash because the pores are very deep and nearly impossible to fill via slurry sanding and poly coat. If I do a swam ash natural in the future I will go for a more rustic finish and spotlight the deep grains instead of fighting them. I have a bit more smoothing to do on the back of the neck to get it silky but it's coming along nicely- I think 2 more coats of BLO applied with steel wool should do the trick.
It's a wonderful playing guitar. Heavy because it's hardwood, but it's got a really powerful sound and the neck is just right for how I like to play.
Sorry for the photo quality, my photography skills are as poor as my building and playing
Last edited by Ozzlefinch; 20-03-2022 at 08:42 AM.
This was my first build and I really enjoyed the process. The project was great as a switch off from busy work/family life so I was in no hurry to get it finished. I took my time over every step doing the best possible job I could taking no shortcuts and I’m very pleased with the finished results.
As a well seasoned player with a fair bit of experience of fretwork and set ups, my priorities for this build were tone and playability over looks, but obviously I also wanted a great looking guitar so I still spent plenty of time on the finish.
I prefer a taller fret wire than the wire that came with the kit so before I set the neck I took the time to do a refret. I used Jescar 55090 fret wire which has the same dimensions as Dunlop 6105. I’m really pleased with the results, it feels and plays great, really nice for bending.
I fancied a pretty headstock veneer as opposed to a decal. I was very fortunate to source a local piece of Red Ash veneer with beautiful figuring and contrasting sapwood and heartwood for the headstock. I had enough of this veneer left over to make the control cavity covers for the back of the guitar. I also made the truss rod cover from a piece of Ironbark Eucalypt which was also from a local source.
I choose the LP style kit as I wanted a nice humbucker equiped guitar as an alternative to the strats I usually play. I upgraded all the components and hardware from the kit, infact the only parts of the original kit I used were the body and neck. Here’s a list of the upgrades I made….
Lollar Imperial pickups
Faber Germany bridge, tailpiece and locking tuners
Montreux pick up rings
Switchcraft jack socket and switch
CTS pots with .22 orange drops
Jescar 55090 fret wire
Bone Nut
Finished with Crimson Stains and lots of Tru-oil
Thanks for reading, any feedback would be appreciated.
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