August / September GOTM

[Brendan]

August / September Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in July / August)

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

Please remember:

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

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 August closes at the end of August (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!

[jmax]

Here's my modified JZ-6, finished today with the arrival of new knobs.

This was a factory second body with some mended cracks (and some not mended cracks as well!) As I was planning on a solid finish, that wasn't a problem.

The neck and centre pickups, the blade switch, and the tone pots are stock, as are the bridge and the tremolo unit.

The bridge pickup is an Iron Gear Tesla Shark, coil split with a push/pull volume pot - wired backwards because it was out of phase with the middle pickup.

The machine heads are Grover mini locking tuners. It's necessary to unwind the wrap on the three lowest strings and use the core for locking. I'm using D'Addario EXL156 Nickel Wound 24-84 Fender Bass VI Strings.

I replaced the speed knobs with some no-name oven style knobs.

The scratchplate was custom cut by Tiny Tone. I don't have the tools, patience, or skill to cut one myself.

Because the stock build has all three pickups crammed in the upper half of the space between the bottom of the neck and the bridge, I customised the build. I chiselled out a cavity for the humbucker, and evenly spaced all three pickups. The middle pickup falls dead centre between the neck and the bridge - pretty much where the pickups sit on a P Bass.

The stock tone pots are clearly linear, and basically do very little between 10 and 3, and then fall off a cliff between 3 and 0. I will probably replace them some time in the future, but I don't really use tone pots all that often, so there's no rush.

I used Wudtone T-Bird finish, with their extra gloss clear coat. I used no grain filler, because I wanted the grain of the ash body to show through.

The neck required very little work, and the action is great. This is a really nice playing instrument.

And it sounds great! Even the cheap stock single coils sound good. This has a really nice edgy rasp to it.

[jmax]

Surely other people built guitars in July and August?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[noproblam]

My IB4 finished mid august - all stock hardware - Liberron Peacock Blue wood dye with poly over the top. Plays great, done several gigs already and was a winner. Fretless next.

[Brendan]

OK light couple of months and comp closed.
Will open a new one soon.

[jmax]

Maybe fold this in with the next month? With only two entries, it sort of becomes a zero sum game.

[Brendan]

Jmax - we have someone with a guitar from September - will roll that one in as well to round it out.

[Mathew]

This JBA-4 from Pitbull Guitars is my first build.

Upgrades I included are:

• Gotoh GB640 Res-O-Lite Tuners
• Tonerider TRJ1 'Jazz Plus' Pickups
• Schaller S Strap Locks
• Rotosound RS77 Monel Flat Wounds
• Babicz FCH 4 Bridge (Black)
• .047uF Orange Drop Capacitor

My aim from the outset was was a black burst over a dark purple base with glassy finish, and matching headstock.

Body
On the body I used Timbermate Ebony Filler to pop the grain; Angelus Purple Leather Dye to create a purple base; Gluboost Fill n Finish to seal; SCA Acrylic Aerosol Clear Gloss to create some separation between the purple base and black burst; SCA Acrylic Paint (Black) to layer the burst; and SCA Acrylic Aerosol Clear Gloss to finish. I used Micro-Mesh pads to wet sand after levelling; and Maguires Polishing Compound, Scratch Remover, and Ultimate Finish to finish and polish.

Headstock
On the headstock I used a similar approach to create the purple base and black burst, but used Cabot's Clear Stain Exterior Aerosol (Gloss) to finish, with custom waterslide decals ('OMS' and 'Purple Thunder') between layers of clear coat.

Neck
The neck was finished with Cabot's Clear Stain Exterior Aerosol (Satin).

I'm particularly proud of the purple 'halo' around the pickguard which was created by rubbing purple dye into the edge of the white inner layer. It's a small detail, but one which brings the 'Purple Thunder' together.

[Mathew]

Looking forward to judges feedback. This may be a tricky call with three diverse builds to split!

[Brendan]

Jmax’s JZ-6
Nicely finished – did you fill the grain pre spraying – seems to be some grain lines appearing through the finish. Other than that – nice mods and classy looks all round.
Seems to be battle of the teal this time round – real surfcaster feel to it and overall great looking guitar. Change in knobs is worth it.
Pickguard has a great effect – and is a good change to the traditional tortoise shell. There appear to be some areas where the grain has caused some interesting effects in the finish.
Great attention to detail. Classy guitar all over. Well done!

Noproblam’s IB-4
Teal monster. Not a massive fan of teal on grainy guitars, but this does come out nicely. Well done. Great work in getting the neck to have a similar colour to the body.
Love the overall effect of the black with the teal. Comes out as a stunning guitar. Has it been intonated yet as the bridge looks a little bit too even? Would do with a nice logo.
Hey – great bass. Love it. The nut looks a little out of place – almost gives it a bit of a mallard feel to me. Otherwise great guitar. Looks like a player.
If you can gig with it – must be a keeper. Interesting placement of the strap button on the horn. Colour has come out great. Excellent job.

Matthew’s JBA-4
Nice attention to details and keeping things consistent. Cool overall effect and a nice guitar all round. Purple halo effect is cool once you see it. Silver knobs and control panel stand out and take a little away from the rest of the guitar for me. Great work on the logos.
Love the colour depth here. Good overall effect, but the back looks lighter than the front? Could be a camera / lighting thing… Nice combination of mods and upgrades. If only the silks on the rotosounds were purple…
Love the gloss here. Shows that there has been some work to get everything nice and flat. Obviously some work has gone in here. Did the back take the stain differently? Seems to be a bit lighter than the front. Worthy addition to any collection.
Hey this looks like a guitar that many would make a bee line to in the shop. Great work!