September 2015 Guitar of the Month

[bargeloobs]

Wow talk about blown away!! With the quality of the builds this time round literally any of the builders could have come away with a win. I'm picking it must have been a nightmare for the judges trying to whittle down a winner.
Thanks to everyone for the kind words as well as a HUUUGE thanks to the judges for taking the time to give out some really great feedback.
Beautiful work by all who entered, you should all be proud.

[Island_Moose]

Wow...the FS-1 is complete, and I'm waiting for a fine day to photograph it...but now I'm afraid...I don't handle criticism well.

[stan]

Wow...the FS-1 is complete, and I'm waiting for a fine day to photograph it...but now I'm afraid...I don't handle criticism well.

enter anyway mate.
it's not so much criticism as critique.
our builds are very personal, so it may seem a bit cutting, but having been here since before the first GOTMs were awarded, I assure you the judges only concern is to sort the better from the best and to help you build the best guitar you can.

Also go back and read some of the judgements and see if there is anything you can do to improve your axe before you submit it.

[jarrod]

Island Moose..
Don't fear the Reeper,we are not here to pick your beloved axe too bits. We are more here too point out the things that make a great guitar a special guitar so your next build can say " find fault with this one fella's".
You have no idea how hard it is to pick a winner when really you want to pick them all up and play them. The biggest thing I enjoy about GOTM is seeing people achieve what they didn't think they could. So many new builders are suddenly on there second and third builds and are producing shop quality instruments that they never thought they could.

[pablopepper]

Yeah, it's all a bit of fun. There is nothing at stake, really (a bit of pride maybe). I like to enter to get uninhibited feedback on my builds. At the end of the day, no one else gets to play the guitar, so the judgement is purely aesthetic and as we all know taste is subjective. As long as you are happy with the result you have achieved, that's all that really matters.

[Brendan]

Agree with Pablo and Jarrod - ultimately, we can't judge the two most important things - sound and is it something you want to play more than any of your other axes - we can only go on looks - we can give sound a go - hence a couple of intonation comments, but ultimately the reason we make guitars is for our own fun - if we score well in a GOTM then...

[Island_Moose]

To be fair, you're right, I'm going back tonight to address what is currently a fairly mundane truss rod hole.

[Fretworn]

Congrats Bargey!

[Gavin1393]

It's certainly worthwhile going back in time and looking at the quality of the builds as they have progressed through the months. Wokka has been the serial entrant missing out on only a handful of months since the inception of GOTM. Some enforced because he won the previous month. Then the game got really tough when Andyport arrived on the scene and delivered quality not seen before on GOTM. This was followed up by Jarrod's sensational finishes (which look even better in the flesh/wood) and scored full marks with most of the judging panel. Coming up against Bargie or Gav Turner in a comp is tough, but anyone can win it. That's what makes it fun to take on these top quality builders...and someone like Woks is probably 'handicapped' somewhat in the minds of the judges because we expect a high standard from him anyways...

[wokkaboy]

haha thats it Gav the standard keeps rising every month.