September 2013 Guitar of the Month

[Fretworn]

Congratulations Andy & Dan. Unfortunately as it is Guitar (singular) of the month you both now have to surrender the guitars to DB so he can convert them into a mutant double neck.

[wokkaboy]

great idea Fretworn, could be a double neck LP/Strat glued together, finished in conch girl and fretless !

[dingobass]

Yep. Well done guys, both of these Guitars were so hard to choose between.
The classic look of the LP vs the customised Strat made it really difficult to choose one as the winner.....

[keloooe]

Wow, congratz guys!!! The bar is really high now... Can't wait to see what October GOTM brings us!!!

[Andyport]

Hey, thanks so much guys...I'm absolutely wrapped!!
Certainly brightened up an otherwise dull Monday.
Congrats to all entries, and to share the title with Dan's strat is great.
I knew that Dan's custom work would be a hard one to beat. Well done Dan!!

I'm currently part way through my ES-1GT...
and swear my next build will be an "F-Style" kit, with NO binding and NO flame maple cap...
Didn't have much hair to start with, but I have a whole lot less now!!
And that's before I even look at wiring the thing up!!

Cheers,
Andy

[Humphrey]

Hi

Brilliant both of you. I am now building an SG kit and have ordered some burr walnut veneer to put on my headstock and to make a scratch plate with............all because of the beautiful ST in this months GOTM comp. What a cracker. Any hints on veneer application would be good please.
After this current SG style build I too will go for a 335 style.
This is great fun. Glad I found Pit Bull Guitars on the net.

[Gavin1393]

/<\\/p>[/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/]<\\/p>/Quote from Humphrey on September 9, 2013, 14:34
Hi

Brilliant both of you. I am now building an SG kit and have ordered some burr walnut veneer to put on my headstock and to make a scratch plate with............all because of the beautiful ST in this months GOTM comp. What a cracker. Any hints on veneer application would be good please.
After this current SG style build I too will go for a 335 style.
This is great fun. Glad I found Pit Bull Guitars on the net.

....and you are already passing on some good advice to those in need so we're delighted you found us too! Good one Humphrey!

[robin]

Well done Andy and Dan, two great guitars right there.

Comisserations to the rest, you all must surely have tied for 2nd place. Guys, if this standard keeps rising I shudder to think how professional future GOTM's will be. I know it's said every month, but the standard just keeps going up.

Well done all entrants.

rob

[stan]

Well I was wrong - there can be more than one winner- well done Andy and Dan, both superb looking axes for sure.
Well done to the others, you can all be proud of building some excellent looking instruments

[DanMade]

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from Humphrey on September 9, 2013, 14:34
Hi

Brilliant both of you. I am now building an SG kit and have ordered some burr walnut veneer to put on my headstock and to make a scratch plate with............all because of the beautiful ST in this months GOTM comp. What a cracker. Any hints on veneer application would be good please.
After this current SG style build I too will go for a 335 style.
This is great fun. Glad I found Pit Bull Guitars on the net.

Thanks Humphrey. I'm sure this SG will be a cracker after seeing your great work on the two you have just finished.

As for veneering tips, I haven't done a veneer on a headstock yet but it should be pretty straight forward. Depending on the thickness of the veneer you could just glue and clamp with titebond and then trim it of with a sharp blade if its a thin veneer. Or if it is a thicker piece you could shape it off a template and glue and clamp with some locating pins.

With the pickgaurd, the way I made mine was by laminating 5 sheets of 0.6mm veneer together. I used the same veneer for each layer but you could use different types of veneers in each layer. Only the face of the top layer will be seen.

The problem with laminating veneers is they tend to warp and cup very easily. To combat this you need to alternate the direction of the grain in each layer so the natural cup and bow in each sheet will counter act the the others.

I glued and clamped the veneer sheets between two 16mm melamine boards with some wax paper inbetween so any excess glue doesn't stick to the boards . Use as many clamps as you can, I used 10. I kept it in clamps for 2 days.

Even after 2 days in in clamps, the was still some moisture from the glue. I then left it on a flat surface under weight for about a week to cure. While the laminations are drying out is the most critical time to stop it from warping. So always keep it flat and under weight until you are ready to work with it.

I cut and shaped the pickgaurd with a jigsaw, belt sander and files. This worked very good but the next one I will be using a router.

Alternatively you could just use contact adhesive and stick a single veneer sheet to a plastic pickgaurd.