January 2020 GOTM

[Monn1]

Greetings form Finland forum,

Here is my first pitbull kit build.

It started as an EXM-1 with a custom electronics cavity and a blank headstock. My inspiration on this build was Ken Lawrence explorer as a colour reference and ESP snakebyte as a headstock reference but with a more traditional explorer body shape. I also updated all the hardware (gotoh tuners, gotoh stringholder/bridge, black pickup selector, new jack/jackplate, push/pull pots wired to a 50's style gibson wiring with a series/parallel switching for the SD Distortion/59 pickups). I ended up using the pitbull bone nut because I didn't find a good black alternative locally.

The colour was a result of trial and error. I first filled the grain with some wood filler and then mixed some water based stains from three different colours and finally found the right combination. And after this I finished the guitar using Liberon finishing oil and liberon bison wax. It's not that resistant to dings but the finish has a nice satin feel and looks awesome.

Set up went suprisingly well as this was my first set neck build. I levelled/re-shaped the frets and filed the string slots on the nut and got it intonated nicely.

This was a very nice experience for me and I'm really pleased to the pitbull kit and the final result.

[wazkelly]

Nice version of an Explorer Monn1.

Looks great.

[Tassieaxeman]

Throwing my hat in the ring for GOM , I will inlay a 1963 shilling in the headstock at a
later stage. But here it is.
One of your thinline kits with bigsby. I was originally going to paint it all, but quite liked the grain so stained the front with a mix of stewmac lemon yellow and tobacco stain. Then numerous coats of Tru oil.
Tru oil for the neck. The headstock shape is an amalgam of several tele headstock shapes!
Back and sides are Mitsubishi blue mica over quick silver, acrylic, masked the stars. Then 12 coats of acrylic lacquer. I've swapped out the humbuckers for some bullbuckrs I had on hand and added coil tapping with push pulls. Replaced the nut with bone nut. Which eliminated an annoying twang on the high E, which took me forever to isolate, nice it ended up being such a simple fix. All in all Im pretty happy with it, it plays nice holds tune and the bigsby style tremolo is amazingly good! Only thing I'd do differently, is I'd use either wipe on poly or 2pak clear. The clear coat took forever to cure, as the timber holds thinners a lot longer than a car body!
Next up is either a PRSQ or an AG, still pondering that!

[Jbuller7]

Well its as good as finished now apart from headstock so might as well put it in for GOTM and let you all see it. Like Tassieaxeman I still have to add a Silver Celtic knot to the headstock but its currently buried in the garden 'aging'.

I always fancied an ES335 guitar but the traditional sunburst and cherry finishes never inspired me to lift them and play them so this is my take on it.
The plan was always to stick with a very early style with dot inlays, no neck binding and traditional style wiring but then ideas started forming. Stayed with dot inlays and no neck binding as i'm usually a strat player but decided to give a few more options tonally with the electronics. Fitted with Vanson pickups, which are great pickups for the price, I went with a P90 neck and 59 classic splitable humbucker in the bridge. This gives 5 tonal options rather than the traditional 3 as there is a DPDT bridge POT to split to single coil rather than humbucker.

Back and neck was kept simple and just sanded back to 3000 grit and then 4-5 coats of Danish Oil whipped on. The top of the body was done slightly differently... Lightly sanded back and sprayed with coral blue nitro undercoat before applying 5 layers of copper leaf over a 2 week period. During the copper leaf process the headstock was sanded, primed, sanded, sprayed, sanded, sprayed, sanded and lacquered to give a piano black finish before some edging detail was added with more copper leaf. Once cured a few applications of plant food / vinegar / water solutions were added in various concentrations to tarnish the copper to various depths of green / blue . The same was carried out on the truss rod cover. After 48 hours of tarnishing the fretboard was taped up and 6 coats of satin gloss nitro lacquer applied to the completed guitar.

Neck joint was spot on, initial set up was easy, once frets had been levelled polished, and the guitar plays and sounds like a dream. It will need another setup in a few weeks once the neck has got used to the string tension but that's normal as far as I am concerned.

Copper strap locks and an amazing Richtone strap finished the build off perfectly. I cannot walk past this guitar without stopping and looking (and normally playing it) so I'm a 100% fully satisfied builder. 3 other guitarists have seen it, played it and tried making off with it in their gig bag. Good gob its a 335 size and wouldn't fit in their gig bags.

[Tassieaxeman]

Nice job, not a fan of the tarnished copper effect, but so long as you like it, that's all that counts.
Like the knobs! How was the build? Any problems? I have a 355 pencilled in after my next build, how is the tone with the basswood body?

[Jbuller7]

Hi Tassie axeman, cheers for the comment. Really good build. 335 needed minor adjustments during the build. Pickup pockets needed enlarged slightly, pot holes needed enlarged slightly and neck pocket needed a bit of tidying up. Tonally it sounds pretty damn good. The basswood is a bit soft (neck pocket) but it has made the guitar lightweight and comfortable. Nice sound unplugged which is good. Not as sharp/brittle unplugged as my epiphone hollow body was.

[Jbuller7]

Monn1 great work. you should check out Ben at crimson guitars on YouTube. Currently building a hollow body explorer with fan fret. Great channel for tips and tricks

[wazkelly]

Gotta say that copper tarnished finish looks pretty cool to me.

[Tassieaxeman]

Nice work, Jbuller7. I was also surprised by the tele, your right the basswood is very soft compared to mahogany, but it does seem to have a similar tone.
Also gotta say your coppertop is growing on me. It would look good on a fiddle or double bass.

[Tassieaxeman]

Nice one Monn1, the mahogany came up a treat. You should have access to mammoth ivory in Finland. It makes a fine nut if you can get it.