June Guitar of the Month

[Brendan]

June Guitar of the Month (for Guitars and Basses finished in May)

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

Please remember:

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

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 June closes at the end of May (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!

[Mike.L]

The mahogany neck and zebra top was filled with black grain filler and stained, back was painted jet black with double stingers on the neck, everything except fretboard was clear coated.
Upgrades are CTS pots, Orange drop cap, Switchcraft jack, bone nut, roller bridge and Guyker professional locking tuners.

[Mike.L]

Few more pics..

[Johnbamb]

Here is my '78 EVH Frankenstrat replica.

ST-1M is the base for this. All up cost was under $300 (For me that is great as I usually blow a load on hardware and pickups).

The changes to the stock kit are some locking tuners, Brass nut and single humbucker guard with a Warman pickup I had lying around from a previous build. Wiring is fairly simple, single volume with a push pull to split to single coil. The tone knob is off my old fender strat.
The strap eyelets are from Bunnings and will hold up a house if needed.

I had added a logo as per the original but covered it for this post.

Paint process was clear base coat, 3 layers of black, tape up then a dust coat of black to prevent any smearing under the tape. It only needed 2 coats of white, then several cans of clear. I used Duramax for this guitar.

[Johnbamb]

[FaustoB]

Finished this month a GPB-4 unlined fretless.
Half build by myself in my garage, half with the contribution, tips & wonderful advice received by amazing and very generous people in this forum.

This bass is named Soave (soe-AH-veh) "A directive to perform the indicated passage of a composition in a gentle, soft, and engaging manner."

Ash body and neck finished with Tru Oil.

Shirt pins for side dots, slightly protruding out for a tactile feel and additional shine, very helpful for an unlined fretless.

Custom cut pick guard for more appealing shape and to reveal the ash body.

Slightly unusual scale. Let me explain. The bass is a classic 34"... minus a little bit.
I have intentionally shortened the scale a fraction in this build by placing the bridge a little bit closer to the fretboard (7mm) in order to achieve an additional "fret".
Precision basses traditionally have 20 frets, which I always found very unsatisfying, but this little mod allowed me to achieve 21 frets without any noticeable change in scale or feel. I have now an additional E note on the G string on the 21st fret, a B on D stings and so on... Given that the first note on the instrument is a low E, it feels like closing a circle getting all the way up to E, 3 full octaves higher.

Custom cut for neck plate and neck pocket.
From the classic rectangular shape to a more curved and pleasant shape, primarily to achieve higher notes with more ease and avoiding having the left hand abruptly hitting the body at the neck joint.
Reshaped the neck to follow the neck join curve.

Electronics and pickups custom from kit for now: upgraded to bone nut, hardware to black (but still PitBull Guitars) and D'Addario half round strings that seem to suit this type of bass very well.

Decals with name of bass on side of headstock and custom logo on headstock and neck plate (and one hidden under the pick guard!

Photos!


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[FaustoB]

and a few more photos

name of bass on side of the headstock


Custom logo on custom neck plate on custom neck joint






this build was fun, thanks again to the community and to all those who answered my rookie questions and provided precious advice!

Build diary here if anyone is interested in building one of these

[NGCbuilder]

Hi all,

Here are some pictures of my recent IB5 Bass kit build. I have upgrades the kit with Gotoh tuners, a Schaller bridge, and I have installed Ernie Ball slinky 45 to 130 strings.

I have recently gotten back into playing music after around 10 years after being left stuck at home with some ongoing heath problems. I was on the lookout for a 5 string bass, however nobody had anything in stock that really appealed to me, and as I enjoy woodworking as a hobby, it was the perfect project for me to take on. The body and headstock were coloured with Ubeaut Green dye, and sealed with multiple coats of gloss clear lacquer. The headstock decal is my initials that I printed out on DIY decal paper, that I then attached and glossed over several times to protect it. I had originally intended to leave the back of the headstock its original maple colour, however, despite masking the area off, some of the dye was able to penetrate through, and after sanding for quite a while and removing a lot of material, i still could not get rid of all of it, so I made the decision to airbrush the back and sides of it gloss black, and I actually really like the contrast in colours. The neck itself is clear coated with satin clear varnish. I love the look of gloss painted/varnished necks, however i personally do not like the feel of them. The fretboard was treated with fretboard oil to both protect it and bring its colour out.

I am still playing with the setup on it a little bit; I have a heavy right hand and I hate fret buzz, however I may still drop it a little bit further. Overall, I am really happy with my build, and I think that there is nothing better that being able to play something that you have made yourself. For future builds, I am considering getting an airbrush stencil with my initials in it so I can spray it on the headstock for a flatter finish, and also use metallic colours which you cant do with a normal printer and decal paper. The only other issue I have now is that the Amp I currently have doesn't like the b string at higher volumes, so I guess I will have to upgrade it...…well, that's my excuse anyway

[phrozin]

The mahogany neck and zebra top was filled with black grain filler and stained, back was painted jet black with double stingers on the neck, everything except fretboard was clear coated.
Upgrades are CTS pots, Orange drop cap, Switchcraft jack, bone nut, roller bridge and Guyker professional locking tuners.

beautiful finish you have done well and not over the top, loverly and flat you have put some work into that fella😎👌

[Mike.L]

beautiful finish you have done well and not over the top, loverly and flat you have put some work into that fella😎👌

Thank you, yeah a few months worth of work, built for a friend so I always go a bit ocd 🤣
Shame one of the strings was not in the roller bridge properly for the pictures, didn’t see it till after I posted the picks 🤦🏻