December GOTM

**Sachin** · 25-11-2019, 02:09 PM

Thanks for the complements guys. In regard to the Pearly Gates, love the neck humbucker.... it just sings. I’m less satisfied with the bridge humbucker, which almost sounds thin and with a lack of definition on the bass strings. It’s great for Texan/blues rock, nothing beats it, but it seems like a one-trick pony. With more gain and distortion, it sounds a bit shrill with lots of high end, but that might be due to the Alnico 2 magnet. I’m about to swap that for an A8, so let’s see how that goes. But by all means, a great set... the bridge not for me though... maybe better in a les Paul.

**Hardcoretroubadour** · 25-11-2019, 04:47 PM

Thinking about a set for a LP scratch build somewhere in the very distant future.

**TZK321** · 25-11-2019, 09:23 PM

Here's my first entry in this monthly contest.

It's a Telecaster Thinline style with a quilted maple top that's been routed for the hybrid pick guard.

Upgrades include:
-quilted maple headstock
-ebony fingerboard
-Tonerider Hot Classics pickups
-upgraded pots
-D'addario tuners
-Schaller style strap locks
-Fender truss rod plug

Future upgrades/mods:
I'll be removing the chrome cover on the neck pickup and replacing the plastic nut with a bone nut in the near future.

Black grain filler was used on the back and sides. It was then placed in an ammonia fume box for ~5 days. The whole guitar was finished with Tru-Oil. The back and sides were then rubbed with steel wool to give draw more attention to the front. T

This was the first and last time that I'm using Tru-Oil. The next guitar will be polyurethane. T-O changed the color of the maple on the body (but not the headstock) from tan to gold. IMHO this is much more than a "yellowing effect". If I'd known it was going to do this I never would've used it.

Anyway, I hope you like it.
A big thank you to Simon for your help.
And thanks to Pitbull for the great kit and for providing this message board.

**wazkelly** · 26-11-2019, 10:00 AM

Looks great.

TO will usually go a darker shade over relatively short period of time. On one of my builds done on natural basswood, which is fairly similar to natural maple, it has more of a light golden honey look almost 2 years later. All part of the accelerated antique look you get when using TO.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

**Hardcoretroubadour** · 29-11-2019, 04:19 PM

Well, been a long time this build, but it is finally time to call this one done!
May I introduce 'BLAM!' this EX-1 was adopted from Tony here on the forum over a year and half ago, and my plan was always to do a different EX build to my EX -4 bass. I was going though the process of clearing out the comics from my teenage years and decided to do a collage of some of my favourites. I decided the best way was to pour an epoxy top over the collage and use a binding as a dam for the edges. Routing the edge to glue the binding on was quite a nerve racking experience, but it all went off without a hitch. Along the way, the cut out collage idea, changed into a scanned computer image collage. Someone here suggested using GIMP to edit and crop the images and after a long learning process for a Luddite like me , I finally got the hang of it and was really happy with the result. There were many stuff ups with this build, the initial image was printed on paper and then sealed and the epoxy poured over the top. The result was so-so, the image had lost some definition when the epoxy was poured on and I kept holding off installing hardware, so I guess I was just procrastinating from stripping it all off and starting again. Eventually I took a teaspoon of cement and chiselled off the top and started again. This time following some advice from the resident design guru Sonic Mountain, I got the image printed on UV stabilised vinyl and this time it worked a treat. The neck provided its own issues, I wanted to use bullet shell casings as fret markers, so I got some from some mates that shoot, and went about drilling out the fret markers. The issue with leaving the frets in-situ, is the scalloping out caused when sanding the epoxy flat. I then tried to remedy it by removing the fretboard and frets and re-drilling and sanding the board flat. Disaster struck while drilling out the holes with the drill bit grabbing and shattering the fret board. Adam came to the rescue with a blank piece of ebony, that I was then able to make into the fretboard you see in the finished product. Few other custom mods along the way, with custom "Punisher" skull truss rod cover, .50 cal volume and tone knobs and .44 Magnum pickup selector. On the electronics side I have used Bourne 500k push /pull pots for the split coils, orange drop capacitor, treble bleed, Switchcraft 3 -way switch and recessed Jack socket. I also went with Artist guitars neck and bridge Bullbuckers. The rear of the guitar body was done initially with fountain pen ink, which worked pretty well, but when I needed to re-sand the back I used the Keta wood dyes that were fantastic. I body and neck were finished with about one million layers of Wipe-on Poly and then polished to 12000 grit using foam pads and finished with Meguiars polish. For those interested, I used Barnes Epoxyglass clear, a 2 part pouring epoxy. Initial noises from the guitar are promising, needs a bit more work on setup, but I will see how it settles in over the next few weeks.