Guitar Of The Month For December

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[Ben 0]

All the entries were great this month, but for me it had to be Wes's... even though (as a general rule) strat-esque guitars tend to bore me a little, this one just works so well as a whole. The wood finish and inlay all just work great together... I want it.

[jmrentis 0]

Yeah, as per usual I was completely torn this month, all great builds and all were quite unique from each other. I really could have picked anyone of them and felt good about it as they all are worthy of GOTM. From the dau it was posted, I loved SwedishLuthiers guitar and its a style that is completely opposite of what I like, but it was just put together so well that it appealed, a lot. I loved the inlays and funny enough I had actually planned the exact same concept on a future project. Mine was more of a Poker style rather than Vegas, but it had most of the same inlays, so like I said that build really was cool in my eyes.

Awilcox got my vote. So far all of his guitars have the features that I would use like white binding everywhere, cool truss covers, excellent wood choices and staining/finishing, etc. They all seem to come out flawless and if there is even a minor glitch or error, its stripped and redone and I highly respect that. Its so tough to make the choice to do it all again when you are finished. It makes all the difference in the world though and is worth it.

Wez guitar was one of the guitars that made my decision the toughest. Absolutely wicked rig!! I love the top on that thing and the finish is great. The whole theme was extremely well done and is just great. Its just a super cool guitar. While it is a familiar shape, it is completely unique in all other aspects. Not much else to say other than awesome guitar.

Argytar is another very cool and unique build. I really liked all the carving done on this thing and the color. I can't even imagine how tough doing all those carves were. The inlay is amazing as well, bet that took a good while to do, really adds a lot to guitar, very well done. Overall excellent guitar, not mention very cool, love the fholes.

Digthemlows was the other guitar that made this month tough. The three that I could choose from were this one, wezs, and awilcoxs. They were all great, but these three were just the bees knees for me. The wood choices and finish on this bass were just superb, not to mention this is now my all time favorite shape for a bass. I would love to have a bass like that, it looks amazing and that top is wow! I like the whole design and seeing his son rocking on it, even goes to show its amazing playability, it just looks nice to play. Great bass, probably my fav overall of alltime. Nice work.

All great guitars again this month, GOTM is great fun. Being able to see everyones ideas and how they bring them to life is enjoyable. Great work guys and best wishes. J

[brian d 1]

Another great month for the GOTM.

SwedishLuthier - beautiful clean work as always. I love the way you matched the pickup tops to the pickguard. The guitar sounds great, too. I think the headstock looks a little bare - needs a logo?

awilcox - another superb guitar. lots of detailed work. beautiful truss rod cover. I think the all the binding really frames the guitar nicely. I didn't like the cavity cover - I prefer the cover to blend in with the back, but that's just me. Well done on the burst.

WezV - like Ben, I generally don't go for strat-like body shapes. However, that spalt top is superb and your treatment of the guitar fits with it so artistically. The work is clean, but it looks oh so dirty. Got my vote this month.

argytar - that guitar is mind-boggling. I can't quite get my head around how you carved all of that, especially the chambers. With that sort of skill with a sharp instrument, are you considering becoming a surgeon? The inlay isn't my taste, but works well with the guitar (which somehow is my taste).

DigThemLows - a superb bass. Beautiful wood, great execution and mojo that will stay with the guitar and with your son. I'm looking forward to the time my 7 year old boy is can help me build. I commend you on matching the cavity cover to the back, and I like the hint of the body wood peeking out over the forearm carve. I'm not a fan of the body shape, and would have preferred to see more of the top wood rather than the lams of the neck through. That said, the heel transition of the neck-through is graceful and sexy....definitely the best neck transition I've seen for a while.

Thanks to all the entrants for another great month.

Brian.

[zyonsdream 7]

Swedishluthier: I for one am a big Telecaster fan so I can really appreciate this guitar. It’s a classic take on a great design and the color choices are great! I love how the pickup covers match the pickguard and the gaming inlays are done to perfection. With that said, there really isn’t anything on this guitar that pushes the envelope for me. The Earvana nut doesn’t have any affect on a guitar unless you are strumming an E11 chord. This is only my opinion but it has a swaying factor for me. The only other thing I notices was no branding on the headstock. It makes the neck look unfinished to me. Other than those two minor things, this guitar looks awesome!

Awilcox: I really like the double cut away on this guitar. It reminds me of a semi-hollow guitar I used to have. In-fact, the finish was just about the same. BTW, the finish on this one is excellent and really complements the guitar a lot. The only thing that seemed off about this build was the choice to match the top of the guitar with the cover plate. Every time I look at the guitar it gets my attention and in this case, I think the attention shouldn’t be on the cover plate.

WezV: When I saw this guitar I thought “this is the guitar I’m voting for” and I even sent you a PM letting you know how much I liked it. In most cases the “relec” is being over done to extremes but in this case I thought it really blended well with the spalted top. I’m personally a sucker for spalts and I really thought this was an excellent build! The aged hardware and that neck really put this one over the top for me.

Argvtar: This guitar reminds me of a very extravagant 1960’s possibly early 70’s Tesco and would be an excellent conversation piece. I really liked the ornate inlay and the way you recessed the bridge. Some things to look at would be the finish on this guitar. It may have been the camera flash but some of the finish on the guitar looked fuzzy. I think a guitar like this would really hit it big with a nice high gloss hard coat.

DigthemLows: Man, I really love the back story behind this bass and it really get’s me excited for when my two boys are old enough to venture into the shop! The wood choice was awesome (I love any and all Walnut!) and the lamination joints looked really clean. There were a couple of things that are personal issues I need to deal with that happened on this build. I’d like to see the board be set a little deeper on the body simply because the lower horn doesn’t touch the board. And the lower bevel is exposing the back wood. Both of these are common but they are things I avoid when looking to buy an instrument. All in all this is a strong build but I suspect that the process was more rewarding than the outcome! Congrats.

So after thinking very hard I decided that I’d keep my work and stick with the spalted top this month! I just think it has the right amount of innovation and creativeness. I really couldn’t think of anything I would personally want to see different.

[WezV 17]

thx for the positive comments guys!!

here is my view

SwedishLuthier - I love this guitar! simple finish, nice chunk of pretty faux tortoise (good to see th pickup tops done as well) and a really simple but cool inlay theme. I would play this guitar all day long given the chance. I agree with Zyon that the headstock is a little plain and unfinished looking and personally i would have gone for a compensated 3 saddle bridge.

Awilcox - The finish and construction is pretty flawless. The only thing i dont like is the upper horn, it doesnt seem quite what i expect to my eyes but that isnt neccisarily a bad thing. the burst is great but i would have liked to see a bit of a tint on the back.

WezV - well i like it!! feel free to leave some criticisms as well if you want

Argvtar - 1 piece of wood!!!!!!!! Thats impressive going... i would love to see some in progress pictures. I like the style of carving but dont think it flows very well with the shape of the guitar in this case

DigThemLows - Well this really appeals to me. the shape is great and i really like walnut, especially since i recently had a bit that was probably from the same tree... i think i remember you getting this from Larry at around the same time i got mine. I would like to see a truss rod cover on it and flat radiused boards always look strange to me but i know that is something you like

thx again to everyone that has voted or even just commented on my guitar

[argytar 5]

hi again this is argytar!

Guys thanks for all the comments!

First of all I am going to specialize in surgery after i finish my country service! So the carving had a lot to do with surgery ...and patience!!

It took me a lot of loving labour to hollow out the guitar but as i said i did it through the small backplate the f holes and the jack plate. believe it or not the guitar is half hollow.

As for the finish, it is matte as most of oil finishes are i sure am no photo expert,i wanted the guitar to feel old and currently i am 'adding' some dings when i use it live..

all the other instruments are just superb!!

for the people who want to see some photos of the making progress here are some links but these photos were taken with my cell phone's camera so these are a little fuzzy for sure! These prove though that the guitar is my one piece wonder!!

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a...ranzascrap2.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a...eranzascrap.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a...cacarveplan.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a.../esperanza4.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a...zarehearsal.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a...zafretboard.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a...nzatrussrod.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a...ckupcavity2.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc223/a...ickupcavity.jpg

well that s about it for now!!anyone caring for some sound bits lemme know!

gotm is really exciting!!

cheers!

[digi2t 0]

All great work, but since I'm a kid at heart I had to go with Digthemlows. It's important to support and nurture the next generation. Especially now that more and more of them are less and less manually adept. Nowadays, they can sure design a pretty 3D axe in Catia, but they can't figure out which end of a screwdriver to hold on to.

Good on you guys...

[custom22 0]

I gotta go with the one piece 1. Because somebody finally did it. 2. The carves and inlay look really nice. and 3. Anybody who creates a semihollow out of a solid chunk of wood deserves props! Great job!

[crafty 5]

ESPERANZA all the way this month!!

Are you kidding me? How can you NOT vote for that guitar?! The guy carved it out of one piece of wood in his apartment in Greece with a hammer and a chisel!! That's like freakin' Michaelangelo stuff right there! Don't get me wrong, I like the other entries, but compared with that level of patience and desire, you gotta give it to this guy.

[awilcox 0]

I really like all of the entires this month, all top notch looking stuff. I am just proud that I can build something that can stand beside these guitars and actually get a few votes. But I gotta comment on the ESPERANZA too. I mean a 1 piece hollow body - that is really something - I mean hollowing it out through the F-holes. I really like the idea, the inlay and the shape - especially the reccessing of the tailpiece and ferrules, nice touch.

[jmrentis 0]

Just couldn't wait to comment on next months GOTM and especially Erics 8 string. Serisouly, a killer rig with all the extras plus some. I guess I was gone during the time when this contest was made up, but I wish that everyone would have finished because considering what Eric put into his guitar, I can see he knew he was up against some stiff competition. I really enjoyed the documentation of that build, it made me appreciate really how much went into it and what was overcome. It seems there are always or almost always going to be things one must overcome when pushing their skills and I think how well one overcomes those obstacles, almost says more than any single product. Anyhow, no doubt this is going to be tough month, especially considering the two entrants so far. Best of luck all. J

Edited November 30, 2007 by jmrentis

[WezV 17]

i know you are just having a laugh but your comments might put off other entries. Ok, Erik has set the bar really high from the start for next months GOTM... but out of the two entries so far it would be a hard choice for me. lets see if anyone can match them before passing judgement!!!

one things for sure - its going to be a difficult month again

[jmrentis 0]

Yeah, I actually considered that it might, hopefully it didn't though, as it was only in jest and to show how much I thought of Erics rig, regardless I'm going to fix it to avoid any issues, good call Wez. No doubt Blackdogs guitar is on an equal playing field. Being that I frequent this place so much and know and follow so many of the great builders here, I try to always include one's experience in my vote, meaning how many instruments, what quality have they been, are they taking risks and so on, just because there is a big difference in someone making their 10th and someone making their first, at least in my opinion. I think we had a discussion on this a while back on how some people used this criteria and other didn't, some feel it isn't fair I believe. I know Eric is an experienced builder so I might have to doc him some points for that plus for the radius bits because that shows too much intelligence for somebody who works with their hands, lol, jk. I'm curious to see if we get another monster month, it seems as though we have been having more entrants per month than ever before, so hopefully we'll have another royal rumble GOTM because we need to give these guys a run for their money. J

Edited November 30, 2007 by jmrentis

[WezV 17]

thx to everyone who voted for me, or voted at all for that matter.

a big cheers to you all - i will buy you a pint of real Burtonian ale if i ever meet you in the flesh!!!