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Guitar Of The Month - April 2016


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Welcome to the Guitar Of The Month entries for April 2016!

ProjectGuitar.com's Guitar Of The Month contest is a showcase for members to exhibit their creations and to vote on their favourites. The contest is open entry for any and all members, new or old. Winner(s) receive a featured article at the head of the ProjectGuitar.com homepage, a photo posting to our Facebook and elevated member status. ProjectGuitar.com receives tens of thousands of unique visitors monthly; Guitar Of The Month is a great way to showcase your creation to the world!

Submissions are open throughout the month until about the last week when public voting opens. Polls close on the 1st of each month.

Lastly, if you didn't win a previous month's Guitar Of The Month contest, you are encouraged to enter your build again the next month for a maximum of three consecutive months. Sometimes one entry just hits it out of the park!

Tips and Guidelines

  • Upload a maximum of eight photos for the instrument in your post
  • Ensure that your guitar has a name otherwise we'll make one up ;-)
  • List additional descriptive information specific to the build; for example....
    • The woods and materials used, especially if there is something unusual in there!
    • Scale length(s) and other specific configuration details
    • Electronics, pickups, etc.
    • Is this your first build, fifth or five-hundredth?
    • A bit of information on your own background as a builder helps give context to your build.
    • Was it built in the garage, at school, work or in your own shop?
    • A summary of the build's history. Was it built for yourself, friend/family or a client? Did you design the instrument and its specifications or was it built to spec?
    • What were the inspirations behind the instrument and why were various build aspects chosen?
    • Any background on what makes it special?
  • Posting a link to your guitar-building website, Photobucket, Facebook, etc. is fine, even if it is your business. In the spirit of fairness we encourage instruments made by professional builders to have that disclosure made so there is a more even balance between weekend warriors and grizzled veterans.
  • If you documented your build in the forums, post a link to the thread! Instruments with a build thread shared tend to attract more votes from the general community.
  • ProTip: Voters vote with their ears as well as their eyes....if you have any soundclips of the instrument or even a YouTube video, do post it! Everybody loves to look at beautiful instruments, but hearing them demo'ed is 10x as important.

Unsure what to write? Have a look around the entry archives for suggestions.

If you have any questions about the contest, either PM me or ask forum members; we're a helpful bunch!

This thread is exclusively for entry posts only - any post that is not an entry will be deleted. We love to hear your discussions and opinions on the month's entries whilst the polls are open. Alternatively, head over to that instrument's build thread if one has been made in the entry post.

Good luck to all entrants!

:crowdwaits:

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Since I do not yet have another build ready to share (too backed up on repairs lately) I would like to resubmit my previous build for the contest this month.  With any luck the weather here will warm up enough this month to spray lacquer so I can finish up a couple other builds I have going on once I have some downtime from repairs.  So once again I present the Rapscallion 5-string.

 

Specs and hardware:

  5 string

  34 inch scale

  24 stainless steel jescar frets

  Dual-action truss rod

  Carbon fiber reinforced neck

  Sperzel locking tuners

  Kahler fixed bridge

  Magnetically fastened control cavity and truss rod covers

  Neutrik locking output jack

  Both pups are hand wound Hackett pickups:
    Bridge pup is a single coil jazz bass style
    Neck pup is a single coil rail with two alnico-5's

  Bartolini bass preamp

  Copper shielded cavities


Materials:

  Neck- 5 piece laminate (black walnut, mahogany, maple)

  Body- Mahogany and crotch-grain black walnut top on a white oak back with black walnut and mahogany laminates

  Curly ipe fingerboard

  Curly ipe and white oak pickup covers

  White oak and mahogany knobs

  Paua Abalone head stock inlay and position markers

 


Tru-oil hand polished gloss finish

Custom made flight case made by Bestincase Road Cases

 

 

I apologize for the poor quality of some of the photos...

 

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I would like to submit my first guitar build for the guitar of the month. This really was a proof of concept for me, I wasn't sure how or if it would even work. Over all I a very happy with it, I would for sure do some things different if I did it all over again but it plays and I think it is pretty.

The body is made of a maple 2 piece back and a mesquite 2 piece front.

the neck is a fender replacement made by guitar fetish (their gfs lable I belive) maple with rosewood finger board

The pickups are again guitar fetish Slick old school pair. I wasn't sure how the build would trun out so most of the parts are from guitar fetish :) The tone is a push/pull to split the humbuckers to single coil. I will likely be turning some knobs and strap buttons out of texas ebony before all is said and done.

I am mostly a wood turner as far as wood work goes but I do all kinds of smaller projects. and this guitar was mostly made on the top of the table saw out under a popup shade.

I did a lot of research before diving in, I really wanted to be successful and really feel that it was a complete success!!

 

here is the build thread and I probably have a hundred pictures of the whole process

I wanted something unique ( I realize a tele isn't all that unique) that's why I opted for the tele delux but a thinline verison the finish ended up being lacquer on shellac. next time I think I would try a black grain fill on this wood.

Thank you for checkin out the Mesquito-Caster I had a fantastic time building it and learning about the whole process!!

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Edited by mjrbuzz
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I wasn't sure whether to enter as I'm such a new member, but I'd like to present 'Rooster'. It's my first guitar of the month and the culmination of quite a few months of head scratching and pencil chewing.

At the end of last year I went on a guitar building course and came away with a very nice acoustic. The whole experience was a massive confidence boost and I came away champing at the bit to build an electric. Those of you in the UK will know that it wasn't exactly woodworking weather here in November and December. Anyway fast forward a couple of months and here we have it - a playable plank built in the shed and the need to build another. I've learnt a huge amount on this build most notably not to rush things

Specs

two piece black limba body and zebrano drop top & ebony binding

neck is a 7 piece ovangkol, padouk and zebrano sandwich. ebony fretboard radiused to 16 inches.

ABM bridge saddle/tuners

Lace xbar pickups.

DIY brass string lock.

Scale lengths from memory are 670/640mm

Finish - not proud of - Danish oil followed by some wiped varnish knocked back by steel wool (note to self. steel wool and pickups don't mix).

Currently no strap buttons - not an issue at the moment, but I may add them if this thing is likely to be used out and about.

I now wish I'd gotten a couple of pics of the finished back before I leant it out. This is the only one I have - apologies for the quality >

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from the shiny side >

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Thanks for looking guys.

Matt

Edited by 103801061982
as always, spelling
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Presenting the Koi Bass.

This is my first build. Those that have followed along in my build thread (thank you!) know that I'm an American living in Japan. I got the bug for a new 5 string bass while exploring Ochanomizu, the "guitar district" of Tokyo. I tiny voice somewhere in the back of my head suggested I build the bass instead of buy it and I was off. This build brought me all over the Tokyo region exploring many parts of the city where few foreigners ever tread in search of supplies. It has been a lot of fun and a tremendous learning experience. And while I cured my bug for a new bass, I've developed a new and stronger bug in building them. 

Here's the build thread:

http://www.projectguitar.com/forums/topic/48283-5-string-bass-build-its-gonna-be-huge-in-japan/

Anyway, on to the bass. It's a 34" 5 string with neck through construction. I started with a drawing on my computer inspired by the work of some of the modern Japanese builders I'd seen in Ochanomizu, made a template out of of MDF, and worked from there. 

  • The body is mahogany with quilted maple front and back
  • Headstock has matching quilted maple top
  • I cut the cavity cover out of the back wood so it matches the grain.
  • The neck is made of 7 pieces sandwiched together - 3 maple and 4 walnut.
  • The bass is finished with 5 coats of Watco Danish Oil - the neck feels soooo smooth!
  • The fret board is rosewood with 24 frets
  • Electronics are EMG J5 pickups with the BQS preamp (volume/blend/high/stacked parametric mid/low)
  • Tuners are hipshot ultralight
  • Bridge is a hipshot A style
  • Side markers are glow-in-the dark

And bass's namesake, the koi... it's a 13 piece mother of pearl and abalone inlay I hand cut out to swim over the 12th fret. Obviously this is where the bass's name comes from, but the word "koi" has a few meanings besides "carp" - it also translates into "intention" or "purpose", and can mean "the feelings of the ancients".

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Here's a little video I shot of myself goofing around this afternoon with the bass.

Finally, I want all of the lurkers and dreamers here to know that YOU CAN DO THIS!

Thanks!

Aaron

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I will try again.

Chris Guerin 59ish Les Paul

I will throw mine in the contest. This was my first guitar build and the reason it is a 59ish is, because its a bit off spec. with a few mistakes I have made I had to reshape and the body measurements are not the full spec. Everything else is on point. The story behind the build was my wife told me no more guitars mostly, because the cost and I had 2 others. I have been playing guitar off and on for 15 years and never owned a Les Paul. I have always loved the Les Pauls and for some reason they felt at home with me. With my wife saying no more guitars, I got it in my head to build one. I started to look at the kits and I was hesitating on buying one, because I did not know the quality I was going to get. All the reviews I have read online was so so with the kits. I ended up seeing a video on a guitar build and the guy was talking about find a local wood mill for the best prices. At that point I was looking into getting wood from some luthier sites and was going to pay around 300 just for the wood. After watching that video I looked up wood mills in my area and found that one of the best in East TN was 3 miles away from my house.  When I went to this wood mill the prices were really low compared to what I would pay online. They also do milling services for the prep work. Without any hesitation I got all the wood I needed for the build and milled for around $130. After I got the wood I had no tools or experience with woodworking or tools. I got the tools from my uncle and started to teach myself. I also did not know what I got myself into. I did not know Les Pauls where one of the harder guitars to build and should have picked a different style for the first build. Since I was in the process of the build I just keeping at it and it turned out better than I could ever dreamed of. During the build I was asking other builders on how to fix my mistakes and got some harsh advice to just quit with this one since it was my first build and start over. I am not the type of person to just quit and that is way it took a year to finish it. I was able to find videos that go in detail on how to fix some of the mistakes I encountered and was able to fix them. I am still not on the same level has some of the builders on this site and others, but I am on the correct path to paving that road. I built the guitar in my garage, but now in the process making part of the garage into a nice workshop. I may not have a shot with the contest with the other great builds submissions, but I figured I would try.

The woods, hardware and spec:

Body is African Mahogany and a Flame Maple top

Neck is Honduras Mahogany

Fret board is the pre slotted Rosewood from Stewmac

The headstock veneer is Madagascar Ebony

I had Shark Inlay make a custom headstock logo of my name in the Gibson style

I made the control cavity covers out of the extra Mahogany

Scale length is 24 ¾

Pickups are GFS Aged Alnico 5 Old School. Bridge is 9.2k and Neck is 8.0k

I got all the used Gibson hardware from ebey to save money and wanted the age look.

Here is the final product!

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Here is the video of the guitar!

There is the build link.

 

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This build was in the works for a long, long time. I started procuring wood when my wife and I were talking about having our first child. Fast forward a little and that child is 6 years old, and has a 2 1/2 year old little sister.

I built this guitar to a scale that little hands could handle. Something for my girls to hopefully help start a life long love of playing music. Plus, little guitars are just cool!

It may have taken a long time, but just like my girls, it was worth the wait!

I'll just call it , "Kensley & Ellie's First Guitar".

 

Here is the link to the build thread:

New 2/3 Scale Guitar

 

Here are the specs:

Scale Length: 17"

Tuned: ADGCEA (Up a fourth from standard tuning)

Top: Flamed Maple, "IPA Burst"

Back: Pau Ferro

Neck: 5 Piece Laminate of Wenge/Pau Ferro/Flamed Maple/Pau Ferro/Wenge

Fretboard: Cocobolo w/Bloodwood binding & B/W/B purfling

Neck Radius: 16"

Finish: Tru Oil over Z-Poxy Finishing Resin

Tuners: Grover Mini Locking Rotomatics

Bridge: Gotoh Hardtail

Pickup: Seymour Duncan Powered By Lace, Bridge

 

And here are some pics:

 

Little Guitar Front - 2b copy.jpgLittle Guitar Back - 1b copy.jpgLittle Guitar - Headstock 1b copy.jpgLittle Guitar - With the Girls 1 copy.jpgLittle Guitar - With the Girls 2 copy.jpg

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Hi Everyone. I'm John Hawkins from Las Vegas Nevada. I build a few guitars every year in my little home shop. Most of my tooling is home made, and the majority of my technique is self taught. I try to do absolutely as much "in house" as possible. It gives me great freedom of design, and the ability to make unique, original instruments.

My entry this month is a seven string Multi-Scale. It's my second using this format, and my first seven string ever. The trend for guitars of this type seems to favor the "Metal" genre. I chose to do something more my style. It's a Jazz Guitar.  My contribution for March is "The Dook"

> Specifications: The chambered, one piece Honduran Mahogany body measures; 12 7/8" at the lower bout, 10 1/2" at the upper, and 8 1/2" at the offset waist. It's capped with a book matched figured maple top, and single ply black binding. The overall length is 41", and it weighs a comfortable 7.8 lbs.

> The Neck: The laminated neck is made from Sapele, Alder, and Maple. It features a 15 degree laminated scarf joint. The fingerboard is reclaimed Brazilian Rosewood with football shaped Abalone inlays that are oriented to the angle of the frets. The scale lengths are 27/25.5, and perpendicular at the eighth. It has 22 frets on a 12" radius.

> The Electronics: I designed, and built the pickups specifically for this one. The low profile, double slug seven string humbuckers are completely handmade with the exception of the bobbins, pole pieces, and magnets. They are angled at 13.5 degrees to match the end of the fingerboard. I vacuum formed the custom covers, and mounting rings. The switch, and output plate, are no name, but very nice quality. CTS potentiometers.

>The Hardware: For this one I used the Agile Pendulum bridge system from Rondo Music. The tuners are Ibanez "take offs" from an 8 string. I was very lucky to have the finish match perfectly with the black output jack plate, and switch.

>The Plastics: I made the Control, and Truss adjuster covers from the same ABS plastic that I used to thermo form the pickup covers, and trim rings. The finish on the guitar, and metal parts is very glossy, so I held back on the luster of the plastics for aesthetic reasons. I polished the knobs, and switch tip to match. 

>The Finish: The Curly Maple top is stained with woodtone "Keda" aniline dye, and I used "Golden" high flow acrylic for the airbrush work on the Two Tone Tobacco Burst. On the Mahogany back, I followed the black Timbermate pore filler with the same Keda tint that I used on the top. The neck was left natural. The clear coat is Sherwin Williams Hi-Bild precatylized gloss lacquer applied with a gravity fed HVLP system.

Thank You! to everybody who followed along, and contributed on my construction thread. If anyone would like to visit, check it out at the link below.

 

Edited 14 March by Original 

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