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Guitar Of The Month - March 2018


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Welcome to the Guitar Of The Month entry for March 2018!

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 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 creations to the world!

Submissions are open throughout the month with public voting open in the last week. Polls close on the first weekend 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 and eclipses everything!

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 towards less experienced builders, we encourage professional builders to consider whether their entries constitute being "fair".
    • Commercial "standard" models are not a valid entry, guys....Guitar Of The Month is about unique and characterful builds, not rubber-stamped production units!
  • We reserve the right to pull entries that are thinly-guised adverts; ProjectGuitar.com is about community, sharing build processes and the exchange of ideas - not a vehicle for adverts by members that don't engage with the community.
  • 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. In our experience this is the biggest attractor of votes.
  • 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.

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

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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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First time posting here so I'm not sure if I'm doing this right ?

This was a custom build from last year, specs as follows:

Alder body

Laminated maple neck

Birds eye maple fret board

Schaller tremolo

Schaller locking tuners

Bareknuckle Holy Diver and Irish Tour pickups

Coloured hardware

Killswitch and coil split for humbucker

My customer wanted something different and colourful. The body shape is a mixture of Rickenbacker and Parker. The neck is reinforced with 2 carbon fiber rods and a dual action truss rod. There is a tremol-no fitted in the spring cavity. The finish is enamel paints with a gloss nitro finish. 

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Here's my entry for March..  This is a guitar that I designed that's inspired by a September 1959 article in Mechanix Illustrated entitled 'How to Make an Electric Guitar'.  I call it the MI59DC for double cut.  I did a little modification of the basic body shape, and designed my own snake head inspired 21 fret 25" scale neck.  The top is an interesting piece of flame maple chosen more for it's uniqueness than the mirror quality of the pattern.  The finish is nitrocellulos lacquer tinted with ColorTone Vintage Amber.  Both body and neck are maple.  I used my CNC machine to do the 2D machining on both body and neck, then shaped the neck profile by hand.  Neckplate, control plate, and pickup rings are CNC'd 6061 aluminum with my own engraving designs.  The engraving is a sun, moon and stars theme.

 

Other details...GFS Alnico Pro humbuckers, 6061 aluminum nut, Ernie Ball #10 strings, hardtail bridge, open back Wilkinson style tuners, heel adjust truss rod (you can tell I cut my teeth building Tele's).  I built this guitar for myself.

Close up of the engraving on the control plate...

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Closeup of the engraving on the pickup rings...

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Closeup of the engraving on the neck plate...

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Shot of the entire guitar...

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Closer up view of the body...

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Thanks and hope you enjoy the pics of the guitar.  

Edited by fretman_2
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Just finished in time and with the smell of varnish still lingering :lol:  - I present to you the Swift Lite Mark 2

This is the latest incarnation following my personal curiosity about 6 string electrics.  That is, do electric guitars have to be so heavy to play well and sound good ?

I'm a hobby builder and I've been modding and refinishing guitars and basses for 7-8 years.  I did my first scratch build around 6 years ago.  I do occasional commissions, generally for fellow band members and friends / family, but sometimes build requests that interest or intrigue me

Having gained a bit of a reputation in two or three bass and guitar forums for being a teeny bit crazy and willing to try anything (at least once), I ended up with some really interesting and unusual build commissions.  And some of those have led me to question my acceptance of some of the long-standing 'conventions' your see in features of many electric guitar designs - one being that they tend to be so heavy!  

I've also got to that 'certain age' ;)  And I've realised how many guitar players I know personally who have given up because of neck, back, shoulder issues and just can't stand with that weight for a full gig-length anymore.

Over a couple of builds, I have used the combination of thru-neck and slimness to reduce weight.  This has given an unplanned but very welcome additional benefit of eliminating the usually abrupt encounter of the playing thumb with the heel and body when playing the upper frets.  This particular build has sought to exploit that with full access up to the 24th fret, including a thumb anchor point for three or more semitone bends at the top frets.

And Mark 2?   Well, the original Swift Lite - same basic construction but quite different in shape and other aspects -  I built at the back end of last year for my own use.  This one, the Swift Lite Mark 2, I have built for Jane, my sister-in-law.  In the build I have incorporated a piece of an oak mantlepiece rescued from her late mother's recently demolished house.

Here is the spec:

  • 25" Scale; 24 frets
  • Amboyna top; oak back
  • Maple/purpleheart laminated thru neck
  • Macassar  ebony fretboard
  • Tonerider Alnico IV Classic humbuckers
  • Master tone / master volume and three-way toggle, wired '50's style'
  • Total finished weight 5lbs 4oz
  • Home-made knobs (oak and macassar)

The full build thread is here

It balances beautifully both on the strap and over the knee.  I'll try to post some sound clips before the entry closes but trust me - it will do anything and everything! :D

 

And here it is:

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