ProjectGuitar.com Posted June 6, 2023 Report Share Posted June 6, 2023 Welcome to the Guitar Of The Month entry for June 2023! 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. ----==---- Unsure what to write? Have a look around the entry archives for suggestions! ----==---- If you have any questions about the contest, either PM the moderator team 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dward13 Posted June 9, 2023 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 9, 2023 (edited) I’ll call this one a SB290. (Solid Body with 2 P-90’s) The back has mahogany wings, Wenge and Flame Maple accents and a Bubinga “backbone”. The top is Quilted Maple. The neck is Birdseye Maple with Cocobolo, Wenge and Flame Maple accents. Fingerboard is Birdseye Maple with Crotch Walnut markers. Frets are Dunlap Jumbo 6120’s. Tuners are Fender American Standard. Scale is 25.5 in. Bridge is a Schaller Non-Tremolo Roller. Knobs are Flame Maple and Crotch Walnut. Pickups are ceramic P-90’s from GuitarMadness with covers modified with Burl Walnut veneer. This is my 5th build with the first 4 dating back to the 70’s. For myself, the guitar building is simply a rewarding hobby. I’ve worked on projects on and off, usually with a couple decades in between. I’m retired now having spent 20 years in the bowling business and another 20 as a secondary math teacher. Thanks to the housing market and interest rates of the post-COVID world in 2020 I’ve been able to purchase a house with a decent sized basement to house the tools I’ve accumulated over the years. Back in the 70’s I earned a AA degree in electronics and got a job in a music store that catered to guitars. During my time there I modified a couple guitars adding pickups etc. which was the initial spark to my interest in guitar making. I also met a local man who had a violin shop. He was also a maker and he let me apprentice one summer. This got me started trying to learning about violin making, but in the 70’s crafts like this were still highly guarded secrets, no plethora of YouTube videos looking to be shared. I did however find a book on electric guitar making which at least gave me a start. I began this build mainly by playing with the Birdseye/Cocobolo neck block I had made about 20 years ago. Once I saw it was going to work out, I figured I might as well make a body to go with it. I mapped out the design using the wood I had on hand and the same outline as my last project. For this one I added an extension to the neck pocket to gain access to the higher register frets. I like the simple way the P-90 pickups are mounted so I went with them. I chose to use the cheaper GuitarMadness ceramic versions; I figure they are good enough for my needs and would be easy to upgrade if needed. At first I just wired both pickups together, but when that didn’t work so good I added a DPDT ON/ON/ON switch for Neck/Both/Bridge configuration. I did some carving (more like rounding) of the body and chose to lower the area where the knobs are placed. Finishing has always been my Kryptonite so I went with TruOil and forced myself to take my time. I posted a log of this build mixed in with ones from the previous guitar: https://www.projectguitar.com/forums/ topic/54390-starting-a-new-build-after-a-brief-pause/ Edited June 9, 2023 by Dward13 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Andyjr1515 Posted June 29, 2023 Popular Post Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 Well, @Dward13's beautiful build is looking a bit lonely and so it seems only right to add something to keep it company! I introduce my "Swiftfire" 6 string electric guitar. This one is a special build in a number of ways. My building has slowed down in the last couple of years and, while I still have the passion and dexterity (pesky hand arthritis) I thought I ought to get round to building some of the ones that have been on my mental list over the past 12 or so years of this crazy hobby! This one has been built for my son in law, Alex, and I have been able to indulge my flights of fancy a little more than many of my other custom-builds. By its nature a custom build is - and should be - a representation of the future owner's needs and requirements. Over the past few years, as many of you know, I have built a number of bass guitars, acoustics and electrics - and have enjoyed doing them all. But when it's for family...well, maybe I have been allowed to let my imagination wander a little further than normal The spec was simply that "I was going to build Alex a guitar because he's a good guy and his go-to guitar is presently an Epiphone Firebird". The plan Alex and I finally cooked up was to take the essence of the Epiphone - and the iconic Gibson Firebird it is based on - but design-in a number of things to suit specifically how Alex plays. The main change was to shift the neck/bridge geometry rearwards to ensure that it balances well on strap and over the knee. It was then an attempt to add actual or illusionary curves to try to move away from the flat-top look of the original. Both would mean that it the shape would be tangibly different to a Firebird but, if I got it right, there would remain a hint of the icon that inspired it. I'll leave you wise sages to decide whether that has been achieved or not Spec: - Through neck, 25" scale, dual humbucker solid electric - Alder back wings; figured ebony top; maple/ebony laminated neck; ebony fretboard and headstock plate - ebony sanded and polished to shine; alder and maple tru-oil slurry and buffed; final light beeswax (Briwax) application and polish off - Seymour Duncan P-rails wired for full humbucker or P90 split; 3 way switch; 2 tones 2 volumes including CTS push-pull for coil splits - Steinberger gearless tuners - EVO gold frets - Weight 8lbs 2oz The build diary is here: I don't have any sound files yet but will try to get Alex to record some video when he gets this to his next band practice. With the P-rails, though, rest assured - it sounds great! Here are some pics: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProjectGuitar.com Posted June 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 Time to vote! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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