ProjectGuitar.com Posted October 7, 2023 Report Share Posted October 7, 2023 Welcome to the Guitar Of The Month entry for October 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...
Asdrael Posted October 23, 2023 Report Share Posted October 23, 2023 (edited) Hah well. I guess I'll give it a go! At least before the heavy hitters post their own stuff Meet Birthmark, my first ever build: This guitar is the happy result of me feeling good in life, reaching 40 with 2 kids, a bit of time and disposable income, a long standing desire to get into guitar building, finding a good open workshop, and a bit of a crisis too wanting to make something with actual material and not just be an office job-joe with nothing I can show to my kids when they grow up. Since I had zero experience with wood working, and even less guitar building experience (I can do a setup and understand on which basis the instrument works though), I started by binge watching build videos on Youtube and wrote a 30 page "how to build a guitar" reference booklet for me. The next step was to find something relatively simple, appealing to me, to copy, with 7 strings as a bonus as I play those almost exclusively. It was relatively easy to locate pdf for a 7 string Blackmachine type guitar, so I took them, and expanded them heavily in LibreCAD, adding some stuff that would make more sense to me. The idea was really to keep it simple but somewhat true to the original. I documented the whole build process and could get some cool feedback and advice here: Here are the final specs and some thoughts behind them: Swamp ash body, 2 piece. Density and looks were up my alley, and it has a good reputation for gainy music which is right up my alley. 26.5" scale, quarter sawn maple neck. Not really one piece as I did the "alternative" scarf joint in the middle of the headstock. It's reinforced by a truss rod obviously but also by two carbon fiber rods. Carved as a modernish C shape. Jescar 57110 onto a rosewood fretboard with 17" radius. Volume, 3 way, push pull tone. Guitar Monkey Locking Tuners Graphtec nut (precut "Schecter" model) Gotoh 7 string 510FX-7 . I wanted a Hannes, they went out of production. I have a Hipshot but imo it is not the best as it can cut the palm of your hand. DiMarzio Fusion Edge 7 Tru oil finish with a bit of steel wool rubbing everywhere. Currently in 10-46+60 tuned, low to high, G#,F,A#,D#,F,A#,D#. This is, and will be for a bit, my main guitar. And as it is my first build, it will stay with me - and may one day retire on a wall hanger. Or at one of my son's. Who knows. To critisize the instrument: it actually came out great and is fully functional (intonation is correct, it holds tune, and the fretwork allows low action and no buzzing at all. Currently 1.2 mm high e and 1.75 mm low E). It's loud as hell unplugged, and weights only 2.950 kg. I am not fully satisfied with the neck shape that may be a bit to C and not enough D but it's consistent throughout with no highs and low. So it's an actual neck! Overall, and especially for a first building experience, I am over the moon with the results. It took 7 or 8 months at an average of 4hours a week I would say. Lots learned! Fun fact: when I received the swamp ash, it had some heavy mineral streaks at some spots. They ended up mostly routed out, but you can see some on the backside on the lower horn still. I consider them "birthmarks" of the wood. Funnily enough my first born also has a birthmark. So it all made sense in my head to call this project Birthmark! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy the pictures! And as everyone told me... onto the next build! Edited October 23, 2023 by Asdrael 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dward13 Posted October 27, 2023 Report Share Posted October 27, 2023 Here is my SB190. (Solid Body Single P-90) This was my warm-up project after a 20 year rest from guitar building. Body is mostly flame maple with a Birdseye backbone. Neck is a stock Fender MIM telecaster. Pickup is a Seymour Duncan P90. To be honest, I like the look of Asdrael’s “Birthmark”, it’s simple and I do like the look of Ash. I know he can’t win unless someone runs against him, so I offer the SB190 to fill that role. I managed to capture the GOTM for June, which is plenty for me, so don’t hesitate to vote for the Birthmark guitar. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProjectGuitar.com Posted October 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2023 Time to vote! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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