Junior64

Here's my December GOTM entry, my version of the somewhat rare Gibson 'Moderne'. I was blown away the first time I saw one, and decided to try building one. I'm not a big fan of the gold hardware on the Gibsons, so I did nickel parts on a black finish. I started with a 1 piece mahogany bass body blank, since it was large enough to accommodate the large 'wing' shape. Additional parts included: A BYO unfinished mahogany neck, modified to create the original style 'Gumby' headstock shape. Custom made aluminum string guides made by my brother-in-law on his mini lathe. All remaining parts came in one big order from StewMac: Parsons Street humbuckers, ABR-1 bridge & stoptail, CTS pots, Switchcraft switch and jack, Orange Drop cap, vintage cloth covered wiring, vintage Kluson-style tuners, knobs, pointers, pickup rings and poker chip. I downloaded and had printed a full size drawing of the guitar, then made router patterns from 1/2" MDF. I glued some mahogany wings on the BYO headstock and created that unusual Moderne shape, then routed the body for pickups, controls and the neck pocket. Next came pore filler, sealing and painting in black nitro lacquer and clear coat. Then the tedious but surprisingly meditative task of wet sanding and polishing; I used Meguiar's Ultimate Compound on a Gratiot's Garage 3" orbital polisher after wet sanding to 4000 grit. It may not be a beautiful design to many, but it sure stands out in a sea of Strats and LPs!

Here's my October entry, the "Turbocaster" a guitar made from a car muffler. Crazy, huh? But what a fun build! I got the idea from seeing a YouTube video of a band called "Homemade Jamz Blues Band", and decided to give it a try. The parts I used are: An AP Exhaust turbo muffler GFS XGP unfinished half paddle neck GFS Brighton Rock pickups Wilkinson half Tele bridge Aluminum diamond plate Rustoleum Glitter paint Levy seatbelt buckle strap lug nut knobs Here's marking out and opening up the muffler: starting the inner structure: Dyeing the hand-cut headstock: Mocking up the neck, body & inner structure: Diamond plate front and end covers done: All done:

Here's my entry for the August contest, a car-themed guitar. It's more of a fun gift than a high-end build. Here's some background: I worked with my buddy for 20 years, both of us being "car guys". He's a "MOPAR or No Car" guy, and bought a 1972 Dodge Challenger that he races and is slowly restoring. We also take a lot of road trips together in my 1965 Ranchero, and he always provides all the food, does all the cooking and pays for half the gas. We've done about 10,000 miles of road trips over the years. I thought it would be a fun project and hopefully a big surprise if I built him a MOPAR-themed guitar that he can hang in his shop or man cave. • Hand-cut Basswood body • Tone Ninjas roasted maple neck • StewMac lipstick pickup • Allparts Duo-Sonic bridge • Digital print of an older MOPAR logo on full size pickguard • D'Addario EXL120 9's • Yes, I'm including a guitar hanger... A fun project for a good friend; I hope you enjoy the build and the story.

Here's my entry for May, the "Phantom Surfer". My drawing is based on a VOX Phantom, but everything else is Fender or Fender-style. • Alder body • WD Music PHNSR paddle neck, 25 1/2" scale with hand-shaped headstock • Tonerider Surfari pickups • Fender Mexico Jazzmaster tremolo • Allparts roller Tunematic bridge • CTS pots, CRL 5-way switch, Switchcraft jack, Orange Drop cap • Gotoh vintage locking tuners • TUSQ XL nut • Hand cut GFS vintage white pickguard • Lil' Daddy Roth "Custard Pie" metalflake nitro over silver base

Other oddities:

Those were done a while back. I'm always looking for something interesting to build.

Thanks. That's my indoor bench where all the finish work & wiring happens; all the dirty stuff happens out in the garage: I would encourage anyone to try building a Danelectro style guitar; they're remarkably simple to build. I used a router for the neck pocket and rounding over the edges; the rest was all done with a jigsaw, a sanding drum in my drill press, and some files & Forstner bits. I glued the body together using a cutting board and cat litter for weight: The most difficult part for me was locating the cutouts for the lipstick pickups; that's a little tricky. Otherwise, easy peasy.

I had posted this build on a couple other forums before I found this site, so I thought I'd share it here. I found an NOS Japanese tremolo on reverb, a really simple top-mount piece, and wondered what kind of guitar it might look good on. The simplest guitar I could think of was a Danelectro, so I did some research on their history and came up with a plan. I built it similar to the way they were built, in this case 1/8" masonite front & back over two layers of a 3/4" plywood perimeter with a central spine, painted with 'hammered copper' paint and a textured vinyl band to cover the edges like they did. And I moved the switch to the top horn like an LP; I like that location better. NOS Japanese whammy from the 60's: Full size sketches: Edges cut & sanded to shape: Plywood halves cut out: Masonite rough cut to shape: Determining pickups location: All glued up & edges rounded over: 'Tone Ninja' roasted maple neck; I shaped it to be similar to and old Silvertone shape: Setting up all dimensions: Paints: Body primed & painted: Vinyl edge banding applied: Done:

Thanks, and yes, this is the second version. Here are both builds over at squier-talk.com: https://www.squier-talk.com/threads/astrocaster-2.184955/

Thanks to all who voted for my AstroCaster as Guitar of the Month. It's very rewarding to know that you enjoy my idea. I thought I'd follow up with some of the build photos to show how it was made:

I'm a new member, and not totally familiar with this site, so please bear with me. I'd like to enter my guitar in the February GOTM contest, so I'm giving it a try here. I'm an amateur designer/builder, starting with hand-drawn sketches and using the most basic of tools. All my finishing is done with an LVLP gun and a small compressor under my covered patio. This is a guitar I designed & built called the 'AstroCaster'. The body design is based on two opposing, stylized guitar picks, with a nod to a classic acoustic shape. Here are the details: • body is Spanish Cedar • neck is a WD Music PHNTM maple neck, 25.5" scale, finished in amber-tinted nitro • Gotoh GTC 101 bridge • vintage-style staggered height tuners • Lollar P90 pickups • CTS pots • Orange Drop cap • Switchcraft jack • 3-way rotary switch • Dupli-Color "Sublime" pearl nitro paint I hope you enjoy it.