Competition closes November 1st! Livestream on November 12th to announce the winners — watch on YouTube!Competition closes November 1st! Livestream on November 12th to announce the winners — watch on YouTube!Competition closes November 1st! Livestream on November 12th to announce the winners — watch on YouTube!
Guitar Hero Build Edition
Finished guitars
Lancing, UK
This guitar is loosely based on the Hohner Mad Cat used by Prince since 1980 and was used as his main studio guitar on all of his major hits. Despite being known for his many stage guitars, the Mad Cat was used on his famous performance of while my guitar gently weeps at George Harrisons posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Body: 2 piece ash body with a blue and white resin stabilised wood spine. 4 x birds eye maple inserts and walnut inserts for the faux pick-guard and control panel and double bound with a blue pearlised plastic purfling. Neck: 21 fret 25.5 inch scale bolt open neck with a C profile The neck is one piece flamed maple with a fake skunk made from the same resin stabilised wood. The fret board is flamed maple with jumbo frets and resin stabilised wood inserts. The fretboard is bound to match the body. Hardware: Pickups: Warman Soapy Joe P90s Controls: 1 volume (500K), 1 tone (500k) and a 3 way toggle switch Bridge: Northwest Guitars hard tail body through Truss Rod: Guyker spoke wheel Nut: Resin stabilised wood to match spine, skunk and fret markers Tuners: Northwest Guitars locking tuners Strings: D’Addario XL
Central New York State in the Great U. S. of A.
About 3 or so years ago someone moved out of my apartment complex and left a First Act kids guitar and amp out by the storage area. It sat there for three days with no one touching it. On the 4th day it started raining so I snatched it up and tossed it in the closet thinking I would pass it on to a kid in the complex interested in music. Needless to say I had forgot all about it as I was focused on the Les Paul Reconstruction. Along comes this year theme build of "Guitar Hero's". My build for Jurg's 4 is based on one of my hero's Eddy Van Halen. One of their songs was titled "Little Guitars" so that is what I am basing my build on. It just so happens to be that Eddy actually used a modified First Act guitar exactly like the one I found. See the pictures for comparison and I have named it the "Atomic Punk" which is also the first official play demo in the builds final configuration. Here is the link to that in case It will not be allowed as one of my 5 submission pieces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZAeZ7rZl68 The entire build series is in this play list. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvPwEKhwcqw&list=PLsDZ_UzA_RpuybMv8aHSYspdi7Y4JKFGt&pp=sAgC I hope everyone likes what I have done. I dont expect to be in the winners circle after all it is only a kids toy guitar modified to actually play for real. Going up against some seriously nice REAL builds by far better builders than I. I am not able to raffle / auction this build myself but I do want to donate it some how so if anyone can help with the legal aspects to make it an official giveaway please contact me in the final build summary video and we can figure out how to communicate and work out the details. Good luck and well done to all who entered. Hopefully everyone gets theirs finished at some point. I see several slackers on their builds (Lookin at you Mick) who may never finish.🤣
New Concord, Ohio, USA
This is my first build (named 'Tiger' for the stripes) - everything started from rough sawn locally sourced lumber except the fretboard, which I bought pre-slotted to save the template/blade expense. When I saw this piece of ambrosia maple, I immediately knew I wanted those stripes to run up into the horns on a strat style body. Walnut back, 1/4" layer of cherry, and an ambrosia maple top make up the body based on an Ibanez JS1000. Dual humbuckers, 3 way switch and single tone and volume controls - I like simple controls. The neck is a 5 piece neck with the same 3 woods. Built (and ruined) several necks to get my templates and processes locked in, but I'm very happy with the final product. Tru Oil finish with a few coats of paste wax finish it off. I play it every day and love it. Overall, a very satisfying process start to finish. 8.4lbs, despite all the heavy woods, and very well balanced. As a final touch, I ordered a custom engraved brass coin and inlaid it in the back with my 'brand', the guitar name ('Tiger'), and the serial number (001). I'm also a beekeeper, and I named my apiary 'Walnut Row Apiary' because it sits on a row of walnut trees, so I stuck with that name for my guitars.
Burntwood, UK
This is my first full build, I love the Les Paul guitar but wanted to do something a little different, so this is an 8 sting, headless version. Sipo body with a flame maple top, the neck is a maple and walnut laminate topped with a panga panga fretboard. 28.4 - 26.5" multiscale using fishman fluence modern pickups. The bridge is a generic Chinese unit but seems stable enough. My inspiration for this is the Gigrin Red Kite feeding centre in mid Wales. They have worked incredibly hard to help bring the Red Kite back to the UK, when they first opened, only a few birds were around, now they can get more than 800 birds arrive.
Straya
2 of 3 finished, I’ll post 2 of each when they are done
Chorley UK
Hi all here is my submission for the cup it’s a hetfeild inspired explorer with a custom headstock design I made the templates myself and worked from there, the wood used was a old bay window that was removed from a job at work as is the oak cap which was a newal post This is my first ever build from scratch so has been a massive learning experience and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of doing this from matching the wood for the blank to shaping the neck then obviously playing the finished piece, what a experience it has been I hope you all like the finished guitar as much as I do, and just want to say a big thanks to all those who have helped along the way and followed the build on my YouTube channel
Bristol UK
“jr for Junior” This is a build for my son for his 12th birthday. His guitar hero is Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day. Famed for his love of Les Paul juniors, my son was inspired by a photo of Billie Joe playing a tv yellow which prompted the JC4’Hero’ build. Managed to get the build completed and it was a total surprise to him on his birthday, despite all my subtle questions to define the specs I didn’t give it away! 2 piece Sipo mahogany body, sapele neck with a rosewood fretboard, standard Gibson headstock angle and 24.75” scale length and handmade white corian nut. Headstock shape is a variation on the standard with an offset angular look and my F logo . Hardware is Guyker Grover style tuners and a Northwest guitars wraparound bridge and mirror knobs. Electrics are a single Warman ‘Dogs of War’ dog ear p90 with CTS pots, witchcraft jack and 50s style wiring with braided wire and orange drop cap. Finished in Northwest guitars TV Yellow, my first go at nitrocellulose and came out really well. Made a whole load of mistakes and would change a few things next time but definitely learned a lot in having to put them right along the way! He loves it and that was the main aim at the start anyway. I hope he’ll be inspired by the guitar for many years to come!
Musselburgh Scotland
As I don’t have the facilities to make necks and bodies from scratch I’ve been buying bodies and necks and putting them together by hand. This is definitely the best guitar I’ve made this year and such a pleasure to build
Peterlee County Durham Uk
Introducing “I AM NOBODY” my Paul Weller/The Jam inspired homage to the Rickenbacker 330, a model that Weller used extensively during his early career, and gave typically sharp, aggressive tone to his music. My build isn’t a replica, but rather an homage to those guitars, and as anyone familiar with the 330 would instantly point out there are numerous variations, as my version needed to reflect my feel for the original, but be a unique piece. The specification is as follows: my wood choices are ash with sapele centre stripe and laminated flamed maple and sapele neck with walnut fretboard, mother of pearl binding, vintage looking shell block inlays, hand made bone nut and 24 stainless steel medium jumbo frets. The tuners are guyker locking units, and the bridge is guyker, but I fabricated a custom aluminium hand rest and a set of custom saddles. Pick ups are roswell toaster humbuckers, and the tail piece is trapezoidal, I also made the double pick guard and truss rod cover, which is signed “I AM NOBODY “ which references the same phrase scratched into the front of one of Wellers rickenbacker guitars. Vintage knobs and a handmade jack plate and Ernie ball slinky’s complete the job. I used a mixture of blue and black crimson stains and a blend of polyurethane boiled linseed oil and white spirit as a wiping varnish, which gave the guitar a nice satin vintage look.
Germany
My inspiration to build this guitar is simple. I wanted a green offset guitar. The hero part played a small part in this. Guitar players like Jim Root and Kurt Cobain also played offset guitars. In the end I decided to get a jazzmaster going, strafing away from the original as far as I could, to avoid a cease and desist letter. The guitar is made of black limba with an ash top. The neck is flamed maple with a black limba fretboard. I originally wanted to make a laminated neck, but after I ruined 3 of them getting the scarf joint in, warping or router template slipping, I gave up. I also wanted a p90 and a humbucker setup. Went for more quality parts from Gotoh, Seymour Duncan, Pure tone and Guitar Monkey. I’m most proud of the road I’ve walked to get to this build tbh. There’s been tons of improvement and I think it turned out a stunner. I’m still not ready in my opinion, to make instruments for others. Although I managed to fix many of the mistakes made, there’s details that pull down the level of quality I want to deliver. Especially the issues with the neck pocket gave me a headache. All in all I found joining the jurgs cup and the community one of the best decisions this year. It’s been a blast and I’m looking forward to all other builds as well. Cheers Jonathan aka Huysmans Guitars
Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
After starting my guitar building journey with a basic T-style guitar kit five year ago, I advanced to building a couple more guitars from kits but making a few minor modifications along the way (like turning a kit build into a baritone guitar). But when the idea of building a guitar using wood from my 100+ year old family farm entered my brain, I knew that I wanted this guitar to be special. When I asked my parents last summer (2025) as they were heading out to the farm to grab me some barn wood, I was not exactly sure what they were going to acquire. Obviously some nice, 100 plus year old hardwood free of pests that could be made into body blanks would have been the most ideal, but instead my parents brought back a number of wide boards that were used as the trim around the windows. This gave the boards a lot more character with the paint and nail holes, but forced me to think more about how I was going to incorporate the wood into a guitar. I decided to start this project from a Les Paul Jr kit from Solo Music Gear here in Canada. I had to flatten the back of the barn boards so that when they got glued up to the body it would be a flat surface. I then did a roundover which gave it a faux-binding look (happy accident!) The pickguard and back cavity cover is from an old 1954 Saskatchewan license plate when the family farm was in full operation. For the headstock I learned how to do inlay and did a mother of pearl inlay based on the cattle brand my great-grandfather used on his cattle. I bought the little jeweler saw and some 1″ by 1″ blanks of mother of pearl from Mr. Bezos. Trial and error was so vital here again. I am really proud of this build. I am proud of what it represents. I am proud that when I encountered problems through this build that I saw them as opportunities to learn something new and not something to get aggravated over. I am proud to be a maker and not a taker.
Jersey, Channel Islands, GB
This was my first full guitar build. Since hardwood is scarce in Jersey (Channel Islands), I used budget-friendly pallet timber I’ve had stored for years, alongside a dark hardwood skirting board and a lighter wood strip for the center accent. Design & Construction Body & Neck: Semi-hollow, ultra-thin design (32mm at the edge) with an inset Les Paul-style cap and matching headstock cap, with 3ply binding on the joins. Double action spoke wheel truss rod with magnetic cover. Rear magnetic fixed aluminium composite cover panel. Method: Designed in Autodesk Fusion and CNC-roughed. I hand-shaped the neck and top, and hand-routed the neck and pickup pockets for precise placement and angles. Fretboard & Nut: Fretboard made from the same skirting board, fitted with phosphor bronze fretwire and copper powder/superglue inlays (with 2mm copper rod side dots). Custom bone nut colored via chemical soak. Hardware: Theme: Bronze hardware throughout. Tuners and bridge came pre-finished; I painted the jack plate, trapeze tailpiece, and toggle switch to match. I also crafted custom matching wooden pickup covers. Electronics: Warman P90 "Soapy Joe" pickups, 50s wiring, 1 volume, 1 tone, and a 3-way toggle. Finish: Hand-stained using a blend of four water-based colors (sanded back for depth and colour mix) and sealed with five thin coats of Osmo semi-matt hardwax oil. Overall, I'm really pleased with the outcome. It looks exactly as I envisioned, plays well, intonates cleanly, and sounds great. What I’d change: The pallet wood was very soft and prone to marking during the build (though the hardwax finish helped). Next time, I’d also choose higher-contrast inlay materials so they contrast better against the wood. It been a real pleasure to be part of this community. I entered as an incentive to actually finish a build (I have started a few) so its so satisfying to actually complete one.
Scarborough, UK
Hey chaps and chapesses. My JC4 submission is a Jockenbacker 330/6. Inspired by the Rose Morris Rickenbacker 330/12 that Pete Townshend played in the early 1960s (some slight differences with the f-hole, binding and fret inlays between a regular 330 and the Rose Morris import).........and the truss rod cover! Its only my third ever build, which brought many challenges which I wasn't prepared for. There were times when I thought I'd bitten far more of what I could chew and had a couple of wobbles, wondering if I could get it finished. Definitely learnt so much more with this build and it's come out an absolute belter. Body is red alder, the neck is laburnum with a ovankol stripe and the fingerboard is rosewood. I initially had a laurel fretboard which I preferred but it died during the inlay process. Bridge, tailpiece and pickups are from an infamous Chinese online superstore Everything else is from UK online guitar hardware retailers. There's been some errors and some troubles along the way, the wings failing when putting tuners on (really didn't think about where the screws would go so early on) The final sand before nitro could have been better and the nitro itself nearly sent me to insanity. Over all, I had a little sob when I finished it. Its been over five months of every emotion and I'm super happy with the outcome. Been a pleasure to be part of such a great community all building for a worthy cause.
Kent uk
I haven’t really thought of a name to give this build, but….. but had a blast doing it for such a great cause. Learnt some new skills. Seen some amazing builds! Actually as this is my second build… the name i think should be… “The second coming!”. With Gyker locking tuners and Walman humbuckers and blood sweat and tears!! This is my JC4 entry. “The second coming”..
Worcester UK
This one's inspired very loosely on one of my heroes, Peter Green. Its a fully hollow meranti body with double binding, a flame maple top and bound maple neck. Its also got epiphone probucker pickups which I really like.
melbourne, Australia
This is my super s-type, with a American white ash body, hrd maple neck with a 24 fret rosewood fretboard. Wilkinson tuners, gotoh 1996t trem, and guyker (I think) alnico pickups. This is the first guitar I have made, that I have done the fretboard, as I used to buy them pre slotted. Neck is modern c shape, 20mm at 1st fret, 23mm at 15th fret. Hope you all like it. 😁
Scottsdale, Tasmania, Australia
This guitar is one of my finest...if not the finest I've built. Almost everything has worked out as good or better than I had anticipated. I will be rafilling off this guitar and donating all of the profit to the Leukaemia foundation in the name of Jurgen Zoller. I think it is the right thing to do. I've built 17 guitars so far. This is build #18/19 depending on which I finish first. I'm sure proud of the neck and the semi-hollow body. Admittedly....I'm an idiot. I built this after watching older videos of the Jurg's Cup, thinking the theme was about a hollow/semi-hollow theme. Therefore, this guitar fits the theme of the 2025 Jurg's Cup....and has very little to do with the 2026 theme of "Hero" build. If that were the case I'd be building a left handed Strat (I'm sure you can guess the hero). In this case I suppose my hero would be (as corny as this sounds) Paul Richards of Milehouse Studios. He is the main reason I had the confidence to begin guitar making. I'm sincerely not making this stuff up. In July, 2025, I decided to make a guitar after watching a bunch of his videos. Since then, I have completed 17 electric guitars. I wish I started making them 30 years ago. I hope to sell them and make a new life for myself. One day maybe. Thanks for the support and encouragement. This community is filled with positivity and I'm proud to be a part of it.
Scottish Highlands
My entry is based on the ibanez JS2450 Joe satriani guitar. Poplar body, maple neck with ebony accent and ebony fretboard with spokewheel trussrod. Gotoh hardware. Warman pickups. Bridge is the zebra with an A5 magnet and neck is the peacemaker. Painted with Kustom canz orange candy and 2k clear coat finish. Sound demo can be heard on my youtube channel at NSJGuitars
Willenhall, England
Inspiration - I always loved (but could never afford) the signature instruments of my Heroes: Brian May, Edward Van Halen, Steve Lukather, Mark Knopfler and Nuno Bettencourt. They were more than signature 'tweeks' of a stock model, they were designed with them, for them. So my submission is a "made for a local hero" - what would a local hero want from a signature guitar- playability, ergonomics, subtle orginal lines, in short, something I'd put my name to and he would play on stage! Materials - he usually plays a tele, so i went with as hand maple, wish a tweek of an ebony board . He wanted a light and stable guitar. I added a small detail with a padauk stripe on the body, I love working with it and I think they look great together, the ash he maple will get deeper in colour with use. I like oiled finished to let the wood resonate, and adds character with age. It also makes it tactile when playing the guitar. What changed- the main alteration was to reduce the body width by 1/2", bringing it to 12 1/2", to be accomodated by a newly acquired thickness plainer. This adjusted the over all outline slightly, and made it lighter in weight. I also added more prominent body contours than originally intended, it added comfort and a cool aesthetic, with a nod towards one of my guitar brand Hero's PRS.
Quebec, Canada
I present you the Wasturbator ! a 27 inch scale practice bass. The body made of Okume Mahogany, the neck is a 5 pieces laminated : Mahogany, flame maple, walnut with a rosewood fretboard. The bride i from Guyker, and pickup is a single coil Seymour Duncan. im impressed on this one i stayed pretty much on course, i did improvised a bit on the fretboard end. This was supposed to be a Batman inspired bass, i had to put something more obvious... i stained pink the maple on the neck, because my friend like pink a lot, and i made a funky electronic cavity cover with the help of my laser cutter. in the end its a tiny beast with a huge neck ! See ya next year ! Cheers !
Herefordshire
Inspired by some of the rocks legends who inspired me to begin playing - I’ve tried to capture the spirit of Billie Joe Armstrong of Green day and his use of double cut guitars alongside Rolling Stones Kieth Richards blending both styles of classic rock genres. The Olympic white was a nod to the late Rick Parfitt. The subtle relic was a late decision during the build as I was spraying on the finish and it just didn’t feel as though the guitar had soul and I really wanted to give it some authenticity and the effect of a well loved companion with stories to tell. It’s not for everyone - and would I do it again, I’m not sure but this I felt it worked. The Loller P90 pickup at the heart of this mixed with the “home of tone” signature wiring is a bloody joy.. I’ve never used either products before this build but I will definitely go with this combo again. For such a simple rig, the dynamic range moving from a warm bluesy tones to aggressive overdriven sounds just using volume and tone is effortless. I feel if a guitarist ever wanted to explore the art of heavy and light touch playing, a setup like this would be ideal as it really does respond to the players nuances. Specs: 24.75” scale length 12” radius fretboard Solid mahogany body and neck Babinga Fretbaord Abolone inlays Loller USA P90 dogear pickup Home of tone signature vintage wiring loom Gotch tuners Guyker tune-o-matic bridge and tail piece Bone nut I’m relatively new still to guitar building. This is my 4th complete build. Thank you to all of the community taking part in the cup as every bit of feedback has been really positive and it does make a huge difference to my confidence. Can I also shout out to Paul @ Milehouse studios and Patrick at shed of dreams. A good proportion of my education over the last few years has come from these two channels so thank you. Good luck everyone
Halifax Canada
"Buccaneer". Maple/sappel body and neck. Maple/pau ferro fretboard. Gotoh hardware. I wanted to do an explorer style with a twist. It plays pretty nicely and I've already gigged with it.
Sydney Australia
Hi all, this is my firat ever Jurgs entry... and my second ever guitar build! I built thia one for my brother for his 40th birthday. Its a straight grain Maple back and curly maple top, I stained the back red and the top I went for a vintage look burst, (first time using any dye at all too, No pressure!!) I also tried my hand at faux binding using Tung Oil to accentuate the grain. hardware wise I went with a Wilkinson Brodge with compensated saddles, Gotoh tuners and Fender Tex Mex, Hot tele Pickups, the neck is curly Maple with Indian rosewood fretboard, with abalone inlays and side dots. I then put some Ernie Ball 10's on and the frets are Fender Medium Jumbo. Judging by the look on my brother's face he liked it! Im stoked to have found lutheiry as a passtime after being medically discharged from the police force.. its literally saved my life. Its a big step forward for my building journey hVing built my first one out of Tomato Stakes I had in the garden!
South East England
I used Eddie Van Halen's '78 Eruption' guitar for inspiration on this one. The body is black limba and a (very) loose Jaguar template (to be a little different). Although a nod to the Eruption guitar, I wanted to keep the wood visible and then the black stripes cut through it using routed lines filled with epoxy containing black mica powder with a dash of gold to give a metallic glint when the light catches it. A maple neck with a wenge fretboard, spoke wheel truss rod and stainless frets. As a beginner/hobby builder I like to use affordable (but decent) hardware where possible and so have a Wilkinson tuners / 2 point trem and Warman "Lil' Hot Devil" humbuckers. This is my first build using a roller nut, which works great, although will probably stick to bone in the future for ease. Overall pretty pleased with the result and this competition has been a great motivation to put a little extra thought into the design and build of the guitar.
Maitland, NSW. Australia
Hi, my submission is a 355 inspired build ( very loosely) of Pepper Keenans of COC and Down 355. it has a 25.5" scale and is setup in C standard. Its been grain filled with epoxy all over, sanded to 1000 and hard wax finished for a satin look. Makes the whole body super smooth and not sticky. The Neck is a reverse headstock design and has been made out of Karri which i sourced from the local hardware store. It has a Spoke wheel truss rod and carbon fibre reinforcement rods and has great access to the upper frets as the neck is designed to overhang the body at the neck joint. The Body is made from on old school desk that my lovely wife rescued from a Skip bin, (thanks Mrs Courtney). It has a marbled epoxy top and white marbled binding around the perimeter, f holes and pickups. The body is also bound under the top with the same epoxy binding. it has been Hollowed out internally and 3D printed cavities installed to try and save additional weight. Hardware is a mix of in house made aluminum including the badges, tailpiece with hidden mounting, string tree and jack plate. Kaish Tuners and Bridge. The control knobs are 3d printed in Carbon fiber and highlighted with the same White marble epoxy
Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada
The Siltanen Guitars '65 Superbird. This is my take on a 1965 Firebird. As Gibson transitioned the Firebird from the reverse body style to the non-reverse there was mixing of features on some guitars.... I love the reverse Firebird body style with the Banjo tuners, but thought P90's would be a nice change from the stock Firebird pickups (which are a nightmare to make !). So this Superbird combines the features of the earlier Firebirds, with the P90's of the non-reverse guitars that came later. It features true neck-though construction, the centre section is a 9 piece Mahogany and Walnut laminate, the wings are Honduran mahogany. The pickups are a set of my hand-wound Vostok P90s. The bridge P90 is a special Alnico 6 magnet variant of the Vostok 3 model, and the neck is a classic Vostok 2 using Alnico 5 magnets. This gives a nice balance of bridge pickup with a bit more midrange punch than a stock P90, and a very smooth and open neck pickup. They match very well together in this guitar. The tuners are true Kluson Firebird Banjo tuners, with Ivory buttons. The fretboard is Rosewood, and the frets are Stewmac Cryowire 152. The neck profile is slightly thicker than our usual medium C-D, measuring 0.87" at the first fret and 0.92" at the twelfth fret. Its finished in a classic Tobacco Sunburst with a satin sheen. This guitar was showcased at our booth during the 2026 Great American Guitar Build-Off, and now resides with an incredibly accomplished player and collector in Belgium. These guitars a a challenge to make, all the normal build processes have to be reconfigured to accommodate the 4ft chunk of lumber that slowly turns into the centre section of the instrument. However, once they are finished, they are one of the most striking guitars you can strap on ! Thanks to all, its an honour to be able to participate !!! Cheers !
London, UK
A cabronita-esque take on a Strat. This is the first time I've tried a full body+neck build at home, and despite having to throw away two failed neck attempts I'm really happy how it turned out. All done with hand tools - no bandsaw or pillar drill. Specs: • White limba body, orange wood stain with Northwest Guitars "Water based top coat" wipe-on finish for the body. • Maple neck, ebony 'board (pre-slotted) with a mystery-wood veneer on the headstock (from a cheap bag of random offcuts I got ages ago) - oil finish (Crimson "penetrating" oil). • Soap-bar sized filtertron pickups (TV Jones classic in the neck and a Mojo "Mojotron" in the bridge) • ABM 3250 fixed bridge
Dongen Nederland
My acoustic SG2000 build because I I am a big fan of SANTANA. you can see the build video's on YouTube and the photo's on Facebook ( SUTOR guitars) it is full acoustic , one piezo, one pick-up. And volume & tone
Sweden
I build a: ratrod warlock with a double G string and a trem that only affects the B string, heavily relicked "partscaster" with 2 outputs and a weird humbucker I designed myself... It started with an old idea of putting a jaguar trem on a warlock and morphed into what it is now. I like the idea of ratrods and ratbikes, where you build something cool from whatever you have lying around, so I took that approach and started there. I had this warlock body and weird 9-inch-radius neck that was a total missmatch, so I filled the trem cavity and neck pocket, routed the neck pocket for the neck I had and stripped the body completely. then made a red and yellow burst, cleared that out, and then sprayed the whole thing black (all nitro), and then started sanding parts of the black away. The B-bender idea and extra G string came along the way, as did the idea for the split "om-en-om-bucker" that can split the E, D, B and A, G, and e strings to their own outputs. I also build guitars from scratch, but I love this thing now and play it regularly. I never started this project to win, just to be part of the whole thing. I love the community and the charity and am proud to be part of this. One of my goals was to build a platform for a lot of my experimental ideas, and that is what it is. I like the heavily moded look; there are holes I didn't use (the lipstick pickup I screwed through the back wasn't it), parts I routed after painting, scratches and dents, and even an attempt to put a joystick in that would control an MS-20 filter... I will come back to that idea at some point... It took me longer than some builds from scratch, and I learned a tonne on this thing again.
Saltash, Cornwall
This is an extended range 8 string headless guitar inspired by ‘IV’ from Sleep Token. The body is a 2 piece ash, neck an African Wenge and an inlaid Zebrano fretboard. The pickup is all custom fabricated, only the coil wire and pole screws have been bought ‘off the shelf’. Using a custom pole spacing and angle to capture the complimentary speaking points on the 28”-26.5” scale length Another feature is that the design was to be all ‘low profile’ keeping the hardware as minimal and least protruding as possible. This starts with the Riviera Hardware bridge, the matching radius pickup cover, a custom roller volume control, then a kill button and split coil button to maintain a sleek profile.
Competition closes November 1st! Livestream on November 12th to announce the winners — watch on YouTube!