Guitar Contest 2

Chistopher

malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
Howdy y'all, I was thinking back on that guitar modding contest we did a while back, what worked well and what didn't. There were three main things I think needed to be worked on:

Better organization (and scoring) to make it less confusing, a price limit to make it more interesting and accessible, and an actual prize to incentivize participation.

Here's a general overview of what I was thinking. We have a start date and an end date. Your submission cannot have been finished before the start date, most of your components have to have been aquired afterwards. There will be a spending limit of probably no more than $300-$500, it's not that simple, but I've got a few rules that can make things easier for people who don't have that type of money to drop on a contest. Lastly we have some sort of meaningful prize(s), I'm willing to submit a DS-1 modded to the winners spec (within reason, but I can do quite a bit with them) and maybe depending on interest and what other people are willing to donate we could have multiple categories people could win.


What do y'all say?
 
Sounds cool. It would be best if you clarified modded guitar vs. custom build though mot custom builds go beyond the $500 ceiling.
 
Yeah, I was thinking about a rule where functional components can't be made from scratch. But handmade plastics and aesthetic components can be.
 
A guitar like a Warmouth or my Fender Strat I would call custom-built even though the person does not carve the parts themselves. Dave's Warmouth for example is a custom-built guitar not a modded guitar.
 
As far as cost, I'm thinking a $450 spending limit that can be bumped up to $500 if you paint the guitar. This would be a good way to incentivize creativity, not just with cool guitar colors but with drilling, routing, and filling holes.

Also any component under $15, as well as taxes, import, and shipping won't get added to the total.
 
Cool idea. I might be down.

Criteria for Mod: Minimum of a factory produced and finished Body and Neck to start
- A stripped body could work well here, or parts from multiple guitars

Criteria for an Assembly:
- Purchased parts that are finished and/or functional.
- Painted/routed warmth body with studs inserted, Warmoth neck with Floyd rose nut and Gotoh tuner holes pre-drilled.
* Added this after the last line of build criteria!

Criteria for a Build: A stock unfinished body and neck to begin WITHOUT routes for bridge/pickups/controls or tuners.
- If you are gonna build, then lets freaking build! Warmoth body blank and a neck with frets - the rest is you
- Honestly, Warmoth can take you to bolt the neck on and solder the pickups, done. That's not a "build" it's an assembly. Major criticism of AR "builds" also.

Give points for things done
- Modded the body shape - +5
- Added Tremolo +10
- Tremolo to Floyd +5
- Removed paint to natural +3
- Natural to Paint +5
- Bursted +7
- Custom Graphic +10
- Modded to Humbucker from single +5

And then overall scores 1-20 pts each:
Build
Function
Cool factor
Overall
 
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Give points for things done
- Modded the body shape - +5
- Added Tremolo +10
- Tremolo to Floyd +5
- Removed paint to natural +3
- Natural to Paint +5
- Bursted +7
- Custom Graphic +10
- Modded to Humbucker from single +5

And then overall scores 1-20 pts each:
Build
Function
Cool factor
Overall

Points for things done is arbitrary. You give +7 for a burst. Someone who hates bursts would paint over a burst with jet black or blood red. I would never put a custom graphic on one of my guitars. The 80s are over you can keep the +10 points. Tremolo to Floyd +5? I don't like Floyds and just replaced mine with a Sophia. Looks like you want to assign points for your personal preferences.

It should be purely peer-reviewed. The guitar with the most likes wins.
 
i agree. acebobs list is junk

You think his list is bad you should see his CD collection.

attachment-best_hair_metal_albums.jpg
 
Points for things done is arbitrary. You give +7 for a burst. Someone who hates bursts would paint over a burst with jet black or blood red. I would never put a custom graphic on one of my guitars. The 80s are over you can keep the +10 points. Tremolo to Floyd +5? I don't like Floyds and just replaced mine with a Sophia. Looks like you want to assign points for your personal preferences.

It should be purely peer-reviewed. The guitar with the most likes wins.

I was trying to create some index of difficulty....Just saying a burst is more difficult than a graphic

But yeah, anonymous votes like the SDUG Ultimate Axe contest.
 
It's Christopher's show - he is the final arbiter / decider. He hasn't published anything official yet.
 
Rats, here's me with my entire guitar improvement budget already spent, and the only projects left in front of me are salvage operations.
 
I'm not a fan of the rules, I've got parts here that have been sitting around for years.

I was thinking about that recently. I'd say if you have something on hand we could work something out. Like it's worth whatever the going rate on Reverb is or something.
 
Hmm... wouldn anyone be able to find out if one or more of the big names in the Custom Shop would be able to judge so we could have a popular vote winner and a "Seymour's Choice" or something similar as a second winner?
 
Hmm... wouldn anyone be able to find out if one or more of the big names in the Custom Shop would be able to judge so we could have a popular vote winner and a "Seymour's Choice" or something similar as a second winner?

$#!t

I was hoping to use DiMarzios.....because cheaper
 
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