Great Guitar Build Off 2022 Guitar - The Fire Flower
This is my third year in this wonderful event. I wanted the full build video to be something a bit special and decided to write a sort of concept album to go along with the video. I think it worked but please go and have a look to see for yourselves. The album is available on Bandcamp and 50% of the profits will go to charity.

I built the guitar using Cherry for the body top, back and ribs. The tailstop, bridge and pickup cover are made from Ovangkol. The fretboard and binding on the neck, body and headstock are Santos Rosewood. The central section of the bridge consists of an Ovangkol centre with aluminium sides holding adjustable string guides that I reclaimed from an old fixed tail bridge. There is a steel plate attached to the underside with two threaded holes for worm screws to adjust the bridge height. The tailstop has an aluminium plate embedded in the underside to give it strength. It is attached to the body using two screws one of which is hidden.

The Idea
Initially we were going for a Spring theme and so we choose a Magnolia flower as the basis for the artwork. I wanted to have a very bold decoration, its an electric guitar - it had to be LOUD 😎. The idea of the yellows and oranges came about when Carolyn started experimenting painting on the Cherry, the white of a Magnolia petal just didn't cut it. The painting took abut two weeks, the wood was difficult to paint on and Carolyn had to leave the layers to dry before continuing. I was absolutely thrilled with the final result, the colours made the petals look like flames hence the name "The Fire Flower". It sounded cool and gave me inspiration for the music.

The petal decoration on the back of the headstock includes Zebrano, Walnut, Cherry and Ovangkol. The truss rod cover is Santos Rosewood with a shell inlay. All the inlays were made from a jar of broken shells I bought from a craft shop. I used miniature unbranded tuners which work really well.

The laminated neck consists of Cherry sides with a Sycamore centre lined with strips of Ovangkol. The neck is attached to the body with a single roofing bolt which is recessed into the back.

Your homemade guitars
I would like to feature stories behind your homemade guitars on my YouTube Channel to give inspiration to others to have a go. How did you build it, what tools did you have, what went wrong, what are you most proud of? If you would like me to feature your guitar please contact me via my contact form and I will get back to you for the details.

#OurScoringChallenge2 - A musical challenge
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