A wonderful friend asked if I could build her a bass that plays like a fender but is light as her Yamaha. Also whilst we are getting in to the particulars, I like gold with a nitro finish please… This is a custom-built Jazz Bass featuring vintage 70s Fender-spec hardware and pickups. Finished in a gorgeous Shoreline Gold with an authentic nitrocellulose lacquer that will age beautifully. Body & Finish: Shoreline Gold, nitro paint Pickups: Fender-spec 70s style Other parts used: Shoreline Gold paint

There's something really satisfying about a build that comes together cleanly, and Ronald from Milton Keynes has put together exactly that — a Telecaster-style guitar using our Telecaster Compatible Guitar Neck with a Rosewood Fretboard, plus the rest of the parts from us here at Northwest Guitars.

Ronald told us the parts arrived well packaged and quickly, and that assembly was straightforward as long as it's done carefully. Best of all, he found the frets level and nicely finished straight out of the box — nothing needed beyond a polish and an action setup to get it playing properly. That's exactly what we like to hear.

The only thing Ronald didn't need from us was a set of tuners, as he already had some machine heads waiting to go on. He's delighted with the body too, calling it excellent and saying it looks terrific, and the finished guitar tips the scales at a nicely substantial 8 lbs 5 ozs.

Thanks for the kind words about our quality and communication, Ronald — and thanks for sharing the build with us. Enjoy playing it!

Andy from Andover has been busy in the workshop, and we're big fans of the result. His relic partscaster build came to us needing a refinish, and he reached for our Black Gloss Nitrocellulose Guitar Paint / Lacquer 400ml to get the job done.

Nitro is always a lovely thing to work with on a build like this, and a deep black gloss is about as classic as it gets. Alongside the refinish, Andy gave the guitar a complete re-wire, so it's as fresh on the inside as it is on the outside.

For the pickups, he's gone with a Bare Knuckle True Grit single coil in the neck and a Bare Knuckle Holy Diver in the bridge. In Andy's own words, it's a tone monster, and we can well believe it.

Thanks for sharing this one with us, Andy. Enjoy it!

Alex, from West Sussex, sent us a picture-perfect butterscotch blonde Telecaster — and if you've ever wanted to recreate that iconic colour yourself, this is how it's done. Alex used our nitrocellulose paints and one of our bodies to nail it.

The build is based around an alder Tele body finished in Butterscotch Blonde nitro — and it's the nitro that really makes it, giving that vintage charm you only get in the flesh. For a bit of grit under the classic looks, Alex dropped a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates into the bridge. Now that the finish has fully hardened and had a proper polish, it's really come into its own.

"Couldn't be happier with the colour — that butterscotch blonde is exactly what I was going for. The pictures don't do it justice; the nitro finish really gives it that vintage charm in the flesh. That alder body and butterscotch blonde you supplied are spot on, and it's a lovely playing guitar." — Alex

There's something special about a build that keeps things simple and lets the timbers do the talking, and Karl from Nottingham has done exactly that. A mahogany body sits at the heart of this one, finished in our Candy Cola Nitrocellulose Guitar Paint Kit — a deep, glassy red that catches the light beautifully and only gets better as nitro ages.

The neck is where things get really interesting: white limba paired with a wenge fretboard, topped off with mother of pearl inlays. That pale limba against the dark, open-grained wenge is a gorgeous bit of contrast, and the pearl really pops against it.

Hardware-wise, Karl's gone for a wraparound bridge and Gotoh tuners — straightforward, solid choices that keep the whole thing looking clean and uncluttered. A pair of Epiphone ProBuckers handle the electrics, so there's plenty of warmth and bite on tap to match that mahogany.

Thanks for sharing this one with us, Karl — that Candy Cola finish looks fantastic over the mahogany, and the limba and wenge combination is a proper treat. Enjoy playing it!

Robin, from Leek, sent us the finished shots of a Kramer project refinish that's well worth a closer look. What began as a sparkly pearl finish he was never keen on is now a hand-sprayed, EVH-inspired showpiece — every colour laid down with our nitrocellulose spray cans.

"I tried to get as many tricks in one place as I could."

The whole guitar was sprayed by hand, the body mounted on a rotating spindle with the neck pocket completely masked off. Over a grey primer base he built up the colours — a coat of Arctic White, then two coats of Dakota Red over the top (the white underneath giving the red a real glow), with Black Gloss worked in for the striping. A decal went on, then several coats of clear gloss lacquer, and a full four-week cure before assembly.

It's not meant to be an exact EVH clone, but plenty of his ideas are in there, pulled together into a colour combination Robin's rightly proud of.

"I particularly like the colour combination." — Robin

Ashley was given a dropped 2003 Epiphone with a tired old gold top finish — snapped strap button, a lump of wood missing, and a Bigsby fitted — and took it on as his first full restoration.

The refinish was the heart of the project. He filled the holes, sanded back to bare wood at 800 grit, then transformed it completely — grey primer, a fresh coat of seafoam green and a clear gloss over the top, finished off with 1000 and 2000 wet-and-dry and a finishing polish. The neck got the same treatment to match, and the result is a world away from where it started.

With the paint done, he fitted a set of Tonerider pickups — a Rebel 90 in the neck and a Rocksong in the bridge — then rewired it with CTS 500K pots, Gavitt vintage cloth push-back wire, a Hosco witches hat volume knob and a Sprague orange drop treble bleed kit. He'd also levelled and dressed the frets for the first time. Soldered it all up, and it worked first time.

"I feel like I've got a boutique guitar now. It's not perfect, but you have to look very hard to find anything. Next up — cracking the paint on a Tele body!"