The Hater Maker, a triple-necked, T-style electric, takes top honors at the Great Guitar Build Off 2020
There are still more winners to be crowned – and you can help choose them
In September we introduced you to some truly out-there electric guitar designs courtesy of the Great Guitar Build Off 2020, a competition featuring eight luthiers doing their best to one-up each other, and raise money for a variety of charities in the process.
Rules for the Build Off, sponsored by the UK’s Crimson Guitars, were simple – each luthier built from the same base kit within a limited time frame, with the finished guitar being auctioned off with 100% of the proceeds going to a charity of the builder's choice.
Now, that winner has been announced – and the honors go to Matt Flaherty and Chris Fesker's Texas Toast Guitars of Arvada, Colorado, who submitted the triple-necked T-style Hater Maker.
In addition to, well, the three necks, the guitar - built, like all the entries, from a Crimson Guitars Raw Uncut Kit – features an ash body and ebony fingerboard, as well as seriously cool Metal Flake Greengold sparkly finishes and animal print fretboards.
The Hater Maker sold for $7,069 on eBay, with proceeds helping to cover Flaherty and Fesker's friend's medical expenses.
And the Great Guitar Build Off 2020 continues on. Crimson Guitars Master Luthier Ben Crowe is now judging the Unofficial Challengers category of the competition, for which he’ll choose his top 15 builds.
These guitars will then be presented on Crimson Guitars’ official Instagram page, with the public – that means you – casting its votes to decide the Top Five.
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The winner will be entered into the official Great Guitar Build Off 2021, and will also receive a Crimson Kit Guitar of their choosing, a Crimson Essential Fret Levelling and Dressing Toolkit (or voucher of similar value), a pair of ISOtunes and a voucher for the Vintage Tool Shop.
There are also third place and runner-up prizes to be won.
You can follow the Unofficial Challengers stream on YouTube and Instagram using #greatguitarbuildoff.
And for more information, head to the Great Guitar Build Off.
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Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
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