BC Rich Mockingbird inspired Through Neck

[JGTay]

I'm back after nearly two years away from guitar building. Hand tools are out and at the ready! 

Had a busy couple of years building an extension on the front of my house, replastering the front room and various other jobs around the place. Also had a lot of building/plastering jobs for other people that has kept me too busy to do any fun stuff.

Part of redoing our front room included disposal of our old 1930's double iron frame upright piano, which was badly in need of restringing/tuning. This is now in pieces in my wood pile, a nice surprise to this is that it has an Ash body underneath the mahogany veneer, perfect for guitars.

I have also been given an old solid oak dining table, very large and heavy, which will also come in handy for my builds.

All of which brings me nicely back to the present and a nice little project to get my teeth stuck into...

I have been asked to build a BC Rich Mockingbird inspired guitar and just started working on the through neck, which is multi-laminated oak and Ash (pictures will be uploaded shortly) 

The body wings will be made out of oak (with plenty of weight relief!!)

Going with a 25.5 inch scale, 4+2 headstock, dual humbuckers and probably a wraparound bridge. 

The Hardware is yet to be decided on, as well as the type of finish and fretboard material. 

Looking forward to this build

[JGTay]

Please excuse the mess in my workshop, should really get it tidied up, would make it a lot easier to find everything. 

First job was doing the neck laminate, went with oak in the centre and Ash either side, I left the mahogany veneer on as well to give it a darker stripe between the woods. 

It was then time to cut the headstock angle with my new Japanese saw that is a really nice addition to my tools. Makes light work of getting through the dense woods.

 

 

Then marked out the headstock and worked out the position of the tuners.

 

 

Cut, chiselled and smoothed out the pickup cavities. Will do the cavity side sections and wiring cavities in the wings before gluing them on.

 

 

Then started shaping the neck edges with the Shinto rasp, still amazed at how good they are for this type of work.

 

 

 

 

Then printed out the template for the body and checked the positioning. 

 

 

Next job will be hefting in the oak table and cutting some nice pieces for the body wings. I will do some shaping on the wings, the neck profile and headstock before gluing the body on. Will also look at some weight relief options before gluing.

 

[mistermikev]

imo you just don't see enough mocking birds.  a friend of mine is goo goo ga ga for them... have to admit he kind of got me into them.  

love the idea of red oak center strip.  imo ideal use for oak... not sure about this big of a body in oak... but I bet it's going to be handsome.  rawk on.

[JGTay]

This will be the first Mockingbird guitar I have tried when it is finished... when I asked what guitar shape he wanted, he said he had always wanted a BC Rich Mockingbird and I had to google it. 

Have made a couple of guitars out of Oak and so long as you get the weight relief right, it makes a very nice guitar with plenty of good tones.

 

Progress so far today...

Drilled the tuner holes and started shaping the headstock, still needs more sanding, but a good start.

 

 

And then got the volute and back face started.

 

 

Just taking a break for a little while to allow my back, arms and shoulders to recover. Then will try to get a bit more done.

 

[Bizman62]

I always think when I see them that I should make the volute continue to the headstock. Then when I make the headstock I run to the spindle sander, attach a guiding block on the table and boom! A flat headstock!

[JGTay]

Just tested some tuners in and need to flatten out a couple of places around the volute for them to sit properly, but overall it is very close to the final shape, just needs a good sanding. 

[JGTay]

Volute shape finished from headstock side, will just need to be done on the neck side once I get the neck profile done.

Sanded to 400 grit and cleaned with white spirit. Will have another sanding once the neck profile is done and the other side is finished.

[mistermikev]

4 hours ago, JGTay said:

This will be the first Mockingbird guitar I have tried when it is finished... when I asked what guitar shape he wanted, he said he had always wanted a BC Rich Mockingbird and I had to google it. 

Have made a couple of guitars out of Oak and so long as you get the weight relief right, it makes a very nice guitar with plenty of good tones.

 

Progress so far today...

Drilled the tuner holes and started shaping the headstock, still needs more sanding, but a good start.

 

 

And then got the volute and back face started.

 

 

Just taking a break for a little while to allow my back, arms and shoulders to recover. Then will try to get a bit more done.

 

right on.  You'll have to put it on a postage scale and let us know what the final body weight is. 

looking fwd to some body shots (don't take that the wrong way).

 

[JGTay]

23 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

looking fwd to some body shots (don't take that the wrong way).

Was just stripping off and getting my camera ready!

[JGTay]

The oak table is a failure, cut a strip wide enough and found it is chipboard with an oak veneer, thankfully I didn't pay anything for it and will not mention it to the person that gave it to me. 

Back to the drawing board and checking through my wood stocks from the piano for pieces wide enough for the body wings, I came across this under the mahogany veneer -

Not sure if you can see from the pics, but it has a nice natural green colour to it. No idea what type of wood it is, but it cuts well, seems very dense, has some nice grain patterns and machines well.

Anybody got any idea what type of wood it is?

 

[mistermikev]

8 minutes ago, JGTay said:

The oak table is a failure, cut a strip wide enough and found it is chipboard with an oak veneer, thankfully I didn't pay anything for it and will not mention it to the person that gave it to me. 

Back to the drawing board and checking through my wood stocks from the piano for pieces wide enough for the body wings, I came across this under the mahogany veneer -

Not sure if you can see from the pics, but it has a nice natural green colour to it. No idea what type of wood it is, but it cuts well, seems very dense, has some nice grain patterns and machines well.

Anybody got any idea what type of wood it is?

 

I'm gonna guess poplar.  not nearly big/thick enough for body tho.  is decent wood but not all that resistant to dents and doesn't take finish that well.  plenty of folks have used it tho.  my suggestion: go to craigslist/facebook marketplace/offerup and search for hardwood.  you can find everything from folks who chopped down a tree and have firewood.... to live edge guys who work with tree removal service.  I'd bet for $25 you can get a nice 8/4 chunk of something or other.  just a thought.

[JGTay]

Thanks Mike, I have some other pieces to check through yet, I know they used Ash on quite a few pieces of the piano, it just finding some big enough.

If it comes down to it I will buy a nice body blank, but will see what I find first.

[JGTay]

Turns out the biggest pieces of wood from the piano are all poplar. The smaller planks are Ash and the trims are mahogany. I guess back in the day when it was made it was down to availability and cost. 

I may double up the poplar and see how it goes with shaping, etc. before attaching to the neck. I do like the natural green and if it doesn't work I can get some other wood. 

[mistermikev]

7 hours ago, JGTay said:

Turns out the biggest pieces of wood from the piano are all poplar. The smaller planks are Ash and the trims are mahogany. I guess back in the day when it was made it was down to availability and cost. 

I may double up the poplar and see how it goes with shaping, etc. before attaching to the neck. I do like the natural green and if it doesn't work I can get some other wood. 

right on.  nothing wrong w poplar.  

[JGTay]

After gluing up the poplar for the top wing, I sketched a rough outline of the shape

Then set about getting the excess wood off and getting some shape into it, leaving some clamping points which can be cut off afterwards

rough shape done, through neck cut close to size

Next up is cutting and gluing some pieces for the bottom wing.

 

[JGTay]

The good thing about doing the body in two pieces this way is that you can do the wiring and control cavities before gluing.

After gluing, clamping and leaving to dry for a few hours it was onto the rough shaping in, again leaving clamping points

The control cavity from the back

And all lined up.

Need to get some bits ordered before the next section, hopefully they will not take too long to arrive...

[ScottR]

On 4/12/2022 at 12:22 PM, JGTay said:

Volute shape finished from headstock side, will just need to be done on the neck side once I get the neck profile done.

Sanded to 400 grit and cleaned with white spirit. Will have another sanding once the neck profile is done and the other side is finished.

Be sure to double check that the spine doesn't interfere with the tuner bodies sitting flush on the headstock. I use a volute that blends into a spine on the back of the headstock too, And have had to adjust for that interference more than once.

SR

[Bizman62]

That greenish grey looks awesome, especially as the pale wood at least at this point matches with the neck.

[JGTay]

1 hour ago, ScottR said:

Be sure to double check that the spine doesn't interfere with the tuner bodies sitting flush on the headstock.

Thanks Scott. I have checked it with some spare tuners I have, but haven't got the actual tuners yet and there may be a slight difference in size. Hopefully it will be okay, but can soon change it if needed.

[JGTay]

1 minute ago, Bizman62 said:

That greenish grey looks awesome, especially as the pale wood at least at this point matches with the neck.

Thanks Bizman, I totally agree. I may have to make myself another after this with the same wood combination. (although my wife will throw a hissy fit if I have anymore guitars ) 

Dan, who this is for, was here yesterday making some decisions on the components, etc., and wants to do the finish himself. He has all the spray gear and is looking at doing a translucent blue finish, before it comes back to me for the hardware installation. 

[Bizman62]

6 minutes ago, JGTay said:

my wife will throw a hissy fit if I have anymore guitars

Well, she shouldn't as you're building them for others. My wife knits, mostly socks. Big socks, small socks, colourful socks, jacquard socks, patterned socks...  Once I counted over thirty pairs without a home. But we have an agreement: I don't nag about the socks and she doesn't argue about the guitars. Agreed, her socks find an owner at some stage, my guitars aren't good enough to be sold or inexpensive enough to be just given away. Nor am I such a player that I would really need more than just one guitar. But both of my daughters are musically talented and when I leave this world I hope that they'll share my builds and learn to play something in my funeral.

[ScottR]

On 4/16/2022 at 11:37 AM, JGTay said:

(although my wife will throw a hissy fit if I have anymore guitars ) 

Mine acts like she is ignoring them. But over the years I have learned that she actually claims some of them. She never says anything out loud (initially), but loan one of "hers" to a buddy to play for a couple of weeks and and be accused of handing over her first born son.

She doesn't play, never touches them and rarely even looks at them (in my presence). but dammit, some of those are hers!

SR

[JGTay]

While waiting for parts to arrive, I decided to get on with making the control cavity cover. Cut a piece to the right size

Then got the chisels out and started cutting out the ledge

Once deep enough it was on with flattening the cover to fit correctly, testing in place and adding the thumbnail access slot (bottom of the picture). Still need to put the magnets in, happy enough with the grain matching, not perfect but close enough.

 

[Bizman62]

Why have I never thought about making the cover before the ledge?

[Madmtnmotors]

Subscribed! Excellent work so far. I really like the idea of using the "tone infused" piano wood...