Finished! Swiftbird? Fireswift? Supermaween Swiftfire?

[Andyjr1515]

As the iconic Staind song goes, 'It's Been Awhile'!  

My building has slowed down quite a bit - partly the pesky arthritis in my hands and partly the usual life's distractions - but there are one or two projects that have been on my list for years that I simply have never had the time to get round to.  And this is one of them.

It is a variation on the theme of the iconic Gibson Firebird electric guitar.  'Essence of' is probably a closer description as it aims to tackle some of the compromises of the original and is being built for a specific player and the specific way he plays.  And that player is my son-in-law who plays the excellent Epiphone Firebird.

And can I make something better than an Epiphone Firebird?  Of course not...but I can make it different   

- lighter (maybe)

- easier to fret in the specific fretboard zones he plays

- better on the strap and over the knee

- less (hopefully no) neckdive

- less flat-bodied

It's also a chance to use this type of ebony again for those of you who saw the build thread a year or so back where I used it last:

So off we go!  

[Andyjr1515]

Yes - copied and pasted that bit...but promise not to for the rest of the build  

[Andyjr1515]

This is an initial sketch of what I have in mind:

Note that the 12th fret line is much, much closer to the body than a Firebird - basically I am moving the whole scale-train back an inch or so.  That does take away from one of the more notable features of the Firebird - that reverse jutting jaw look.  But Alex (my son-in-law) is happy with that.  He is also happy with the fairly restricted access to the upper frets - as I said above, this is being designed specifically to suit how he plays.

 

The idea is to have the back in Alder:

And a part-top in the bookmatched figured ebony:

[mistermikev]

18 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

This is an initial sketch of what I have in mind:

Note that the 12th fret line is much, much closer to the body than a Firebird - basically I am moving the whole scale-train back an inch or so.  That does take away from one of the more notable features of the Firebird - that reverse jutting jaw look.  But Alex (my son-in-law) is happy with that.  He is also happy with the fairly restricted access to the upper frets - as I said above, this is being designed specifically to suit how he plays.

 

The idea is to have the back in Alder:

And a part-top in the bookmatched figured ebony:

I want my money back!  I clicked on it... but I saw no alder goodness.  now I have blue balls.  something going wrong with your images partner.  they come up as little thumbnail boxes for me fyi..  

it does SOUND nice!

[Bizman62]

2 hours ago, mistermikev said:

they come up as little thumbnail boxes for me fyi.. 

Nothing wrong with them here. The clicked pictures do come up small but not smaller than they show inside the posts.

[mistermikev]

1 hour ago, Bizman62 said:

Nothing wrong with them here. The clicked pictures do come up small but not smaller than they show inside the posts.

using chrome?

[Andyjr1515]

3 hours ago, mistermikev said:

I want my money back!  I clicked on it... but I saw no alder goodness.  now I have blue balls.  something going wrong with your images partner.  they come up as little thumbnail boxes for me fyi..  

it does SOUND nice!

Well - how very strange!  I'll try a direct download.

Does that work?

 

[mistermikev]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Well - how very strange!  I'll try a direct download.

Does that work?

 

right on, now I see them.  lovely bit of ebony there.  v cool.

[Bizman62]

13 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I'll try a direct download.

That's a better option here. You never know how long a business will keep their hosting services running until their owners think that they don't get paid enough. A patron funded hobbyist forum will run as long as there's anyone willing to cover the costs which aren't that high. There's much information lost in the early threads due to the linked pictures no longer existing on the hosting server.

[Andyjr1515]

This is going to be a through-neck and so generally I start with the neck.  But - in that everything affects everything - I won't be able to sort the neck angle, based on the adjustment range of my intended bridge, without knowing what the fretboard thickness is going to be.  On that basis, I actually started with the fretboard radiusing first.

I used the G&W rig to do the bulk of the work:

Then sanded out the router marks with a radius block:

 

And after that I could draw up the string runs and calculate the neck angle needed, which - using a Tune-o-matic type roller bridge - ended up around 3 degrees.

After gluing the two maple outers to the 6mm ebony inner to make my neck blank, transferred the measurements from my calcs and spent a happy hour or so cutting the neck angle, headstock angle and neck side profile on my accurate but power-challenged hobby bandsaw!

 

[ScottR]

I'm gonna hafta start paying attention again!

SR

[Andyjr1515]

3 minutes ago, ScottR said:

I'm gonna hafta start paying attention again!

SR

I had exactly the same thought halfway through the build so far!  "Concentrate, Andyjr1515.  Concentrate!"   

[Andyjr1515]

With the alder back wood cut to oversize shape and the book-matched ebony glued and also rough-cut, I could mock things up and see if it might work:

 

The ebony will have a maple demarcation layer eventually:

 

Well, it's got half a chance, so time to glue the back wings onto the neck:

 

The wings are of a 'generous' depth because the guitar is planned to be curved at the back.

I want this to balance better than a Firebird but still take some weight out so I chambered forward of the CofG.  Folks who have seen my previous builds know that I hate routers and so I used my normal method of hogging out with forstner bit, then chiselling a cm or so down to create a smooth router bearing run and then, and only then, use a top bearing router bit - now fully captive - to tidy up the sides and rout down to finish depth:

 

 

Finally, I also cut the cable slot between the two planned pickup chambers:

 

[mistermikev]

I would say: "it's good" \0/

[Andyjr1515]

On 6/18/2023 at 5:58 PM, mistermikev said:

I would say: "it's good" \0/

Thanks @mistermikev 

 

I next slotted and tapered the fretboard as I would be soon cutting a slot in the ebony top plate and that would need to be with a finished-size fretboard end and taper.  I used the G&W fret-slot cutting mitre block:

And while I was there, fitted the pair of MoP swifts at the 12th:

 

The end of the fretboard will 'cut through' the top at the angle of the neck top - so I would need a ramp.  Of course, this would be the same angle as the offcut left from shaping the through-neck beam so I could use that.  I had already cut and positioned the top ready for the future gluing with a couple of kebab sticks drilled through into where the pickup chambers would be which will stop the top floating around on the glue when the time comes (ignore the weird headstock, by the way.  Nothing to do with this project  ) ...

 

Ramp cut and glued and the 1.5mm maple demarcation layer joined and rough-cut:

So, all being well, when it's all glued up, it should be doing something like this but with the ramp filling the violin-type overhang:

 

And so, with glue applied, kebab sticks holding everything in position the clamps can be put on:

 

 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

While that was gluing, I used the time to fit the frets to the fretboard.  Once the glue was dry, I started on the rough carve, starting at the back and using the unusual but exceptionally useful Veritas Pullshave:

I also started some rough-carving on the top to start getting a curve in the body profile:

 

[Andyjr1515]

Again, my pathological hatred for routers means that I take a slightly unconventional approach to cutting out pickup chambers 

It is similar to the weight relief chambers above.  After marking them out, I drill all the pickup corners, with a drill 1mm larger diameter than the pickup corner sizes:

Then hog out part-depth with a forstner:

 

Then remove the 'waves' and neaten up the chamber sides to a depth of around 10mm around the edge with a chisel and mallet:

And, finally, use a palm router with a fully captive top-bearing flush bit to follow the chiselled periphery to clean up the sides and go down to the final depth:

 

And last, of course, a quick check to see if it fits 

 

[henrim]

Yes, routers. I kinda like the versatility in them but I don’t use them unless I have to. And there is very little in guitar building where I have to. The thing is I enjoy using chisels and hand planes. I don’t enjoy using routers. If I had to use them I guess I wouldn’t be building guitars.

I do enjoy using milling machines, though. But it is mostly for metals and plastics. I guess I would mill pickup cavities if I could fit a guitar body into my milling machine without having to reposition it so often.

I have done truss rod channels by hand, with milling machine and with a router. There I think I prefer the router.

[Andyjr1515]

The trussrod was installed and then the fretboard glued on with a maple and ebony veneer layer acting as a demarcation line.

Next was working out the headstock.  I was going to using the excellent Steinberger gearless tuners which gave me the advantage of not needing to worry about the distances from the tuner to the edge of the headstock.  I played around with the options to get my string runs straight (the strings go into the centre of the tuners so no offset needed for spindle diameter, etc):

And then, to try to reflect a touch of the body vibe to the headstock, played with the idea of a bit of ying-yang with some paper and black plasticard:

 

Being happy with that, I cut the shape out of a thin sheet of ebony, including scroll sawing an integrated trussrod cover:

Yup - that would do.  It will also get the top two treble strings at a lower level, increasing the break angle on those two strings

 

 

 

[Bizman62]

4 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

to try to reflect a touch of the body vibe to the headstock, played with the idea of a bit of ying-yang with some paper and black plasticard:

That's a way too underrated method. People struggle with computer programs and try to find templates while the easiest way would be to take a big box of crinkled cardboard and cut a full size model for seeing how the design would look on the player. And as shown, using close enough coloured papers for smaller design details.

[Mr Natural]

very cool Andy

 

[Andyjr1515]

7 hours ago, Mr Natural said:

very cool Andy

 

And you are very kind @Mr Natural 

 

[Andyjr1515]

22 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

That's a way too underrated method. People struggle with computer programs and try to find templates while the easiest way would be to take a big box of crinkled cardboard and cut a full size model for seeing how the design would look on the player. And as shown, using close enough coloured papers for smaller design details.

I'm not sure it's a generational thing - pretty much all of my career has involved the use of CAD - but I think better when I'm holding a pencil in my hand... 

[Bizman62]

19 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

I'm not sure it's a generational thing - pretty much all of my career has involved the use of CAD - but I think better when I'm holding a pencil in my hand... 

Hey, that's a career you've had to learn. The youngsters have grown to do everything with computers or rather smart phones. If there's no app for it, why bother... It's similar to how you now get money back in a shop: Back in the day if you gave a £20 bill for a purchase of 8.75 you were first given a five cent coin and then a 20 cent coin and then a pound and finally a tenner. And the cashperson would count it up to you: "Eight seventy-five - eight eighty - nine - ten - and twenty." What do they do now? Look at the cash registry and in case of a power loss they don't know what to do. Definitely generational!

[Andyjr1515]

One of the main skills to learn with guitar building is the sequence of 'I can't do that before I do that other thing, and I can't do that until I've done something else' 

So my present sequence challenge was that: "I can't carve the neck until I've fitted some strings (because I'm weird - after a rough shaping with a spokeshave, I generally creep up to the neck profile carve while actually frequently playing with a set of strings fitted)  and I can't fit the strings until I've fitted the T-o-M and stop tail, and I can't do that until I've fitted the tuners so that I can position the bridge correctly!"

So first job was to fit the Steinbergers.  They need a pilot hole drilled to accommodate a short peg that orientates them correctly: