gpcustomguitars Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 Hi guys! Finished this yesterday! It's a loose copy of a Firebird, but I changed the electronics, it's a set neck etc... This is my second order - the idea was to make a very cheap guitar for renting in the studio, and therefore not worry about possible damage to it. I actually started this a few years back when I just started doing this, and never really thought of finishing it since the body is made of laminated oak, my first routes were a bit sloppy etc...but this guy wanted it anyway so...my plans for this can be downloaded in the mimf library under templates. Make sure you elongate the headstock if you want 6-in-line tuners. Some specs: 24 3/4 lam white oak body one piece mah neck gibson style rod rosewood fboard sintoms' frets plastic nut russian cheap open back tuners toggle, 2 x P90, pots, wraparound bridge - WSC (very nice sounding pups for 10$) russian army oil cap - very nice finish - rattle can, nitro It's surprisingly light, and also surprisingly, sounds nice Total cost was around 60$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsl602000 Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 I'm a sucker for firebirds.... This one looks very nice. Does it feauture an angled headstock? I can't see it on the pics. I noticed you mounted the wraparound bridge 90 degrees on the path of the strings. How's the intonation on the guitar??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted July 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 Thanks! The headstock is angled, ~10, and the bridge is also angled, 5mm on the bass side, just the guitar hardly can stand on it's own, so the pic is not straight. It intonated properly without any tweaking. Truss rod was also dead on right away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 man I love firebirds, and P-90 thats almost an ultimate for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
litchfield Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 Looks very nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a bicycle made of anarchy Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 good work! nice price too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boggs Posted July 20, 2004 Report Share Posted July 20, 2004 Great job! How'd you keep the cost so low?! Boggs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted July 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2004 Boggs: I used to live in Moscow for about 8 years, and during that time made a lot of luthier friends - lots of luthiers in Russsia, BTW - I still buy most of my hardware trough them (meaning I rarely buy at retail prices). P90 shown were just 10$ a piece, and I've seen the same pup (WSC) go for around 40$ retail on the net. Truss rod is made by Shamray Guitars, I know most of those guys really well, so it was free, basically it's just a 5mm steel rod, etc... I use byelorussian frets made by Sintoms, they are around 2-3$ a set, and they have great durable material. About the wood, while still in Moscow, I used to go woodshopping to Bohman's, and they used to throw away wooden spacers for stacking huge boards for shipping. Thing is, whatever is shipped, the spacers would be the same material... The guys working there would put those on a side waiting for the luthiers to appear One time I got veeery lucky and got a carfull of 10 x 10 x 100cm blanks just for giving their janitor 300 rubles (bit less than 10$), and I'm stil using those It was a pain to ship it to myself when I moved back home, but that's another story...the neck is from that bunch. The body is an ex-window sill (free)... Nowdays I shop mostly for local woods, maple (got a nice quartersawn board 8 x 40 x 200cm for about 30EUR), cherry, walnut (got a whole log for 100EUR, sawn and all, and the guy thrown in 3 walnut stumps for free, said he doesn't need them), ash... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SguitarM527 Posted July 21, 2004 Report Share Posted July 21, 2004 60 bucks! wow, for a guitar liek that thats awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted July 21, 2004 Report Share Posted July 21, 2004 gp...have you played any of the custom guitars Shamray has made? i'm looking, in the distant future, to order a custom strat from them, but i'm not sure how they are. everyone i've talked to(the people from guitar.com, essentially) said they were great guitars, but i still dont know if i wanna drop the money on them yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpcustomguitars Posted July 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Yes, I've played loads of Shamray guitars, both customs and production line stuff (BTW I think due to the demand they are doing only customs now), and actually own 3 - a LP Standard, 5-string thumb (you can find it in the gallery) and a Ibanez Artist copy (semihollow, '70s)... I think you'd love the guitar you get there - Michael can walk you trough the process, and there is a number of luthiers there that can do almost anything - Pavel Bashmakov, Max Ushkalov, Dima Sushkov, Sasha Styepanov etc...you can PM me with any questions you might have... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
american_jesus Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 yeah, i've talked to michael over at the guitar.com forums, and sent up a quote for him on the shamray forums. they seem to be really back logged lately, and would take forever to get one done. but that's the price you pay. i'm probably going to go through with it, once i get the oney...after i finish paying off the guitar i'm going to buy soon. i just like to get second(or third, or fourth) opinions... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkey69962000 Posted July 23, 2004 Report Share Posted July 23, 2004 i havent seen the original. Can anyone post a pic of the factory firbird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.