DougK

Ready for the "All Firebird Band"...

-John

Way ahead of you my buddy who I play with has one in this batch... We've started (jokingly) calling ourselves the "Thunderous Firebirds" lol. I figure well atlast get confused Jimmie Vaughn fans

Very impressive.. How many can you play at once again??

LOL I know right... Well in all fairness only 3 of those are mine (and one was built from scraps anyways)... the rest go to my buddies who found out I was building some

I've gotten obsessive over these Firebirds. I build them from African Mahogany and use the Steinberger tuners. I have NO balance issues.

First one

The one I just finished for my father in law

Did I mention I've gone a bit crazy building these things? I am not exaggerating about the balance. I did the same thing, went out and played a bunch of actually gibbys and they all dove.

I do use a strap peg behind the neck (like an SG) but the one at the butt is offset up. I think thats a big part of the balance. You could (if using something like dunlop straplocks) recess one in on the upper bout so its not "seen" but an option still.

Alright... you guys convinced me

Outstanding work, DougK! Definitely one for the GOTM contest!

Thank you!! I don't know... I don't know if its GOTM worthy though, the GOTM's are usually incredible!

I would say you should be crucified for painting over that mahog, but the white and carbon fiver make up for it. Awesome work!

I know what you mean!! I was torn about it... but I just keep painting guitars solid colors for some reason.

Thanks for the kind words everyone

Great firebird you've made !!!

And, just for the record, I don't "usually" like FBs.

As soon as I saw the "logo" on the headstock I knew it was you !!

But I also wanted to add that's a beautiful Bassman !! I'd love to dress up my main amp with a cabinet like that, but I'll have to figure out a way to do the finger-joining in a home-made fashion...

Thank you Blackdog! You've sure been turning out some nice git's yourself! I pop in from time to time and always enjoy checking yours out.

I gotta say- I was never big into firebirds till I built this one! I absolutely love the damn things now. Course being a rabbid Johnny Winter fan doesn't help either lol.

Now I have a 3 p90 one, 3 full sized buckers one and a single bridge p90 one in the works. LOL.

I really want to build a black limba one....

I tried using the polycrylic as a sealer/grain fill and had horrible luck.

Its just Olympic White + Sherwin Williams nitro clear. The first coats were from an old can that almost had a redish hue so it kind of has a new green tint now. The rest was fresh clear stuff.

So its been QUITE a while since I've checked in here... finished a few run of the mill guitars (strats and tele's mostly) since I've been here last. I've got a few of my own designs in the works but in the mean time I decided I really wanted to build a firebird. It was fun for me because if the first one I've done things like shape the neck, fret job, inlays ect. Nothing major around here but gotta start somewhere right.

Anyways this is how it turned out.

(thats the old rear cover, the new one is a nicer laid up piece of carbon fiber)

It was almost kind of a shame to paint this one... african mahogany sure can be pretty

Specs:

African Mahogany

Scarf jointed headstock, 1.66" width at the nut

Bolivian Rosewood (pau ferro apparently) fretboard

StewMac Wide/Medium wire

MOP inlays

Kent Armstrong Pups wired with 3 volumes, middle pup volume isn't effected by the switch

blah blah blah

Anyways, thats that. A lot of fun and my new #1 around the house.

I'm not 100%, but I would think 17 degrees would make it a little weak with it being 6 in line. I'd think something like 13 degrees would be safer. Again, I'm not an expert about firebirds so.

My thoughts too! It looks awfully steep. Im scarf joining them so atleast it'll have some strength going to it. Wikipedia says 14* (just found that) which seems more reasonable to me.

Building myself a semi firebird clone. Anyone know the headstock angle? I've found 17* which seems to be standard gibson but with it being 6 inline tuners just wanted to make sure.

Doug

its ugly and heavy!

/ cabinet maker rant over.

I spend 3-4 or days of my work week programming my CNC router at work so its quick for me. There are 2 advantages for me to using the CNC: accuracy and the ability to program / design my CAD files at home. Its a bit limited as its more a "point to point" router (ie 3 axis router w/ 5 tools in the changer + 2 rows of gang drilling) compared to some of the 5 axis stuff but its neat.

It does take ALOT of time to program. Lots of time to learn tips and tricks and if your not proficient in cad type programming forget about it. For a one off fairly flat solid body electric Im at the point now where I have the CNC do the truss rod, bridge, pickup and another other "precision" work for me. Then I just trace out the shape I want and cut it with the band saw.

You have to be REALLY good in 3 dimensional modeling / programming to do fretboard radius work, neck contouring or arch top carving. Our software just wont do it Honestly, its fine, I like doing alot of that stuff the old fashioned way still.

But if you have access to one go for it. Learn as much as you can, if you want to get into the trade there are lots of old timer cabinet guys who are looking at CNC's but are afraid of the learning curve. Its not a bad market to be if your good at it.

... long post ...

Stew, we dont know each other but its uncanny how your post about the FDP forum parallels some of the automotive message boards I used to attend/moderate. Its really sad to me when the admins message do nothing but try to profit off their memberships information. Very sad.

I wont lie, I'd rather have a Strat more than just about any guitar. I love mine and looking forward to finishing the few Im working on.

Im not normally a fan of Ash but in all clear it looks really sharp Bravo

Nice top, very errr "PURPLE". Now one question, why would your machinist use a regular router bit on his CNC instead of a good downcut spiral bit that works much better with the CNC?

We use both on our CNC at work. The spiral is preferred but I've cut and chambered bodies with either bit before.

In all honesty if you want to learn how to build a guitar start with building one. You won't learn how to design a guitars, make a neck, etc if you get a kit where all of this is already done. Start from scratch and design it from the ground up and you will learn much more about actually building a guitar that way.

~David

Or split the difference. Build the body and buy the neck or vice versa. Its a good way to not bite off more than you can chew the first time around.

LOTS of info here

Wow thats got a pretty good bow going.

I'd try getting it really wet and then put alot of weight on top of it and let it dry. Might correct some of it. I've seen titebond do miracles before but you'll have to have ALOT of gluing surface on the body (ie not chambered) to really be sure it wont be an issue.

weak (18mm thick). Do you think 18mm is okay for a bolt on design?

just finished shaping the neck, i'll post some photos tomorrow.

my mcsoapy is just under 19mm and its doing fine. Also doesn't have alot of support on either side of the neck but still seems just fine.

I just fart in their general direction. Whats more personal than smelling like their owners?

I have an Indonesia squire neck floating around too. We bought it for dirt cheap just to mess around with. I ended up shooting it in lacquer and it turned out really nice. I have to admit that for a squire neck this one was setup pretty nicely.

Yeah...modern equipment is nice. I downloaded the file from PG and I had to clean up the outside contour to get rid of the splines. create my tool path in Mastercam, and then download the g-code to the mill over the network. It would take some mad programming skills to program guitar bodies at the machine!

Screw that. I can't even remember how to do some of the autoresizing programs at the machine. If I can't program it from the PC it just doesn't happen

I probably have about 2 hrs into programing and cutting the 2d stuff. It took me about1 1/2 or 2 hrs to create the 3d surface for the carve, and the carve takes about an hour to machine. I had about 4 different endmills to cut this. A 3/4" 1/2" and a 3/8" straight endmill for the 2d stuff, and a 1/2 ballnose endmill for the carve

Faster than me Course my CNC wont take CAD imports (about to change I finally found R14 which is old enough to work) so it takes me FOREVER to get the body shape right.

Looks awesome though You'll be surprized how fast that sands smooth. 15 minutes tops

god I've been going back and forth about shooting mine clear or sticking with the blue plan... you absolutely reinforced it for me.

That is amazing!