Prostheta

Looking good! Can't wait to see how the carving turns out - it's pretty much essential for this body shape else it can look a bit "heavy in the horns" and bulky. The carves give it a different feel for sure!

If you're talking about sending a e-copy of Melvyn Hiscock's book, then you're an idiot man. Melvyn deserves a little more credit than ripping off several years of his work you know?

I'm tempted to enter it Jester, but I wouldn't dream of doing so without adding control knobs and the cavity cover. I have to wait until next week for my father to bring me the 3mm black Perspex i'm using for that job....

Great work man. I've just completed my Thunderbird and i'm considering a Firebird build myself. I'll be going down the same route of using a good ol' 2x4 neck tenon of course. Really fun! I didn't realise that Warmoth would do a figured laminate for the raised section. That's pretty cool and worked out very nicely. Good call.

UPDATE: The 'Bird is complete apart from a control cavity cover, bit of fret dressing and a new nut (temporary Corian nut in place). I finished the body with Tru-oil and beeswax over Briwax Jacobean Oak applied using sandpaper to "clog" the pores. A real caveman grainfilling tactic! The pickups are wired as two straight volumes like a Jazz Bass but with no tone pot. The jack is a locking Neutrik jack (thanks Setch!) which I may still recess slightly. The heel position didn't get moved back any more as it's comfortable enough for me to work in the upper registers and this sorted the balance out nicely. I'm a little disappointed I couldn't use speed style knobs, but I think I can probably work around this....my last addition will probably be a green LED to show that the instrument is "active" when plugged in. Man oh man, do those EMG 35DCs sound unbelievable or what....?! Right. I'm going to build another one but this time the originally stated black and green 'Bird to match our current band black/green theme! Additionally, does anybody know if the Firebird body is dimensionally the same as the Thunderbird? I love Maryhillrat's Firebird and might be tempted to make some headway into that territory as well and seeing as I have a template.... Headstock (yes, I know the nut is temporary....) Inlaying and fretboard stepping The beauty shot - a la Jester ;-) Heel area Beauty shot, first inversion!

Totally....and any tearout you get is legendary! Six days in the bandsaw, two days on the router table and the rest of the year being sanded

2.375" is a bit over 60mm. That's going to be one wide neck! I chose 56mm for mine and it seems comfortable enough. As for a slotted and radiused board, you'd be better off going for a 5-string bass board from LMII as they slot to 27.5" (plus a variety of others) and radius to 12" or 16". I've gone for 30" as I think intonation will be MUCH better over this scale....

I've gone for 56mm wide at the nut. It fits nicely.

Thanks David - i've gone down the route of grainfilling back, sanding back lightly and Tru-oil'ing the guitar as you have done. I don't want a gloss finish so all i'm doing from here on in is to build up enough oil till the wood refuses (a lot!) and then hitting it back with 0000 wool and wax.

I've decided to go down the Tru-oil rout, despite wenge and mahogany being oil gannets which will require lots of coats. I'm not risking the health problems posed by accelerated volatilisation of CA and acetone! I actually tested a way of filling the pores black using sawdust and wax which has worked perfectly under the Tru-oil. I can't stress enough how much worse the fumes will be if CA is cut with acetone!

Interesting....I hope somebody more knowledgable than myself can shed some light on this, more because out of interest than anything else! As far as finishing PH goes (as per the original question!) a lot of stock seems to be put into "UV resistant" finishes, although I don't think these will be a guaranteed purple-forever solution. I personally would use Tru-oil to seal the pores, plus it would gloss up the wood nicely. For clear finishes, I would grain fill the wood black first to highlight the pore structure.

I can't see how acetone (being a high volatile hydrocarbon) would "stay" in the wood unless it was under pressure or kept from volatilising to the atmosphere. In my opinion, the chances are that the whiteness is from the padauk's natural oils being leeched out of the wood by the acetone onto the rag or whatever was used with wipe the wood.

For using a hand router, yes it is very difficult. I would use a router table.

Oh, and since I didn't like the quality of the photos I took in artificial light last night, here's a followup (click for full size):

No idea as of yet - i'm waiting on the strap buttons from Allparts! Given that the heel is a little further up than "normal" I might try a button there to check the balancing before I consider bringing the heel back slightly.

I use a series 4 Trace Elliot AH300 300w head with a 4x10 TE cab with a compressor pedal in the loop. I've considered upgrading to a Warwick or Ampeg valve head, but the Trace is more than enough for the metal band I play in and I wouldn't want to lump around an expensive head too much either! At some point I might buy an EHX Black Finger to add some valve grind....

Off the top of my head (having never done it) I would try to poke a screwdriver through the back ferrule to knock out a top ferrule or vice versa.

The wenge is fairly neutral looking, but the oil or wax finish should bring it out nicely. I'm just happy that even strung up, the neck doesn't move at all. Really. it's straight as a die when up to tension. Crazy! Trussrod cover? Ask Huntindoug! It's a laser cut piece of rosewood :-D

Right, well we're fast approaching the finishing post (no joke intended!). Another pic Yet another pic The central tenon has had the top edges smoothed over slightly, the back has been planed flat and rounded over, etc. The cocobolo was awful to work with (cough, sputter etc.) but looks AWESOME with the inlays. Many many many thanks to Huntindoug on that one! I still have to round over the top, move the heel up an inch or so and finish sand. I believe i'm going to go for a black Briwax finish although I may yet be talked out of it. The volatility and toxicity of cutting black cyanoacrylate with acetone as a grain filler has put me off a bit.

Update! I queried one of our environmental scientists to confirm what I suspect, and I was pretty much on the ball. Because of the high volatility of acetone, the respiratory issues caused by CA fumes will be exacerbated, so using a charcoal mask is essential if working indoors. Outdoors, it's probably still best!

Oh, just to follow on. I'm aware that acetone can be used to melt CA glue, but does it degrade the overall effectiveness if used to cut the product for application?

Okay! I'm considering attempting a grain fill with this black CA I bought but it is of medium viscosity and I would like it to be water-thin to seal the pores of my wenge/mahogany T-bird before oil finishing it. Would acetone cut cyanoacylate or are they incompatible?

It's not only more economical, it also makes more sense! There is no PRACTICAL difference in the sound. The difference in savings between wide lumber and standard widths is so large it would cover the price of the neck wood easily. If you're pursuing making your own guitar then slow down buddy. If you approach everything at this rate you'll end up: - with no money left to complete the project - disillusioned about making instruments - minus a finger or worse I did six months research before even buying tools. You'll write off a few "projects" before getting close to completing a project, never mind making a playable one unless you have had prior woodwork, engineering or of similar discipline experience. Don't buy the best wood off the bat. Buy cheap else you'll kick yourself when you make that one wrong measurement which writes it off.

Really! Wow, that goes against everything i've been taught but hell - whatever makes my joins better in the long run :-D I'll try my next tenon (second Thunderbird!) without wiping and see how it goes....

Purpleheart seems quite oily/waxy so all i've ever done on it before glueing is to wipe it down with acetone to remove surface oils which might cause adhesion problems. I'd be tempted to grain fill it with epoxy or black CA (did a test on mahogany today - awesome) sand and then finish with whatever you want. Anyone got any further info on the oil content of PH?