Daniel R

Well everything sounds great and plays well! Tell me what you think?

I am done with the project and here it is. I am still tweaking the volume pot - pickup combo for best sound. Any pickup suggestions for maple neck through to avoid extreme brightness. Thanks Daniel Additional pics FINAL PICS

Thats looking really good and I bet it won't be neck heavy like a regular firebird. No the guitar is very balanced the body was thinned to balance the neck. I am in the completion phase and should have final pics this weekend. Daniel

Just got the fingerboard fretted and should have pics shortly. I am going to have gold hardware with cream colored pickups. I got the air zone and tone zone. Have not tried these pickups in any guitar before. Thanks Daniel

I have a question about a figured top on a neck thru construction. I wil try to describe it the best I can. I want to have a three piece figured top very thick 2 inches for carving a top. I will be gluing the middle piece to the neck thru construction then adding th figured sides. The question is the point in which the three pieces go around the fingerboard. What is the best way to construct this to get the tightest fit. First option is cutting the neck pocket around the center piece obviously may be hard to get a tight fit, second taper the neck thru as the fingerboard is tapered and glue the sides. This may look funny as the middle piece will look like a slight pyriamid shape. Any thoughts. I have included a picture of the center idea. Center piece Thanks Daniel

I have uploaded pictures that will work Guitar project Thanks Daniel

HEre is the update I a building a sister to the original to get the kinks out. Just finishing it up!

After looking at the pics I do not understand the picture labelled maple lamination. It looks like the top is very tall and would tower over the fingerboard. Can you discuss the stradegy to making the archtop? I was thinking about having a glued top fitted over a mah laminated neck. Kind of an upside down U over a square. the back would have added mah sides to increase the height of the guitar. My maple thickness is 1.75 and I will be using a .5 to .75 mah sides. Also any stradegies for creating the hugging contour of the body would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Daniel

Love those pictures, this gives me a better idea of the wrap around the body than the other pics. Do you have any more with the construction? Any information would help, I just love the idea of the guitar hugging the body. Thanks Daniel drychlik@sbcglobal.net

I agree the figured top is just very plain. I don't know why they would use such a boring piece of maple but I guess if it says Jackson it must be good!? Well I thought this project would be a great show piece for a good piece of figured maple. Now I just so happened to run into a piece however the width of the figured maple was only 5.25 inches wide. So I was looking for a project that would be small enough to use this wood. The maple is also 1.75 thick after gluing and surfacing. It has a great figure and would show off well with an extreme archtop. I did email some people and I believe this guitar is 2.25 inches thick at its tallest height so I will be using mah. back .5 inches. One other question, any comments on either a mah laminated neck for this project or a figured maple lamination? And if mah. what type, South American, African etc. Thanks Daniel

I like black limba or korina. Great looking wood, can get figured pieces, has great timber like alder and is very light and easy to work with. I have some pics of a guitar I am working on. http://www.geocities.com/drychlik@sbcgloba...l?1166595041593 Daniel

I am interested in building a archtop like the Phil Collen archtop that Jackson did. Does anyone have any idea of the body thickness of this guitar? Also because of the steep archtop of this guitar I was wondering if I could rough cut the sides of the archtop first with a bandsaws and then create the s shaped curve of the archtop with sanding or carving. I have read different ways of cutting or sanding the top but this may be a reasonable approach. Another question is this guitar will be a neck thru construction with the top hiding the neck thru piece. How thin can I make the neck thru body piece so as not to compromise strength? I am going to make the back wood either alder or mah but the amout of wood there is only going to be 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I am including a link with some pictures from a guitar being sold on ebay. Any help is appreciated. Here are some pics Archtop pic Thanks Daniel

You may want to try some mahogany veneer and glue them to the sides. Moving the neck down will change the playing position and scale length if you have already set the bridge. I use these veneers for my neck laminations. I believe they are 12 dollars for a pack of 10 4"x48" www.sveneers.com Daniel

Well I will not be building another figured top neck thru in a while. My firebird is going to have a curly maple matched top, I hope. I got the figured maple let it equilibrate, I live in Arziona were the wood stabilized quickly, and glued the two pieces. Got it sanded to 1/2 inch and by the time I got home it started to curl. Cut the neck pocket out and glued the top and used about 8000 clamps and an old tire. I like working with thick wood as the movement is less in relation to it's size. This piece is requiring more finase. It would have been easier to make the only the wings figured but what the hell. Sorry about the rambling I am tired and need to vent. Thanks for "listening" I will post more pictures if the guitar doesn't implode!!! Daniel

Well here it is on the chopping board for comments. I am in the process of building a Firebird neck thru. It is a 25.5 scale with laminated flamed maple and sandwiched walnut. Wings include ebony strips with figured kornia. The neck is angled 3 degres to accomidate a TOM bridge. It will also have a 24 fret neck and I will be increasing the access to the upper frets from the original firebird design. It will also have a bookmatched figured maple top. Thanks For LOOking! Daniel