Firebird build

Misterg

Should I re-post the piccies of my Firebird-like build over here?

(Taking a little time to get used to the new layout...!)

WezV

yes

Misterg

OK, here goes:

I bought a large plank of "mahogany" from ebay. it is about 2m long x 300mm wide x 50mm thick. I doubt that it is true mahogany - more like sapele. Initially it didn't look too promising...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1714.jpg

I cleaned it up with a belt sander in case there were embedded nails, grit, etc. which would damage my saw blade

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1713.jpg

A bit better - I needed a 75mm thick neck blank, so I  sawed out 3 x 1 metre lengths at about 75mm wide so I could turn them on edge and laminate them together to make the blank:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1717.jpg

This is showing a bit more of the character of the wood.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1720.jpg

The plank had a really bad twist in it. I had hoped to be able to use a flat board to run the circular saw on to take the twist out of the cuts, but my saw wouldn't cut deep enough, so the cut pieces also have a twist in them. In order to get a true edge, I put each cut piece on a flat board and shimmed it with wedges until it stopped rocking. I could then run the board and the cut piece past my electric planer held at a 90 degree angle until one edge was smooth and true. Once I had one true edge, I could plane the two adjacent faces using the good edge as a reference:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1741.jpg

(Bosch used to sell a similar fixture for their hand planers - this is one I made. A proper planer would be safer!).

I needed to rip down one of my pieces to make thinner laminations for the middle of the neck blank. I could have done this with a hand saw (yeah, right!) but I saw a used bandsaw on ebay that was a) near my home, b) fairly cheap and c) just coming to an end. the temptation was too much and I ended up buying it.

Despite being a lightweight model, it made a fine job of ripping the blanks:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1740.jpg

I had a cunning plan for planing these pieces really thin, using a 'sled' for my electric planer with runners on at the finished thickness that I wanted. It took a day to make the sled, and about 10 minutes to realise that it wouldn't work - It was fine until I got to near the finished thickness, then the plane just started chattering like mad and ripping chunks out of the wood. I tried sticking the wood down with double-sided tape, but just ended up with thinner scrap. I had just enough thickness left in the original blank to be able to rip another piece out of it which I cleaned up carefully with my little block plane then made one pass over it with the electric planer to get it as level as possible. It took some juggling to get two pieces to uniform thickness and the same thickess as each other simultaneously!

When all the pieces were smooth, parallel and the right thickness, I glued them up with some thick walnut veneer for contrast. (I used too much glue!):

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1753.jpg

Very pleased with the result:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1758.jpg

Misterg

I had decided that I would scarf joint a separate piece of wood for the headstock - partly because the blank would need to be even thicker than 75mm to cut out a complete one piece neck, and partly to make the headstock stronger. I could cut the headstock piece out of the back of the neck blank.

With a very dry mouth, I made the first cut:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1761.jpg

Then cut a slab out of the back of the neck to make the headstock out of:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1765.jpg

After planing it down to a nice, uniform thickness, I could plane the angle of the scarf joint on the neck and headstock:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1763.jpg


I thought that while I had the headstock as a small, handy piece, I may as well do as much work as I could on it. I had the bright idea of using some of the left-over walnut veneer to face the headstock, so I laminated it to the blank and routed out the finished shape, together with the raised area on the face of the headstock. While I was at it, I thought that I might as well drill the tuner holes. I didn't have the tuners, so my fingers were firmly crossed that they would fit OK...

I gave a lot of thought to how the joint between the neck and the headstock would pan out. I didn't want to try to blend them in smoothly, as it would exaggerate the glue line on the scarf joint. I didn't want to veneer the back of the headstock to hide the joint, as I would lose the walnut 'pinstripes'. I liked the idea of a volute to strengthen the headstock joint, so tried to work the neck/headstock joint into this and cut the length of the neck blank to suit. In order to keep the headstock aligned wth the neck and to match the pinstripes as accurately as possible, I clamped everything up dry and drilled for a couple of tight fitting dowels in a scrap area so that I could be confident that the alignment was maintained during gluing.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1770.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1767.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1773.jpg

I was very pleased with the way the pinstripes lined up

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1777.jpg

Misterg

I wanted an ebony fretboard with block inlay markers. Just for kicks, I decided to fit a fretboard binding, too.

I had cut my own fret slots in the fingerboard when I built the electric uke, and was quite happy to do the same for this, but I found a nice looking pre-slotted fretboard blank on ebay for little more than the cost of a plain one. As a bonus the seller would put the blank through a thickness sander to finish it at the thickness of my choice.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1675.jpg

I made up a router jig to cut a convex radius on the fretboard, and also a matching concave radius in a sanding block. I was cutting the sanding block here; the router base with the curved rails can be flipped over to cut a convex radius on the fretboard - that was the plan, anyway:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1680.jpg

I also needed to cut recesses for the block inlays. After some thought, I decided that it would be best to cut the inlays first, while the surface of the fretboard was still flat.

The way that I'd seen it done on youtube, etc. was to lay out the inlays on the fretboard, score or draw round them, then use a router, dremmel, chisels, etc. to dig out a hole for each inlay to sit in.

These are the "mother of pearl" (shell inlays) laid out on the fretboard to mark out the right positions:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1676.jpg

I found that the inlays I got were extremely accurately machined and absolutely square, so I though that I may as well make up a jig to route out the recesses, rather than try to do it free hand (I'm not good!).

Just as I was finishing this jig, my router died! The bearing at the top of the motor collapsed and siezed!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1704.jpg

This was an excuse to buy a new, 1/2" router which I thought I might need for the body, anyway. (Actually, I managed to fix my original router a few weeks later with some new bearings for much less than £10.)

Luckily, I could still use the inlay jig with the bigger router - all it does is to constrain the router body to a rectangular area:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1701.jpg

After setting the stops to the right size for the inlay, the jig was placed over the fretboard, aligned with the inlay marks and clamped down. Then the router was used to cut out a neat rectangular hole:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1705.jpg

Repeat 10 times:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1700.jpg

You can also see my secret weapon in those photos - a piece of thick glass which I used as a very flat reference surface.

The router cutter can't get right into the corners of the cut-outs, so these needed to be finished by hand with a craft knife and a sharp chisel. Each recess also needed careful tweaking to match its inlay so that the inlay would drop in without too much of a gap. Here the inlays are all loosely fitted in place:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1707.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1709.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1710.jpg

Now I could remove the inlays and radius the fretboard. My new router wouldn't fit my radius jig, and the old one was still broken. I had already machined the radius block, so decided that I might as well sand the radius into the fretboard. I started things off  by roughly planing the fretboard, then began sanding, and sanding... and sanding... and sanding... This ebony is bl&&dy hard! It feels like stone or coal, but produces shavings like wood:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1711.jpg

Eventually I got to the stage where the whole surface of the fretboard was evenly sanded:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1723.jpg

Then I glued the inlays into place with a mixture of epoxy and a little ebony dust to colour it, then used the radius block again to sand away the surplus glue and bring the inlays level with the fretboard. All this was done with rather brutal 80 grit paper, but once everything was level, I could work through finer grades, and the ebony and MOP started to look very nice.

To finish the fretboard, I cut it roughly to width with the bandsaw, then planed it to the final width allowing for the thickness of the binding each side. (I nearly chickened out of the binding here!) With the string spacing and scale length set, the fretboard outline is pretty much fixed, so all I had to do was plane down to the marked lines. I used an old shelf as a 'shooting board' to keep the edge of the fretboard square.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1730.jpg

(You can see the line, and my rather wobbly bandsaw cut).
 
When it's right, the fretboard should be 41mm wide at the nut, and 55mm wide at the body end. This allows for ~1mm of binding either side.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1732.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1731.jpg

I decided to stop there!

Misterg

One of the plus points about buying a pre-slotted fretboard, so I thought, was that I wouldn't need to worry about getting the width of the cuts right... HAH!

I found I needed to deepen and widen the fret slots before I could fit the frets. I had made a radiussed caul to push the frets in using my little drill press, but the ebony is *so* hard, that the fret slots need to be a little wider than they were cut to get the fret in. I had used a triangular file to create a 'lead-in' to each slot, but even so, they were extremely difficult to press in. I think I may have damaged my drill press - there was a loud 'crack' from it when pressing in one of the last frets. Did I mention that the ebony was HARD?

I don't seem to have taken any photos here - I thought that I had, but can't find them!

After fitting the frets, I clipped the ends off and filed them smooth and square with the edges of the fretboard. I wanted a thin-ish fretboard binding (about 1mm), but could only find 1.5mm thick material which looks too thick, IMHO. I tried to thin some down before  fitting, but mostly just ended up chewing it up. I got one piece long enough for the end of the fretboard before giving up, and using the thick material as it was - I'll just have to sand it down later.

I clamped the binding either side of the fretboard and used a small paintbrush to drip acetone into the joint. This softened the binding enough for it to stick to the edges of the fingerboard:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1779.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1778.jpg

There's a slight bow in the fingerboard after fitting the frets which I had to flatten out while fitting the binding - it flattens out easily enough.

Now I had the fretboard, I could use it to mark out the neck blank.

The first job was to plane the top surface of the blank flat:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1785.jpg

Then I could mark out and cut a slot for the trus rod. I thought long and hard about trying to do a traditional truss  rod with a curved bottom slot, but in the end went for the more straightforward dual acting truss rod:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1787.jpg

I wanted to cut this while the blank still had straight sides that I could use to guide the router.

Then I could mark the neck thickness (20mm at the 1st fret & 23mm at the 12th), allowing for the thickness of the fretboard, and cut away the surplus wood with the band saw:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1788.jpg

While the blank still has straight sides, it's easier to mark out and cut the body angle, too. I aimed for the top of the bridge saddles to be level with the top of the fretboard with the bridge at its lowest height. With the bridge I had and the thickness of fretboard I actually ended up with, the body needed to be 10mm lower at the bridge that it was at the end of the fretboard. Marking these points and drawing a line through them gives the cutting line for the top of the body. The bottom of the body is 1.5" from this.

With everything double-checked, I made the body cuts:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1790.jpg

Then rough cut the outline of the neck

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1792.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1793.jpg

This is how close it came to ending right here:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1794.jpg

When cutting away the wood from the back of the neck, I came close to my line, and instead of stopping (as I should have) I tried to steer the saw cut away, but I tried to do it too quickly, and succeeded in pushing the blade even further off line before I saw sense and stopped. The deepest cut stops *just* short of the finished thickness, so I have no safety margin when it comes to sanding this part smooth.  

Misterg

This is a neck through build (in case you hadn't guessed!) -The part of the neck that runs through the body needed to be planed flat and square, making sure that the break between the front of the body and the fretboard area of the neck fell exactly at the end of the fretboard.

Since the neck pickup sits next to the fretboard, it was easier to rout the cavity for this before fitting the fretboard:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1797.jpg

While I was at it, I routed the bridge pickup cavity, too. The pencil line is the bridge location. I say this because I had the routing template all lined up on it, and was ready to press the switch on the router when something made me stop and double check the pickup spacing. That would have been a big OOPS!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1800.jpg

The neck pickup sits lower than the bridge one, so I had to make the neck pickup cavity deeper at either side to take the pickup mounting feet.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1801.jpg

With the pickup cavities done, I used a straight edge and the router to trim the neck to almost its finished width and fitted the trussrod into its slot with a few small blobs of silicone sealant under the ends and middle to stop it rattling. I needed to make sure that the fretboard stayed perfectly aligned to the centre of the neck when I glued it on, so I made a couple of guides that could be clamped to each end of the neck to gently hold the fretboard in the correct position while I clamped it in place. I also had to trim the fretboard binding level with the tops of the frets before I could clamp the fretboard to the neck. (I did this with a file, but it was a real PITA - I won't be doing that again!)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1810.jpg

I used a strip of tape to cover the truss rod slot while I spread glue on the neck (so the slot didn't fill with glue). The first time I fitted the fretboard, I couldn't understand why I couldn't close the joint with the neck... Then I realised that I had forgotten to remove the tape over the truss rod. I hurriedly pulled everything apart and sponged the glue off!

The second time worked OK.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1812.jpg

And my alignment jigs worked:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1817.jpg

I glued in a sliver of neck offcut into my dodgy saw cut, just in case I couldn't completely clean it up. At least there would be wood there, even if it didn't look very pretty.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1805.jpg

I used a rasp to carve the rough shape at each end of the neck...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1883.jpg

I'd decided I wanted to extend the neck cut away on the underside of the neck, so included this in the rough carving. It will need to be blended into the body later.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1882.jpg

... then join the ends up:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1881.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1884-1.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1885.jpg

I've only made a rough job of the volute here - I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at the time.

I could also check my body angle measurements now by putting the bridge in position and resting a straightedge on the fretboard:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1886.jpg

Hmmm... the bridge is about 1mm lower than I expected it to be. Well within the range of adjustment, but I couldn't figure out why it wasn't closer... until I remembered I hadn't allowed for the height of the frets when I worked it out! :oops:  Annoying, but not really of any consequence!


I also took this opportunity to drill the holes for the bridge posts and the tailpiece while I could still get the relevant part of the neck into the drill press. I decided that the slight possibility of getting the bridge posts in the wrong place by not being able to check the intonation before drilling (you can do this with a separate tailpiece) was better than the dead certainty of getting the holes crooked if I had to drill them with a hand drill.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2001.jpg.

There was a bit of trial and error on offcuts to find the right sized drill to make the tailpiece bushings a good, tight fit before drilling for real.

Misterg

OK, time for the 'bird to get wings...

Another length of plank:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1887.jpg

The body on a real Firebird tapers from the centre to the edge. Not everybody seems to bother with this, but I wanted to replicate it, as in my eyes, it is important to the aesthetics of the guitar. I thought it would be easier to make the two body wings as one piece and separate them after shaping. I also wasn't 100% sure how I was going to attach them to the neck at this point: Gibson machine a deep vee down each side of the neck and a matching bevel on the edge of the wings. (This means the wings automatically centre and square themselves to the neck when they are clamped up). I didn't think I could replicate this without access to a spindle moulder (or an inordinate amount of work), but thought I might mortice them into the edge of the neck instead and allowed a bit of extra 'meat' between the two halves to facilitate this. The backup plan would just be to butt-joint the wings to the side of the neck.

After I cut the outline, I marked up the taper by packing the piece up in the centre, pushing the edge down, and running a pencil line around.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1888.jpg

All I needed to then was to plane down to the lines. Nearly there:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1889.jpg

I had a quick try at cutting a mortice in the neck to take the wings, but it would have left such a thin sliver either side that I decided it wasn't worth it, and would fix the wings with a plain butt-joint. So after splitting the two wings apart, I needed to plane the edge flat so it made a tight joint with the neck (and sat square to it):

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1895.jpg

I tried to complete as much work as possible on each wing before gluing them on.

The upper wing needed a " belly cut". Easy, quick and satisfying with a rasp:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1891.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1893.jpg

The lower wing needed routing out for the pickup switch and wiring. The body is quite thin at this point because of the tapered thickness, and pretty much only the right-angled Switchcraft pickup selector switch is slim enough to fit. The switch cavity comes within about 3mm of the other side of the body.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1934.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1994.jpg

You can see I also drilled holes in the edge of the body which will match up with the pickup cavities in the neck.

Because the body is tapered, the holes for the controls were quite tricky to drill - they need to be square to the top of the body, so it has to be packed up until the top surface is level in the drill press.

I used these holes as a guide to drilling out the control cavity from the rear. All this also needs to be square to the top of the body which is OK for the drill press, but means you need to use a tapered base if you wanted to use a router.  (Whose idea was it to taper the body??) Drilling removed most of the material, and although I had originally intended to use the router to finish it off, it didn't take long to clean it out by hand.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1995.jpg

You can just see the hole for the pickup wiring, drilled (with a very long drill bit) from the channel on the front of the body into the top left of the control cavity. I need to drill another hole from here to one of the tailpiece posts for the ground wire, but this will have to wait until the body and neck are glued together.

While I was at it, I also cut the control cover and matching recess:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1996.jpg

Ready for glue! You can see the holes from the side of the neck into the pickup cavities that match up with the ones on the lower wing.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_1998.jpg

I was still uneasy about getting good alignment between the neck and the wings - there is a step between the two which needs to be uniform end to end, even top and bottom and matched side to side. In the end, I thought I would have the best chance of success by using a couple of small splines to keep the pieces aligned while gluing.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2003.jpg

The splines are cut across the grain, so will (hopefully) give some strength to the joint, even though they are only 3mm thick, as well as maintining the alignment.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2004.jpg

Glue time!  ;D

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2005.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2008.jpg

The body offcuts were handy for clamping.

While I had the damp sponge out to clean up the glue, I couldn't resist wiping the neck to see what it might eventually look like.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2010.jpg

The neck joint still needs to be blended in, but pretty pleased!

Clamps off:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2012.jpg

Trimmed off the 'stump' and did some rough sanding with the belt sander:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2016.jpg

And it's starting to look like a guitar!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2014.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2015.jpg

Next: Sanding, sanding, sanding. (Yawn...)

Misterg

After gluing the wings on, I needed to sand the edges of the body to blend everything in. I managed to use the belt sander clamped to the bench for some of it, but most of it got done by hand. (I used sandpaper wrapped around a can to try and keep the edges nice and square.). The whole thing then got sanded to 240 grit. When I thought I'd finished, I cleaned the guitar down and brought it into the house and just looked at it off and on for a few days, from different angles, etc. I noted some bits that still needed work - like the neck was too fat near the volute, and the neck cut-away wasn't smooth, etc. which would need to be reworked.

Ideally, I should have strung it up now, but I still didn't have any tuners.

I did take some photos, though:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2024.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2028.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2031.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2032.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2034.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2035.jpg

All masked up, ready for finish! 

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2037.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2042.jpg

After much procrastination and some trial runs of lacquer, Danish Oil and Tru Oil, I decided that I was going to finish it in Tru Oil. There's an awful lot of information and discussion about using it as a guitar finish on the 'net - some of it rather bizare. I based my approach on Bruce Bennet's procedure on TGP after seeing Seratus'(??) 7 string build on the old, old forum. It's very similar to @WezV 's video tutorial here.

Action shots of 'paint' drying next

Misterg

First, soak the guitar with tru oil, wipe off and leave to dry 24 hours...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2045.jpg

Apply 2nd coat of tru oil, rubbing in with 240 grit paper, then wipe off again and leave for 24h. It looks like this step takes more off than it puts on, but it fills the grain. It is also really hard work - it took about 3 hours to do the whole guitar, excluding breaks because my arm was knackered. The whole of the back of the body has been done here, but not the neck itself.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2051.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2053.jpg

Apply 3rd coat of tru oil, rubbing in with 600 grit paper, wipe off & leave for 24h. Here I found that Halfords waterproof paper is rubbish & falls apart in oil or water  >:( >:( >:( (the other grades I bought from there were fine  ??? )

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2059.jpg

4th Coat is rubbed in with 1200 grit paper (wipe off, allow to dry for 24h etc... etc..) and it starts to look shiney...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2066.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2078.jpg

Then there is a coat wiped on with a cotton pad (wipe off, 24h etc... etc..) and it looks really, really shiney - it doesn't show too well with the camera flash, but it is.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2081.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2083.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2084.jpg

I really like the look of the stripes across the back of the neck joint and at the end of the body, but the whole thing just cries out for a vintage burst, so then, I did this:



Genius or Lunatic? You decide. 8)

I got the chance to wipe on another couple of coats of Tru Oil then went on holiday for a week where I wondered constantly whether I had made some fundamental error and it will never play in tune, or whether the neck will snap like a twig the first time I string it up, or... or...

Misterg

Some Firebirds just have the sunburst on the front, but not the back or edges. It looked kind of odd to me with just the front done, so I sprayed the back as well. I went further onto the body with the black than I wanted to, across the back of the neck, so after letting the finish harden up while I was away, I tried to sand the black back a little, but that made the edge of the black very abrupt. In addition, I found a couple of small runs / sags in the black paint each side of the neck. When I sanded these flat, I also managed to sand through the black in a couple of places - there is no room for error, it's only one thin coat.

I managed to fix both of these problems by re-spraying the black across the neck end of the body. I needed to mask the neck off to avoid overspay, but I didn't want a hard edge where the masking ended, so I used an old trick of leaving the edge of the masking tape sticking up:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2297.jpg

It seemed to work. The moral of the story is to get the black right first time and then *don't mess with it*

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2298.jpg

The wiped tru-oil finish worked well on smaller areas, like the neck:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2299.jpg

But  on larger areas of the body, I had struggled a little in not getting streaks in the wiped finish. I'm sure it can be done, but I wimped out and bought a little detail spray gun for ~£15 and sprayed the re-touched body with a couple of coats of thinned tru-oil. (I already had a compressor).

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2321.jpg

I had also received a gift from the USA - 6 of these:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2306.jpg

The are Steinberger gearless tuners and they fit! . I was mighty relieved that I had drilled the holes the right size, and in the right place. (It's never good to do anything without having the hardware to hand to check!)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2309.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2310.jpg

Next was the bridge and tailpiece - not forgetting the ground wire that gets trapped under on of the tailpiece bushings:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2312.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2314.jpg

While I was at it, I fitted the pick-ups, too:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2315.jpg

I carefully cleaned up where the nut sits, and tried to get it as flat and smooth as possible:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2316.jpg

Then temporarily fitted the nut and strung it up - the neck didn't snap in half like a twig!

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2317.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2318.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2323.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2322.jpg

Very pleased at this point - I seems like the intonation and action will be OK.

Misterg

A Switchcraft selector switch is the only one thin enough to fit inside the body.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2326.jpg

I made a wooden template for the pickguard, as I find wood much easier to trim accurately to size than plastic. Also, I can glue bits on if I cut too much off. Once I had a nicely fitted template, it was simple to stick this to a sheet of pickguard material and trim it with the router. After cuttting, I went around again with a chamfer bit to bevel the curved edges then drilled and countersunk the mounting screw holes.

I read on another guitar build: "If everything is going well, and you're flying along then STOP! You're about to make a mistake." It is so right. In this case, I drilled the countersink for one of the mounting screws far too deep - I couldn't be bothered to find the spanner to adjust the depth stop on the drill, and thought - "I'll just finish this off, it'll be OK...".  I nearly scrapped the pickguard, but it doesn't look too bad once it's fitted to the guitar. There were several such moments through this build.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2324.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2325.jpg


I haven't got any luthier's nut files (too expensive ), and have got by with welding torch cleaning files:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/files.jpg

I had made minor adjustments to my other guitars with these, but trying to file a nut from scratch was too much - the thin files were too flexible, and I was getting a curved slot on all but the thickest two strings which was throwing off the intonation. I also read of people grinding down saw blades, etc to make files, but the best way seemed to be to modify some 'feeler' gauges by cutting teeth into them with a mini grinder (Dremel, etc.). The biggest critiscism of this seems to be that the blades have a square edge, but the slot should have a round bottom. I had a go at rounding the edge of some blades with the belt sander and it seemed to work well. My Aldi Dremel-a-like made a good job of cutting the teeth:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2345.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2346.jpg

You can just about see that the teeth are radiussed here:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/nutfile.jpg

I kept the tip cleaning files for the thickest two strings as they were stiff enough to cut straight and I didn't have any feeler gauge blades thick enough. (I believe the ideal slot width is 0.002" - 0.004" / 0.05mm - 0.1mm wider than the string).

These files worked *really* well, and after making sure the nut was as good a fit as possible on the neck, it was easy to cut the slots to just the right depth. I aimed for just a slight amount of clearance between the string and the first fret when the string is held down at the second fret:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2329.jpg

This leaves the string slots cut deeply into the nut:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2330.jpg

I left the strings in place to stop the file at the right depth when I filled the nut down. It damaged the strings, but I was sacrificing this set to getting the guitar set up - they had been taken on and off several times already.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2328.jpg

A bit of fine sandpaper and a polish:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2331.jpg

I made a small holder to run a file down the fretboard to chamfer the 'nibs' at the end of each fret. I was bothered about trying to do it free-hand, as the binding is really soft, and it wouldn't take much of a wobble to wipe out the nibs completely. This might have been better left until after they were levelled, but hey-ho..

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2334.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2335.jpg

Before:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2332.jpg

After:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2333.jpg

To level the frets, I needed to adjust the trussrod to make the fretboard as level as possible - I just notched out the edge of a straight piece of wood to fit over the frets and adjusted the truss rod for the closest fit:

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2336.jpg

I also made a 'sanding beam' from some pieces of laminate that had one flat face with some 240 grit silicon carbide paper stuck to it.

With the fretboard flat, I blacked out each fret with a marker pen and rubbbed the whole fretboard gently and evenly with the sanding beam, continually checking whether all the sharpie was sanded off or not. There are low spots on 3 or 4 frets near the bottom of the photo here, so more sanding needed (I probably should have masked the fretboard first...)

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2339.jpg

When the frets had all been touched by the sandpaper, I blacked them out again and used a luthier's crowning file to restore the curved profile of the fret and sanded them all smooth with proressively finer silicon carbide paper, then gave them a polish. The Aldi Dremel is good for this, too - *much* faster than polishing by hand, but a bit messy.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2342.jpg


After cleaning up the fretboard, smoothing off the edge of the binding between the frets, fitting new strings and making a truss rod cover it was ... finished!

Misterg

And the photos...

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2409.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2416.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2428.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2429.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2365.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2434.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2427.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2389.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2379.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2357.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2381.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2412.jpg

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2421.jpg

Plenty of mistakes if you know where to look, but to say I'm pleased with it would be an understatement!

It plays very nicely, and after experimenting with pickup heights, pot and capacitor values, it is sounding as I'd hoped, too. (Currently GAS free! )

Misterg

Addendum:

I wasn't going to do it, but I thought it looked naked without (as per comments from the old forum):

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh143/werdnayarg/webstuf/Firedoor/DSC_2452.jpg

(Some photoshopping & inkjet waterslide paper - worked surprisingly well!)

Thanks for reading!

stickyfiddle

This is just awesome. Really makes me want a Firebird!

Misterg

stickyfiddle said:

This is just awesome. Really makes me want a Firebird!

Thanks very much:)

...and err.... sorry about that.

Bucket

All of my "WOW".

Misterg

Thanks !

OilCityPickups

That's a stunning build!

Misterg

Cheers mate!   - I did contact you about some pickups (if you remember!!) -  you said you would be making some soon, but I got all impatient and spent my dosh on some SDs instead.... sorry!  ">

ddlooping

Wowed.