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I have been looking for a Firebird Kit for a long time. But not a bolt on neck. E real, proper firebird with a neck thru body construction. Not necessarily a 5 piece neck but if that is possible at an affordable price that would be even better.
So I'm thinking of a kit, consisting of the neck, the wings and then of course all the bits and pieces. With the LONG tailpiece, not a stop tail piece. That's a Kit I would be willing to pay 500$ for if it's nice mahogany and a 5 piece neck.
It would be nice, but you aren't ever going to get a through-neck kit. That's a long, awkward, package and shipping costs would be considerable. I could live with (and would quite like) a set neck version, which would be do-able. But parts are going to be limited to what the local Chinese factories make in bulk, so no long tailpiece or 'banjo' tuners. There's nothing stopping you from adding those yourself and they'd be far better quality.
Minimum order for a kit is around 100 units, and $500+ kits don't have a huge number of buyers. Also, the factories seem quite loath to stray too far from what they already do. Even some quite simple changes to existing kits haven't been implemented despite several requests.
Great idea, but very unlikely to ever see the light of day.
I do understand, that this would not be a big numbers kit. That's why I would be willing to pay more than for a regular kit. But I was just stating what I would like to get without too much hope of getting it.
As for the long tail piece: There is something that would keep me from installing one on a Kit that is made for a stop tail piece and that's the two big holes for the Tailpiece posts in the body. It would be very difficult to make "hardly visible" dowels for that.
Well, now the people at Pitbull guitars know that there is at leas one guy who would want that kit. That's all I wanted.
You can get custom orders of the basic kits, so 'no tailpiece holes' is an easy one for them to supply.
That pretty much sums up my whole experience on this forum :DQuote:
Originally Posted by SamMoor
"Hey! Wouldn't it be awesome if... oh. That's right. Never mind :( "
If you request a custom order, things like not drilling some holes suddenly becomes a possibility. Fundamental design changes, perhaps not, but less holes is a thing they can do.Quote:
Originally Posted by SamMoor
I had a custom kit done with a different fingerboard, it is outstanding quality and delivered quite quickly.
You could order a set neck with a reverse style headstock and a block inlay neck with a blank body as Simon suggested which should get you close...
Sounds like a scratch build might be the only way to achieve this as neck through and multi laminates is way beyond the scope of factories supplying kit markets. As others have stated a custom order with a set neck and no stop tail piece holes drilled might be a compromise worth investigating?
Personally I don't have an issue with bolt on necks as they have worked just fine for many decades on some very well known brands that Leo Fender may have been involved with. Biggest upside is they are easier to put together for most kit builders.
I’d have to agree with Waz, I’ve not seen any of these pre shaped kits with laminate necks let alone a neck through. A scratch build would be the only way to get what you’re after for that true firebird look.
Depending on where you are there are a number of resources for building and sourcing woods, and there are a bunch of guys here that have built or are building from scratch to bounce ideas off and get build methods and advice.