FBM-1 Build, Name TBD, First PB Build!

Excellent tip... a rasp and files here - definitely a slow process, depending on how much woood you want off, and how fast the clock is spinning.

Moved admittedly too quicky into finishing. These projects will teach you a lot about yourself in a hurry. Things I've learned (and already knew really) as well as observations:

a) Expensive production guitars are expensive for a reason. They're created in a controlled environment, (dust, ventilation, efficiency, tooling). Those glassy, mirrored finishes are the product of several coats of high quality finishes, air brushing, and just general experience in craftsmanship.

** Less so here. :D

b) For my circumstances, I think I made the right choice in finish, just not enough product. I bought rattle cans from Oxford in Eastern Canada - they specialize in traditional nitrocellolose laquer finishes. If I were going to do this seriously in future, I'd get an airbrush rig.

c) I didn't go with a primer, which would have been a good idea. I wanted minimal finish for two reasons... to allow it to 'age' and 'distress' fast, and to allow the wood to breathe. While not ridiculously curated, it is mahogany, so I wanted to allow those properties i like in mahogany guitars to come through. However, a single can for a solid finish wasn't enough - with poor technique, fought some small drips and sanded through to the wood a couple of times... aaaaalmost made the decision to distress it out of the gate. So far, I'm on coat four of clear. More patience, very fine sanding between coats. I'll probably be done spraying today, which makes this day three of paint and satin clearcoat.

d) On the plus side, I'm seeing wood grain through the finish which was intended for a worn, vintage look, and the laquer is drying hard. It feels really nice in the hands. On one of my beater strats, I sprayed with off the hardware shelf outdoor rust paint, and it did the job color wise, but was very sticky and maleable under heat and gig use. Live and learn, but aesthetically it did the job for that set of gigs.

e) After spraying the white, I removed the fingerboard tape covering the binding and reapplied it to the fretboard only. The intention was to get the clear on the binding and make the back of the neck feel uniform in the hands. After three coats of clear, so far, so good.

f) I found some leftover black pickguard material, so i'll probably do a custom cover. I was originally going to leave the truss rod nut open and do some kind of logo. I think the cover will simply follow the contour of the head, with a nod to Gibson.

g) It's been hard to be patient - reeeealy wan to hear these pickups I had made.

Play on! More soon.

Attachment 43870Attachment 43871

Update on Flaming Emus.
Just did a roadtrip about 750 km south east of Perth to a small coastal town of Esperance. I saw quite a few wild emus around the Esperance area. Luckily, non were on the road. So NO flamin' emus for me.

Hand shaped a truss rod cover. Photocopied the headstock and printed a picture to trace it out. I may refine this a little more and buff the edges. The optional bone nut only took a couple of scrapes with sandpaper on either side to fit the width of the fingerboard. Some filing and scraping was I'll set the slot height once it's strung and the neck/body settle in. I may opt to leave it high for slide. Installed the optional Grover mini locking tuners.

Attachment 43872

Truss rod cover looks good.
IMO the firebird or thunderbird style truss rod covers are great.

I would have to agree - style...

Ha! A bit of a jaunt! So much for the marketing. Still owe you for the name. ;) Might get some funny reactions to the name from my Canadian friends - my guitars typically have mostly women's names.

Okay, working WAY too fast. Gig cancelled tonight, a rarity in the Pacific Northwest, but snowed in with another storm on the way - and rain on Saturday... :p The wife is snowed in at the property where her horse is paddocked, so left to my own devices, started assembly on the Flamin' Emu (with the Ronnie Dio audiobook in the background). Some rough assembly... got everything together and strung to tension.

No electronics yet, though put some leftover copper sheet in the control and switch cavities.

A slight shift in the neck pocket, but not enough to warrant a shim - I dropped a bunch of white glue in the pocket before assembly, and pumped some into the screwholes etc to fill the air gaps. Haven't done this for years on a bolt-on. We'll see if it remains stable or if it shifts. Everything lined up when strung. Some backbow as expected. Once I let the guitar settle at tension, I'll set the neck, lower the fret slots and drop the bridge a little. The Grover locking tuners are dead simple - similar setup to my Klusons on a couple other guitars.

Slight modification to the pickguard to accommodate my subtle cutaway addition. The nearest screw ended up about a centimetre closer to the neck pickup.

The spacing of my custom pickups doesn't fit the stock rings, so I may be on hold until I source some rings to fit - likely standard Firebird rings. I like the idea of fastening them direct to the wood, but I left the cavities almost unfinished.

So, physically and acoustically I'll let things settle in, some tweaking, then electronics.

Attachment 43874

Latest... wired everything up yesterday, thinking, "I've wired enough guitars that I think I know what I'm doing."

Pfft... the Emu is down in flames... for the moment. Switched gears...

Played with the truss rod a bit, the guitar has been at tension now for a week. My plan was to let it settle, then worry about the truss rod and any fret issues. With the neck as straight as possible, the first fret buzzes continually.

Rather than detail which frets are out for now, I put some relief in the neck, and raised the bridge. Did some playing - once I get the frets squared away it should feel pretty good. I'll probably rub in some Tru-Oil on the fingerboard when I'm done with more taping and filing.

I have yet to test the wiring in more detail. My gut says get some better wire and redo it all - when stripping and tinning ends for soldering, it seemed pretty flimsy. There's a possibility I simply missed a ground somewhere or one of the solder joints is hanging by a copper thread.

I don't think I've blown up andy pots this time, with my loaner overpowered glass application soldering iron (rheostat set 5/10). Since my Weller tip is corroded on to my original iron, I'll probably break down and buy a new one with some new tips.

As is, best I could get was the rhythm pickup when it's volume is set to 10.

Made some temporary mounts for the pickups out of some old pickguard material. I should have rings that fit tomorrow. The rings from the kit have a different spacing than trad FB pickups - they're made for the kit.

My eBay decal went on - twice as big as a Gibson decal, but looks OK.

So, potential complete rewire to come, but might just to a trace and fix, and frets - we'll see where time and ambition end up.

Attachment 43892


My trusty indie retailer is back in tomorrow, so I'll hit him up.

Long time in limbo… finished the guitar somewhat, and actually gigged with it. Some serious stuff to deal with. The wiring is stable for now. The neck position was quite off - I ended up with the strings cascading high above the body. Uncomfortable to play, and I believe the tone of the pickups are suffering, essentially being so far outside their cavities. Went to disassemble the neck, and snapped three of the screws, leaving an inch-and-a-half inside the neck and body. I couldn’t bring myself to scrap the guitar, nor render it for a newbie - not acceptable. So, I bored out as much of the screw remains as I could, and got the neck separated. Glued a bit of the shrapnel together, and now looking at reshaping the neck and pocket fit for a better angle across the bridge. Going to give it another go.

Attachment 44557