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

Hi all,

Thanks for being here - when I get a chance I'll peruse the forum a bit and get to know what's been going on.

I was inspired by Pete Stroud's Firebird 1 with a black dogear p90, and things have taken a turn. The kit is a bolt on, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on a Gibson. I thought of modding an Epiphone, but after all that I could assemble and finish my own, so here I am. Originally I was going to keep to a single pickup and dowell the holes, do a steath stacked P90, but my custom pickup guy is sending me a pair of mini-humbuckers for a good price...

First Pit bull build, FBM-1 is currently on its way to western Canada. I've been tinkering and customizing guitars and electronics for many years, put together a parts tele which went to Europe with me this past autumn. I'd say the thing I've worked on the most would be pickups and special wiring.

The latest...
- Kit ordered, took the bone nut and Grover tuners option. (Cleared Aus Post, waiting for delivery)
- Finish ordered from Oxford Guitar Supply in Eastern Canada (Expected Nov 28) arctic white and satin clear laquer.
- FB pickguard logo ordered from eBay.
- Ordered a Vari-Tone assembly from Etsy via the Netherlands (this was originally going to end up on a Gibson ES-235, but I might drop it in to this build - still on the fence).
- Ordered a surprise gadget from a local tool company - it's an automotive part I hope to incorporate - more about this once I see if I can get it to work.
- Ordered custom pickups from Vintage Vibe Guitars - currently based in Florida, U.S.A. He's done a set of 'Charlie Christian' blade P90s for me in the past. He usually ships two sets of magnets which are swappable, but the mini humbuckers can only do one permanent set. For this set I went with ceramic magnets. They should vary between high output and tap into P90 territory. So, they'll keep up with my Explorer, but can get funky like my NightHawk and BluesHawk.

That's it for the moment. Looking forward to my winter project.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I take it the mini-humbuckers are true Firebird-style ones with two blade magnets and no adjustable pole-pieces (as in your Firebird 1 picture)?

I have a Gibson Firebird that I fitted Creamery alnico V "Winterizer" pickups (now renamed Classic Firebird) in for a more authentic vintage Firebird tone. It came with Ceramic mini-humbuckers. The ceramics certainly sounded quite clear and powerful but still in the same general ball-park as a standard humbucker if that bit thinner, whist the Alnico V ones sound very different and quite unique.

Good luck with your build!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I take it the mini-humbuckers are true Firebird-style ones with two blade magnets and no adjustable pole-pieces (as in your Firebird 1 picture)?

I have a Gibson Firebird that I fitted Creamery alnico V "Winterizer" pickups (now renamed Classic Firebird) in for a more authentic vintage Firebird tone. It came with Ceramic mini-humbuckers. The ceramics certainly sounded quite clear and powerful but still in the same general ball-park as a standard humbucker if that bit thinner, whist the Alnico V ones sound very different and quite unique.

Good luck with your build!

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Thanks Simon,

The Creamery stuff looks fantastic...

As much as I like vintage spec pickups, I was quite taken with Vintage Vibe's SP-90 - a P-90 sound in a strat form factor. That started the ball rolling for custom work. The pickups on this build will be mini humbuckers, but with six exposed screws in a nickel cover. (Like a mini PAF). I definitely waffled between magnet types for a bit. They'll have ceramic magnets, so fairly high output, and into P-90 territory when tapped to one coil. I'll see how they sound - I think the vari-tone might end up in my Gibson semi-hollow - I'll see if these pickups have enough variety on their own. All this when initially I was looking to do a single dogear. <facepalm>

I got it wrong. My Firebird pickups came from Oil City pickups, not The Creamery My P90s on my ES-1 came from The Creamery. That's why The Creamery fFrebird pickups aren't called The Winterizer. D'oh! I was going to get them from The creamery, but Jaime is a one-man band and was far too busy. Then Covid came along and slowed things down more. Then he said he's get the parts again in a few months and would email me, but that never happened and the pickups were still on the 'not currently available' list so in the end I looked elsewhere.

Lets hope your mini-humbuckers sound great.

Arrived Dec 1! Finally made it to the post office. Very distracted with some studio work, and a $300 CAD scoop of an Epiphone - I'll put some notes in a non-Pitbull thread. Everything intact.

Some quick observations:
- I'll likely tweak the fret ends a bit. Absolutely playable as is, but could be smoothed - this is the tradeoff - a very affordable kit relies on the builder to pay attention to the finishing. This may work itself out a bit if I decide to 'roll' the fingerboard edge.
- I've been torn with anything mahogany to go to a natural finish - the kicker would have been that if I had seen any change figuring in the wood, I'd switch to a translucent finish.
- My custom pickups have left Florida and are in Chicago en route. I've been thinking I should at least try the stock ones for fun.
- I plan to use minimal finish - lately I've been enjoying distessed guitars. (Ones I've simply played a lot since the 80s, a couple I've done for looks myself...) My fear was that I'd enjoy the sound of the bare guitar better. My challenge is also to outdo myself on any finish I've done in the past - grabbe a hardware store spray can a couple times on some 'beater' guitars. I plan to have some patience and sandpaper on hand. :-) I decided I'm ok if the grain shows through teh opaque finish, and I've chosen a satin clear clat so it doesn't necessarily look new.
- Since I like Gibson style set necks (but I play a bunch of Fenders too) I thought about modifying the heel, maybe even modifying the plate to rought the heel a little more - up in the air on that one. I may file the cutaway a little deeper on the front side. I may also carve away a 'tummy cut' on the backside.
- I may bevel the headstock, but still on the fence with a black face or guitar color face.
- Leaning toward not painting the neck, just 'satinizing' it. The clear I have is an 'aged' laquer, so it might be nice to have a rich mahogany color, like the 76 Explorer ...

I'm sure when I read all this weeks from now I'll laugh at the blind ambition.:rolleyes:

Build on, and more soon!

Attachment 43828
Attachment 43829

They made it! 5600 Km later, my custom pickups. Now I have to clear the calendar and get on this build...

Specs:

Vintage Vibe Guitars Custom 4 wire mini humbuckers
Nickel covers
Ceramic magnets (not swapple in this design, usually Pete ships two sets of magnets)
Neck pickup:
DC resistance: 8.93k
Inductance: 2.552H
Q-Factor 1.282
Field strength 0.26 k Gauss

Bridge Pickup:
DC resistance: 9.86k
Inductance: 3.111H
Q-Factor 1.376
Field strength 0.26 k Gauss

Attachment 43833

Nice! Now get building!

:o :cool: :)

Okay... the ball is rolling. Project codename: Fire-Emu. ;-)

Did some rough shaping on the backside of the body, and roughed in the headstock. Not standard dimensions for the head, but on the plus side, the guitar should fit in one of my millions of existing cases lying around. :-)

Might yet get to some more serious sandig for the remainder of the weekend. I've set myself a goal to play this guitar New Year's eve. We'll see how dilligent I get on finishing...

Attachment 43838

Attachment 43839

Standard case? Bass case maybe! My Gibson Firebird case is as long as my bass cases and there's not a lot of room to spare at the ends once it's in.

Better use a finish that is quick to dry to have it ready by new year's.

Were did those pups come from? I thought VVG was on the West coast... 5600KM puts them a lot farther away than that!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stewartm

Okay... the ball is rolling. Project codename: Fire-Emu. ;-)

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How about "Flamin' Emu"? That is what I said as one was running down the road in front of me! I must admit that was quite a while ago - but I do not do much country driving any more (not because of the emu!).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trevor Davies

How about "Flamin' Emu"? That is what I said as one was running down the road in front of me! I must admit that was quite a while ago - but I do not do much country driving any more (not because of the emu!).

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Brilliant! This is a contender. I haven't changed the logo - ordered an aftermarket replacement for the guard.

Bass case maybe. The headstock is smaller than its Gibson counterpart, so I thought I might try it with a spare bag I got with an SG. short by a couple of inches. I kept a triangular Gibson bag they sold with 2016 Firebirds and Explorers. (Sold an Explorer). This one will fit, but I also have my Epiphone fixer upper... I'll probably just look for another Gibson/ Epiphone bag - they float around used a bit as people upgrade. Our Canadian Long & McQuade store chain typically has some generic hard cases. Got rid of my '78 Les Paul Custom 'chainsaw case' and picked up a decent generic LP case from that store. They do a decent SG case which also fits my NightHawks, so I'd probably try their version of a Firebird or Jazzmaster case. Bought a Korean Dean Cadillac, and the sales guy at another store sold me a Yamaha APX acoustic case. Not exact, but fits the big wide head and didn't slip around when closed. So, I'll probably end up with a soft bag. My bass is almostalways in the studio, so I'm sure the bass bag (Levy's) would work fine.

Sanding day. In the process, took some edge off the neck pocket heel, and lower cutaway. General refinements. Not a ton of meat on the headstock, which is fine, the guitar seems better balanced in that respect than my modded Epiphone couterpart. I tried to add some texture to the head, and debating on whether or not to paint the back of the neck. I want to do the outer trim of the head in black... tie it in with the knobs and rings - we'll see. The satin clear coat has a vintage amber to it, so I might just want to see the wood. Still going for a vintage white on the body. Did a damp wipedown, possibly more refining before paint. Basically off for the holidays now, so the project is in full go mode.

Sanding is a chore at best, but I was quite rewarded with getting familiar with the refinements I'd created - letting the fingers and nerve endings let me know when the sanding was done. When I cut the headstock I left a chip (no scroll saw), so I filled it with my krazy glue and baking soda trick. I decided I wasn't able to recover enough wood dust to use that. It dried fast and hard, and was able to sand it out.

Next I'll probably do a more serious test fit, work on the neck bolts and neck position, and prep for paint.

would you recommend Oil City pickups?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stewartm

Okay... the ball is rolling. Project codename: Fire-Emu. ;-)

Did some rough shaping on the backside of the body
Attachment 43838

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When I have done belly cut and forearm shaping I have used a fine flap disk in a 100mm angry grinder, obviously have to be careful not to let it bite but I found it to be easier to control the shape and depth of the work than carving, also gave me a relatively smooth and clean starting point for manual sanding

On the surface, looks like good stuff. Any UK folks tried these? Looks like a relatively young company.

For the record, great recommendation. I used a rasp for most of the contour. I think I'm done the hack job, and without using the 'big guns' there's less likelyhood I'll slip up in a big way. I decided to leave it quite subtle and work on my own gut. :eek:

So far, could be on track for my NYE gig!

Vintage Vibe guitars used to be in Hawaii, but Pete moved his 'cottage' operation to Florida U.S.A.

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

Took the back of the neck down roughly 1/16" and the pocket down about the same. Adjusted the angle in the pocket a bit. Tried boring out the original broken screws again, managed to get most of the shrapnel out. I thought I might have to re-drill in different locations to save it. The neck lined up reasonably well, and some alternate screws went in.

Some fretting out happening at teh first fret, and between the 12th and 15 frets, so leaving the action high for now, then I'll do a better crown and polish. (I was warned about this in the documentation. :-) There's a bit of a twist in the neck, so it could use some leveling for that reason alone. For the fingerboard, couldn't find 'Tru-Oil' around, and can't bring it in to Canada from the US, so I ended up with some Tung Oil.

Tuning isn't all that stable at the moment. Went with the Grover mini locking tuner set. I suspect the neck is flatsawn, and the grain seems to back that up a bit. I reckon the neck flexes a fair bit being such light wood. I think it'll settle in, and when I can get the action down a bit it may be fine. Hard to believe I played a gig on it the other way. Some finer bits to work out.

The finish is relatively thin - wanted to allow the tone to come through (snake oil?) I may fine sand the back of the neck and see how the tung oil does there as well.

Attachment 44558

Good save with the neck, body and the screws! A few forum members suggest replacing the screws with better quality ones! I have not had any problems yet - but also have not had to remove any necks! Out of interest - did you use bees-wax (or other lubricant) on the screw threads?

Alas, no beeswax... never tried such a thing. OCD about things grabbing I suppose, which is why I used school grade white glue on the pocket last try. Not sure if it would chemically alter the metal, but chalk it up to cheap hardware that they snapped. I've had necks off guitars, so word to the wise, maybe just some better screws and more attention to measuring the fit would have avoided all this. Looking forward to a better run at the frets.

I’ve never heard of kit neck screws snapping before. Small screws for tuners, yes, but not the neck screws. Though the only bolt-on kit I’ve made I replaced all the kit screws and used stainless steel screws for the neck.

I expect the holes drilled in the neck were too small for the supplied screws. If the neck is really hard maple (it varies), then the hole needs to be the same diameter as the central core of the screw. You can get away with a smaller hole in softer woods but even with goid screws, you don’t want the hole too small.

Did you drill out the neck screw holes in the body so they were the sane size as the neck screw? This allows the screw to properly do its job of pulling the neck down into the pocket. Having the screw screw itself through the body serves no useful purpose in fixing the neck on and can stop the neck being fully pulled down into the pocket if the screwhead hits the neckplate and stops turning whilst there’s still a gap between the neck and the pocket.

If you’ve no beeswax, then use candle wax or a bar of soap to lubricate the thread. It does make initial screwing into the wood easier. If it’s hard, then I tend to screw for a turn of the driver, then back half a turn, then forwards a turn. Not the sort of job for an electric screwdriver.

Car wax also works.

I think it's wise to just pitch all the screws the come with the kit and replace with stainless steel. I haven't had a neck screw break, but I have had them strip. I have had bridge screws break in ash. You can break/strip a good screw too in very hard wood, and neck bolt hole in a body I have gotten has had holes that were too small. The body holes should be just big enough so that you can slide the screw in and out of the hole without it binding. The culprit is likely to be holes in the neck that are too slightly too small, and, as Simon suggests...lack of lube. Be aware that none of this conjures up pornographic images in the pure of heart.