Non-Reverse Thunderbird Bass build

[SG John]

I started this build several years ago. It has given me nothing but grief every step of the way. There have been tooling issues such as tools pulling out of holders, band saw blades walking or snapping, and lumber issues such as worm holes in very improper places. Since I'm on vacation this week, I wanted to finally make a bit of progress on this. I'll start at the beginning, and then update you as we move along.

I started with a single block of Sapele (African Mahogany). I hogged it down from a large blank with my ghetto planing rig. It works for what I need it to do. I'll leave it slightly oversize, then run it to the local architectural woodworker, who is a very nice guy. He has both an 18" planer and sander. He'll run it through a couple of times for very little money.







Then comes cutting out the body shape.






And, finished.









This is a good place to stop, and work on the neck in another post.

 

[SG John]

The neck has been quite a bit of work. It is a two piece Honduran Mahogany blank. The basic stuff was easy. All I needed to do was run the pieces over the jointer a few times, and glue it up. Easy right?












Then, I had to rough cut everything on the bandsaw.









Then, there is a scarf joint to add all the extra Mahogany that will be needed for the headstock.










I decided to go with a two way truss rod on this. Here it is, in place with the maple filler strip.

 

[eSGEe]

 

[SG John]

After that was done, everything went bonkers. I got to learn how to hide mistakes.

Next up, were the wings that would be needed for the headstock.






Then, I prepped it for a holly veneer, and glued it on.







After that dried, I roughed out the shape of the headstock and and neck taper. Then brought the thickness of the headstock close to where it needs to be.

 

[SG John]

Next up on the hit parade was drilling for the tuners and getting the logo in place.












Epoxied in place with some black dye.








Then came repairing a tear-out in the neck . Oh joy.

 

[SG John]

After my adventures in neck tear-out and making a parallelogram neck tenon, I thought I would move on to putting the radius on the fingerboard and slotting for frets. Also did the holes for the abalone dots.

















At this point it has sat the past couple of years. I just haven't had the time to jump on it. I want to work on my Explorer and Flying V builds, but I'm going to finish this one first.

 

[SG John]

Which brings us now to the present. In September I took the neck up to the tech center while I was working there for a few days, and corrected the parallelogram neck tenon. More mistakes and other issues reared their ugly little heads at the same time.

It is really nice being able to use a Bridgeport for fine tuning a neck tenon. I'm going to try to do this with my other builds.







Then, last week I prepped the mortise on my drill press.








Today, I set up on the Bridgeport again, and cut the mortise.









It ended up being a nice fit, and my center lines are nicely lined up.








Sitting on my bench in the cellar.

 

[SG John]

I'm starting to make a template for a pickguard, but I'm also waiting to hear back from Pickguardian about a vintage style pickguard. As soon as I can get that, I can think about routing for pickups, cables and pots. I'm also thinking of going with Thunderbucker Ranch pickups instead of the '90s Gibson ceramic T-Bird pickups that I have. I'd rather have vintage style pickups with nickel covers and Alnico magnets. I'm trying to get that all sorted in the next couple of days, so I can glue this thing together, and start shaping the neck.

 

[Clockworkmike]

You got one helluva setup here my friend! You make some fine looking axes

 

[Session 5]

Looking mighty fine, nice work!!

 

[SG John]

You got one helluva setup here my friend! You make some fine looking axes

Looking mighty fine, nice work!!

Thanks guys. It's been a while I've been on this one, along with the other two. I'm hoping to wrap this one up in February at the latest, then dive into the others. It would be nice if I could spray all of them by May. Then it'll just be a matter of waiting for the lacquer to cure, polish them, assemble, and play them.


Then there are the other seven body and neck blanks I want to get started on.

 

[SG John]

Here’s what I have for hardware for now. NOS Schaller Tuners, a pair of NOS 1990s Gibson Thunderbird pickups, and a Dasson “Bad Bird” Bridge and tailpiece. The bridge has a longer saddle adjustment to correct most of the intonation issues with old T-Birds.

I am pretty certain that I won’t be using these pickups though.

 

[SG John]

Did a bit more on this. I drilled the holes for the controls, then started on the control cavity. The jig accepts the brass shields used in older T-Birds and SGs. I got to about .900“ deep, and was having difficulty seeing what I was doing, as the lighting for my drill press is not good. I left everything clamped to the drill press table, and I‘ll finish the cavity on Saturday when daylight comes through the window.

 

[SG John]

I did finish the control cavity today. The pickguard still has not arrived from Pickguardian yet. Would have loved to maybe got the routing for the pickups and wiring done today, so I can glue the neck and body together. Still waiting on pickups, which is a whole other mess. May go with the ‘90s ceramic T-Bird pickups that I have for now to move this along.

This will probably end up on the back burner again, and I’ll probably pick at some stuff on the Explorer and Flying V builds. Would prefer to do the messy stuff outside when the snow melts.

The cover and hardware do look nice set in place.









It’s a long weekend for me, so now I’m cleaning the cellar. Having a fun time repackaging and throwing out stuff from previous moves. Trying to make more room for playing various amps without moving them around. Also would like to do some recording soon. We’ll see how all that goes.

 

[eSGEe]

COMING ALONG NICELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BFT Gibson]

Very nice !! That would be a treasure as a bass player

 

[Cadorman]

I really, really, really wish I had a Bridgeport.

 

[Mitch Pearrow SJMP]

Great work John

 

[SG John]

I really, really, really wish I had a Bridgeport.

Me too. I'm going to do my best to get a Bridgeport and an air compressor in the garage this summer. As soon as weather allows, I'm going to get the Pan/Shovel running, then sell the motorcycle lift to free up floor space. We'll be adding an overhang to the garage and a tool shed, so I should get enough room out there to get both to fit. It's a tiny garage, barely big enough to fit a Model T, as the house and garage we're built in 1925.

 

[RVA]

When John does a build thread, it is the real deal. Everything from scratch!! Nice work brother!