Tags:
AWESOME! The firebird as always been a cool body style.
Hi, you might want to check the neck pocket on that drawing and against the piece of wood that you've laminated up. Fender bass necks usually join the body at between the 15th and 16th frets, with a neck pocket 3 7/8 inches long. You've drawn the neck joining at the 17th which would make the neck pocket about an inch or so shorter than normal, and it looks like the wood you've glued up may not be long enough to adjust for this, either at the neck pocket end or in the overall length. Also to make the neck connection even tighter, the standard Fender neck has 20 frets - the ones with 21 frets like the one in your drawing usually have a fretboard which projects beyond the end of the maple neck itself to accommodate that extra fret.
As you've got it drawn at the moment it looks like you might not be able to make a standard neck pocket, and might not even be able to fix the neck with a standard neckplate. If you shift the neck back to form a full sized pocket, the bridge will be right at the end of the body. If you've glued up the body blank plenty over-sized then you may be able to fiddle this to get it to work. As you haven't got the neck yet, unfortunately it's too late to tell you never to start any of the woodwork until you've got all the critical parts (in this case the neck and the bridge), but hopefully you may be able to sort it before you start cutting any wood. Good luck.
Thanks for the heads-up. When I did the initial drawing I was careful to scale up the Fenderbird body in Adobe Illustrator to 100% scale, so that the distance from the nut to the 12th fret = 17". When I imported the image of the neck to go with it I made sure it measured to the same scale, so I thought that would be sufficient. I guess I should have looked at the P-Bass neck pocket, but it was at the practice space at the time...
I've attached a later revision of the vector art, this one shows pickup and bridge placement. Checking the file at full size tells me I have about 1.6" of usable space to move the bridge and pickups if I have to. And it looks like I just might have to.
Worst case scenario is I glue up another block, and make a firebird 6-string from the block I have now. Matching guitars and bases would also be pretty cool.
John makes a good point. I just looked at a few diagrams of the Thunderbird body. Measure the length of your mid-line (this will be the lightest strip of wood on your body blank) from tail to the neck end. The distance from the bottom of the neck pocket to the tail end at center should be a minimum of 14.625"...and you should have enough body length left to have 5-6 frets within the neck pocket area. If this is true, then you should be fine.
See this link/picture to see what I mean...
Hmmm... Looks like I might well have fouled this up.
I guess it depends on how precise a copy I want to make, compared to how much work it would be to laminate up another block of wood. I revised the art and attached the file, and with a 3.875" neck pocket I am required to move the bridge and pickups down by approximately 1.2". Which is do-able, it's just not terribly true to the Thunderbird design.
Back to the drawing board, and a little more geometry research on p-bass vs Thunderbird.
Much thanks for the help to both Farmer Ted and Chickenbone John!!
Gotta say I am really appreciating the input here.
After some consideration I think I will just hold off on cutting any more wood until I get the neck, THEN I can do some test fitting and see how it will come together.
Meanwhile I realized that I have yet to order a neck plate and some tuners for the beast.
I do have the bridge, thanks. Right now the only parts I am waiting on are the tuners and the neck.
Had a friend who had a Gibson bass. The body under the heal of the neck stuck out farther add extra length to the pocket. Looking at your glue up I know you don't have the extra wood to play with. If function is more important than looks you could always add the extra wood to the back of the body. I've attached a pic from a Bing search. If you look at the neck pocket you can see the extra body wood.
Kinda funny. They guy is an excellent jazz bassist. AND a big Kiss fan.
Started by Bill Andy in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Southern Ray May 7. 11 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Bill Andy in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Taffy Evans May 5. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by J. D. Woods in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 26. 8 Replies 1 Like
Started by Southern Ray in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 26. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by J. D. Woods in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by BrianQ. Apr 25. 4 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Rich Butters in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Crazed Fandango Apr 22. 4 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Nomad Jack in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by J. D. Woods Apr 17. 7 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Moritz Voegeli in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 14. 6 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Apr 10. 14 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Tom T in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 9. 9 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 4. 7 Replies 1 Like
Started by Timothy Hunter in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 27. 1 Reply 2 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 10. 1 Reply 3 Likes
Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by BrianQ. Mar 9. 4 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies 1 Like
Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Ken I in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Brian partington Mar 8. 8 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Cool gear discussion - that's not cigar box related. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 6. 5 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 5. 4 Replies 2 Likes
Posted by Vlad on March 31, 2024 at 11:48pm 0 Comments 1 Like
Posted by Vlad on March 6, 2024 at 2:32am 5 Comments 2 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 28, 2024 at 2:09pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 17, 2024 at 11:00pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by Vlad on February 11, 2024 at 1:06am 1 Comment 1 Like
© 2024 Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker. Powered by
Cigar Box Nation is presented by C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply, your one-stop-shop for Cigar Box Guitar parts and accessories!