Thunderbird arrived...

[ByteFrenzy]

So, Big Brown did another right-on-schedule delivery this afternoon.

Swamp Ash body, single bridge routs, dual soapbar humbuckers.
Hey, whaddy'a know, the neck plate chose the very same day to appear on my doorstep...
(and by the way, the packaging was not just pooch-proof, it very probably was bullet-proof)  :guitaristgif:

Active electronics with battery box.

Wenge neck with black ebony fingerboard, 13 degree warmoth headstock.

SS6105 frets, no front dots, GB7 tuners

Don't you just love the little feller on brown?

And of course the essential side dishes that help transform a chunk of wood into a musical instrument.

So how does it continue from here?
The genearal theme is black on black, grain enhanced body with semi-gloss finish, and probably the peghead finished to match. The rest of the neck remains unfinished - would be blasphemy to do anything else. I'm still toying with two or three ideas to set it apart from the flock, visually. One idea is to rout an angle completely round the body and a narrower one around the peghead, and finish the surface of those in a glossy dark red for contrast. Perhaps rout two or three decorative lines into the body itself and finish those the same way. And maybe something like a 12th fret inlay or a special inlaid trussrod cover... Kinda subdued though, to stay with the black on black idea.
Or maybe the glossy dark red...

 

[jimh]

This is gonna be a great build.  I like your ideas about chamfering the edges of the body and headstock, but please please please be careful with router....

Are they Duncan BassLine pups, I cant quite see on my monitor here at work?

Good Times  :blob7:

 

[Nando Vallart]

Awesome man!  :icon_biggrin:

 

[jackthehack]

Rather than finishing the headstock, wouldn't it be cooler to do an "enhanced grain" finish on the Swamp Ash to match the coloration of the wenge neck?

 

[mayfly]

Very Very cool!

I've been thinking about building one of those for a long time.  Unfortunately what has been stopping me is the unavailability of the Thunderbird headstock shape.

Anybody have any experience cutting and routing the raised area on a t-brid headstock from a paddle blank?

 

[RLW]

I always thought a reversed Warmoth headstock would look cool on a T-Bird. All the "slants" would be going in the same direction.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

please please please be careful with router....

I did something similar before, putting a radius on a body I built from scratch. Go slow, think twice before doing anything, then don't do it but first think some more...

Are they Duncan BassLine pups, I cant quite see on my monitor here at work?

Yes, passive 4 string soapbar humbucker set, going into a SD 2-band active preamp.

Rather than finishing the headstock, wouldn't it be cooler to do an "enhanced grain" finish on the Swamp Ash to match the coloration of the wenge neck?

I think the body is going to end up darker than the wenge neck. A wenge body would have been an option, but actually I decided on what I wanted for the body first and then went on to select a 'matching' neck. My first idea was to go with a plain maple neck and stain that black like the body, and simulate the grain in the headstock.

I've been thinking about building one of those for a long time.  Unfortunately what has been stopping me is the unavailability of the Thunderbird headstock shape.
Anybody have any experience cutting and routing the raised area on a t-brid headstock from a paddle blank?

Actually that was the hardest decision I made, going for the W headstock instead of routing a paddle headstock in authentic T-bird shape. Maybe I'll still go that path sometime in the future and put this neck on a next build. It's a pain in the you-know-where really, for every choice you make there are a dozen others you are excluding. Ah, I see many more builds in the future. Good thing we weren't consumed by an errant black hole today after all. I couldn't bear to think of all the builds that would never happen...

 

[jackthehack]

"Good thing we weren't consumed by an errant black hole today after all. I couldn't bear to think of all the builds that would never happen..."

It'll be nearly a year before the LHC cranks the particle beams all the way up and starts smashing them into one another.

 

[DangerousR6]

Really cool bass you got going there Rene, I guess my timing was right on que for the  neck plate... :icon_biggrin: I like the Bird body.As to the routing, to me it would look badass to rout some straight slots in it from neck to back and fill them with strips of wenge to match the neck..Then likewise on the headstock, cut 2 slots and fill them with strips of ash...Contrasting body/neck strpes.... :dontknow:

And I like the idea of  the black grain fill and a clear gloss.... :icon_thumright: Although the bevel around the body isn't making a good mental picture..... :icon_scratch:
Maybe just a wide red and black layered binding... :dontknow:

 

[guitlouie]

The Thunderbird is the coolest bass ever.  This one will blow a Gibby away, if I'm not mistaken, and I rarely am.

 

[mayfly]

I'm starting to get an evil evil idea:


Why not build a Fenderbird?!???


I've got a warmoth Jazz bass neck that I've had in an early project that I did 10 years or so ago.  I think that It's time for a new home for it...

I'll be monitoring your progress and tweaking my Evil Plan.  Ha! HaHaHa! HaHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAAAAA!

 

[Mor Paul]

black with a white grain filler on top? It seemed to work pretty well on that junior that someone posted before.

 

[DangerousR6]

black with a white grain filler on top? It seemed to work pretty well on that junior that someone posted before.

Seems he's more in concert with the red/black theme. Maybe black with red grain filler.....I think that's what Gibby did with the VooDoo series Pauls and Explorers :headbang:

 

[Nando Vallart]

I've got a warmoth Jazz bass neck that I've had in an early project that I did 10 years or so ago.  I think that It's time for a new home for it...

If it's reverse headstock will look nice...

 

[mayfly]

I've got a warmoth Jazz bass neck that I've had in an early project that I did 10 years or so ago.  I think that It's time for a new home for it...

If it's reverse headstock will look nice...

Naw, it's a regular headstock.  Still...

 

[DocNrock]

Looks like it'll be a nice build.

 

[blue313]

Looks like it'll be a nice build.

+1 there, this has serious potential

 

[ByteFrenzy]

black with a white grain filler on top? It seemed to work pretty well on that junior that someone posted before.

Yeah, I really took notice of that one. I really liked it, it was pretty uniqe - and to help it stay that way a little longer I decided to just go my own sweet way...

 

[willyk]

PHFWAAAAAR!!!!! :hello2:

 

[SlingBass]

I believe you're covered from electronics to tone woods! And about the finish......hey, it's your bass - enjoy  :guitaristgif: