Fanned Fret Firebird

Rabs

Love it.. Will watch with interest ..

Danielsguitars

I'm very interested to see this come together too

WezV

The board got slotted last night


obviously i have a super complicated jig for this



i am not recommending this method, there are loads of better ways to do it I am sure... but it works for me.   I spent a long time checking and scoring the fret measurements on the board so I use a piece of steel with a known straight edge as my saw guide.   

The important bit is to make sure its all aligned and solid, but it doesn't take much longer than slotting a normal board in a fret slotting jig

the next stage will be to double check everything one last time before proceeding

PhilKing

It's looking great Wes.  The flamed ebony is really nice and different.

WezV

yeah, I am still not sure how noticeable it will be when done.  

 this should start to move a bit quicker now.   My thickness/planer died a few weeks back and I have been unable to revive.  I only had £100  (£50 second hand, £50 in parts) in the whole machine and I have been using it for 10 years. 

A new one is arriving tomorrow    

WezV

small big significant progress.    The new thicknesser is all set up so I ran the neck blank through

It works really well




given its almost the perfect dimensions just as it is, it seems daft to slice it up and make a laminated neck.     I will use some CF reinforcement to ensure the neck stays stable.


I did mark the blank up, but have changed my mind on which side i want to start from..  I am going to redo it on the opposite face as the wood grain will give a stronger  headstock

WezV

I am starting to think about inlay and moving away from my initial plan of simple dots

A firebird VII would have custom style blocks, which may be a bit of a head scratcher on a fanned fret

they fit straight, but fall under the frets


angling them to follow the frets really highlights the weird size differences you get with custom blocks


the solution may be to angle them like that, then resahpe them so the sides follow the frets and fretboard edges????

the other solution is to use some  traps instead - standard traps don't look too bad simply angled.

WezV

a quick play in paint

Roland

How about parallelograms which roughly track both the frets and the neck edges?  The straight and angled blocks look out of place, and the traps don’t look at home either (IMHO)

WezV

Roland said:

How about parallelograms which roughly track both the frets and the neck edges?  The straight and angled blocks look out of place, and the traps don’t look at home either (IMHO)

i think you are right, that's what i have tried to show in the edited pic... although its all still a bit wonky as they were just laid in place

technically they won;t be parallelograms though as each fret is at a different angle

guitarfishbay

WezV said:

a quick play in paint

This option gets my vote 

mart

I’d have thought dots would be a much safer bet. The mock-up in paint doesn’t look too bad, but I still think dots would look better.

normula1

What would Rickenbacker style shark fins look like?

WezV

normula1 said:

What would Rickenbacker style shark fins look like?

I want something that would be found in a Firebird, I would consider something found on a Gretsch.  If I added a Ricky feature I would feel compelled to include other Ricky features somewhere else

PhilKing

What about tapered blocks, so they are wider at the bass side and narrower at the treble, you could go with the same ratio as the 2 E string lengths?

WezV

It’s the way I am leaning... I think I will trim the custom blocks to fit.

WezV

i got the wings cut, and in true firebird fashion they are tapered so thinner on the outside edge.  



I also got the carbon fibre rods and truss rod installed



which gives us this

next job was to add some locating pins for the fretboard.  I want to route the pickups before the fretboard is attached, soI need a good positive way to align the fret board so i can do crucial measurements before its permanently fixed in place.   I also took this opportunity do do all the routing and drilling on the wings

which gives us this



the fretboard is now in clamps waiting for glue to dry.  

I started reshaping the inlays - not perfect yet, but well on the way

WezV

i have been asked elsewhere how i did the tapered wings.   i use a router thicknessing jig which is 2 steel rails either side of a piece of kitchen worktop,

here is a diagram showing the end view

Danielsguitars

This looks great, I'd like to make a standard version later this year and this will thread will help me, firebirds construction is very different to what I've done so far

I'll be looking for a planer thicknesser fairly soon, I don't need a full body width as I'll mostly use it for necks and laminates for through neck ideas, any recommendations wez

WezV

I had an old 10x6 secondhand planer/thicknesser until recently, but it gave up the ghost.   I had been using it 10 years and it only cost me £50.   I couldn't afford to replace with a similar unit so just got a thicknesser, and so far its doing really well, handled ebony fretboards very nicely straight out the box

this is the one i went with, and mounted it onto the base of the old machine.   After reading a lot of reviews it seems it held its own against more expensive machines.  so far its performing really well

https://www.screwfix.com/p/triton-tpt125-317mm-thicknesser-240v/5554k

i wish it was a few mm wider though,  because then it would do full bodies easily.   I still have to use the router thicknesser  for prepping 1 piece bodies