Tenon Route Complete

With the tenon route done, it's now time to sharpen the chisels and begin fine tuning the neck fit.

Neck Pocket Template

With the neck near completion I've made a template for routing the neck tenon. This is one point where I'm changing the Firebird blueprint considerably. My neck is going to be set much deeper into the body. This will result in the neck feeling less "long", and will also bring the top layout of pickups, bridge, etc...further back. Once the neck is glued in I'll probably end up deepening the lower, treble side cutaway to allow a bit more access to the upper frets.

Headstock Layout

Here I have layed out and cut the headstock to size. Basically a 50's Gibson shape.

Neck with Fingerboard

Here the fingerboard is now glued to the neck. The neck is still very much oversized, I'll now do much more shaping of the profile as well as begin work on fitting the heel to the body.

Neck and Fingerboard

With the mating surface of the neck and fingerboard true, they are ready to be glued up.

Truing the Neck

The neck is 3-piece maple with a single-action compression rod. Here I am truing the neck preparing for the fingerboard to be glued on.

Binding Fingerboard

Gluing ivoriod binding to the fingerboard.
The fingerboard has been partially radiused and tapered.
Going with an 1 11/16" nut width (the ONLY nut width in my opinion), and tapered accordingly for a 2 1/16" string spread at the bridge.

Fingerboard Inlay

I choose an Amazon Rosewood fingerboard for the neck. I've worked with Amazon a bit and it's a nice dense rosewood, not to porous. Quite similiar to nice Brazillian rosewood. Amazon and Madagascar are really the only two rosewoods I'm interested in working with.

(I had already starting a lot of the neck work before I decided on doing this photo-documentation, so unfortuntaly I don't have photo's of the more raw wood and blanks used in the neck construction)

This photo shows the fingerboard slotted for a 25" scale length and Mother-of-Pearl double-parallelogram inlays.
These have always been my favorite Gibson style inlays and someday I'll own a 50's Southern Jumbo with these inlays.
I primarly build Fender style instruments so haven't really had the opporunity to use these inlays. When Casey mentioned the idea of a Firebird style guitar, one of the first visions I had was of these inlays.

Beginning Weight Reduction

I'm a big believer in weight reducing bodies. I also believe a weight reduced body is very different than a chambered body.
My tool of choice... a 1" Forstner bit and a good drill press. The 1" hole is small enough that I can use a 0.10" thick top and it will be plenty stiff. I always leave the center block solid for the mounting of the pickups, bridge, tailpiece, etc...

Carving Belly Contour

Belly Contour being carved with rasp.
(btw, I've had this rasp for about 15 years and have carved many, many, contours and necks with it. It's an amazing tool that is as sharp as the day I bought it.)

Carving Arm Contour

I'm going to be adding a heavier arm contour to the top than a traditional Firebird would have (as well as a tummy contour on the back). We have also decided to make the body full depth as opposed to the typical thin Firebird body; this body is big and these contours will help it feel less bulky. I'm using a rasp and doing the contours by hand. There is fixturing that can be made to do this quicker, but again, this is a one-off build and I'll be doing most of this type of work by hand. Mahogany carves rather easily with a good rasp and it actually doesn't take that much time.

Body Rough Cut

Here the body is rough cut. An approximate center line is drawn.

Body Template Layout

Since this is a one-off build I won't be making many hard templates for reuse. Here my newsprint body outline is placed on the blank to determine the outer perimeter.

Body Blank Prepared

For the body I've decided to use a piece of White Mahogany (Primavera) that I've had for awhile. It's large enough for a one piece body and is similiar to the Korina that Gibson used on a lot of their guitars. I do plan on weight reducing the body and adding a 3-piece top. This picture shows the body blank surfaced.