New Project: The Offenderbird!

godofthunder · January 13, 2011, 06:21:51 AM

Quote from: Kevin_bluebass on January 13, 2011, 06:00:49 AM
Alright, now to bing the bread back to the Offenderbird, rather than Beatle boots. Lol

Last night I glued and clamped the body. $:-\$

I think it's gonna be heavy rather than light
So I came up with an idea!

Hollow out the entire body except for an inch along the perimeter and a long block in the bridge area and glue thin veneers on top!
That's right- a short scale hollow body Thunderbird! Haven't seen of those yet eh?

Tonight I'm cutting out the body from the blank so I'll see if I will go ahead with the hollow body idea.
Wish me luck!

Sounds like a cool idea, might end up being a little neck heavy though.

dadagoboi · January 13, 2011, 06:47:53 AM

Quote from: Kevin_bluebass on January 13, 2011, 06:00:49 AM
Alright, now to bing the bread back to the Offenderbird, rather than Beatle boots. Lol

Last night I glued and clamped the body. $:-\$

I think it's gonna be heavy rather than light
So I came up with an idea!

Hollow out the entire body except for an inch along the perimeter and a long block in the bridge area and glue thin veneers on top!
That's right- a short scale hollow body Thunderbird! Haven't seen of those yet eh?

Tonight I'm cutting out the body from the blank so I'll see if I will go ahead with the hollow body idea.
Wish me luck!

Sounds like you're building a vintage Dano. Looking forward to pix.

godofthunder · January 13, 2011, 07:32:03 AM

Thats what I was thinking, a Danobird !

shadowcastaz · January 13, 2011, 08:44:18 AM

Quote from: dadagoboi on January 12, 2011, 08:15:58 PM
Before they were Beatle Boots we called them fence climbers or roach stompers.

PFC,you mean.

dadagoboi · January 13, 2011, 09:15:49 AM

Quote from: shadowcastaz on January 13, 2011, 08:44:18 AM
PFC,you mean.

Not in my neighborhood.

drbassman · January 13, 2011, 11:38:00 AM

Quote from: Kevin_bluebass on January 13, 2011, 06:00:49 AM
Alright, now to bing the bread back to the Offenderbird, rather than Beatle boots. Lol

Last night I glued and clamped the body. $:-\$

I think it's gonna be heavy rather than light
So I came up with an idea!

Hollow out the entire body except for an inch along the perimeter and a long block in the bridge area and glue thin veneers on top!
That's right- a short scale hollow body Thunderbird! Haven't seen of those yet eh?

Tonight I'm cutting out the body from the blank so I'll see if I will go ahead with the hollow body idea.
Wish me luck!

That will work

Kevin_bluebass · January 13, 2011, 04:44:10 PM

Alright got a lot done again! Woot!

I cut out the body:

Its way lighter than I thought it would be!
It's gonna be lighter than my Gibson for sure- that's all that matters!
I'll save the Danobird idea for the Offenderbird II.

Then I bolted on the neck (tryig to get the body to match the necks holes- not easy!)
But I was able to get to fit after some careful measuring. (I wanted to keep the holes for the neck in case I want to go back to the original bronco body)

Now off to align the bridge!

Rhythm N. Bliss · January 13, 2011, 05:03:53 PM

W E L C O M E Kev~ Looks like the Offender is comin' along nicely...

Great name!!!

Kevin_bluebass · January 13, 2011, 05:37:55 PM

Thanks man!

Aaand....
All done!

I strung it up and it's aligned PERFECTLY! I couldn't be happier.

Still got the sanding, finishing and pickguard cutting left...
I should be done by next Tuesday! Thanks for the support guys!

Denis · January 13, 2011, 06:37:25 PM

Quote from: Kevin_bluebass on January 13, 2011, 04:44:10 PM
Then I bolted on the neck (tryig to get the body to match the necks holes- not easy!)
But I was able to get to fit after some careful measuring. (I wanted to keep the holes for the neck in case I want to go back to the original bronco body)

When Carlo fit my '74 P-bass neck to my T-bird I wanted to keep the original holes in the neck intact, so he had a great solution: cut the heads off some screws and thread them into the existing neck holes and press the whole shooting match into the routed neck cavity. The indentions of the screws indicate where the holes should be drilled. Brilliant!

Kevin_bluebass · January 14, 2011, 06:03:20 AM

It's getting there!

It sounds just as good if not better than it did with the original body!
I still have a lot of work but it's exciting to have something playable after three days!

Denis · January 14, 2011, 06:12:55 AM

That's going to be cool as hell and different than any out there!

uwe · January 17, 2011, 06:30:56 AM

Hollowbird - the first one of its kind!

Kevin_bluebass · January 17, 2011, 06:36:34 PM

Haven't made a lot of progress since my last update... Just playing it to get a feel of what I want to do for my next build after this prototype.
I think the body is a bit too skinny between the pup and bridge.
The "arm rest" part of the body doesn't come up high enough either and I use the end of the fb as a thumbrest so the neck is one or two frets too far out.
Glad I used 10 bucks worth of pine first!

Another thing... One of the lightest basses I've ever played! What's a good light tone wood? Mahogany? Ash?

Thanks again for all the support guys!

dadagoboi · January 18, 2011, 06:56:58 AM

Yep, nothing like actually building a prototype and playing it vs laying it out on paper or, shudder, a computer IMO. I'd do another pine one, it's an excellent light tone wood. My white JAEbird is pine as are all my final prototypes, it finishes up very well. I'd spend the $$ on pickups vs wood. I use 2x4s and laminate them, the bodies end up costing less than $5.

There are many supposed kinds of mahogany, honduras is the real stuff. A body blank will cost $100 or more. The other stuff they call mahogany isn't really and is generally heavy. Ash is great also just make sure it's the light, "swamp" ash vs the heavy "northern" ash. A rule of thumb is the wilder the grain the lighter the ash.

Keep up the great work!