Winter 2019 Build Off Thunder Cub

[Novarocker]

This one's been a long time coming for me and between some procrastination and my second kid being born, I'm finally getting this up here. I did start on the Monday after the official start, but haven't had a lot of time so far. However, I'm optimistic.

I've dubbed this build "Thundercub" or "Thunder Cub," not 100% on the name just yet. I like Thunderhawk as well.

It will be a mash-up of Fender, Reverend, and Eko offsets on the body with a Firebird style neck built by our own @Englishman. I'll have the details of the body mash added as I get more time and specs later today along with pics of the progress I made prior to posting.

And the pile of wood (I do have a photo I took on the official start day otf the body wood prior to being glued but it did not have the tag, this one's from yesterday):

Edit:

So the mash-up theme is
- Toronado/mustang/Reverend offset back half
- Jazzmaster/Jaguar upper and lower horns
- back half of the pickguard is from Eko, while the front is inspired by fender offsets.

Last but not least, the neck will be like a firebird neck with tuners on the treble side.

 

[Jon Clegg]

Looks cool. Don't forget to post in the main mashup thread.

 

[Novarocker]

Looks cool. Don't forget to post in the main mashup thread.

Good call thanks

 

[Novarocker]

So this build is full of a lot of firsts for me. The biggest hurdles are semi-hollow construction and a big leap into unique passive tone controls.

I would label myself as quite the amateur builder overall, especially with electronics. I opted to go with Englishman for the neck. Mostly because I have never done one from scratch, but also because it will be an angled headstock which I've never worked with. Between that and what I knew would be limited time to build I knew that would be the best option. Not to mention the locality and phenomenal work I've seen from Englishman here on the forum and his own website.

Although I'm optimistic of completing this in time, I'm well aware of my time limitations. I just had my second child, but to add to that I was in the middle of a kitchen remodel and I recently joined the board for a new minor league box lacrosse franchise.

I admit I'm stretching myself thin, but I've allocated some time most mornings to get an hour or less in before I head to work.

I'll be trying to keep my updates short and frequent so I can have them regularly.

 

[postalflunkie]

unique passive tone controls.

My favorite

 

[Novarocker]

The meat n potatoes:

Body
- offset semi-hollow, pine back & cedar top
- back and sides will have minwax wipe on poly
I love how you can feel the grain on the furniture I've finished this way
- top will be painted in a color called Blue Streak used by FCA
- there will be an f hole but shape, location, and size is TBD
- belly contour and SG influenced forearm/ horn contours
- interested in doing a lower horn contour like a PRS does

The top will be mildly carved. I also plan on doing painted white faux binding on the top.

Neck
- maple with walnut stringer/skunk stripe
- 21 fret rosewood board
- 32" scale
- dot inlays, white binding
- gold frets, which look gorgeous
- firebird shaped headstock
- hipshot LIC ultralites Y key chrome

Pickups/electronics
- vintage Tbird style neck pickup
- vintage Tbird style bridge pickup/alternately a mustang pickup in a Tbird cover

-main circuit will have vol and tone
-push-pull tone pot, normal + bass cut in up position
- rotary pickup selection: bridge, parallel, neck, series, possibly series out of phase

- upper horn circuit (neck pickup only) will have volume and EQ
- for the EQ planning to use a rotary to switch between: bypass, mid cut, mid pass (cocked wah), and high cut all passive

Both will use rollers with an on/off switch like a jaguar/jazzmaster

Misc:

- gold anodized aluminum pickguard
- possibly an aluminum TRC
- string thru bridge, I found one like what Reverend uses and really like it too loaded as well.

I think that's about it.

I have nothing against active electronics or batteries, but I dig the limitations of passive and am curious as to what I can accomplish sans batteries. I have thought about doing a tilt style EQ as well.

Although I've never accomplished it effectively, I like the ability of switching to a different tone altogether on the fly. I can do the same with pedals, but I play a lot with different backlines and it would be nice not to always need to drag a board around. That's the real push for me to try the jazzmaster/jaguar rhythm circuit idea. Always been a fan of those guitars and their capabilities.

I'm shooting to get my progress up this evening and more detail to the mashup of the body shape.

 

[Novarocker]

My favorite

Thanks! I'm planning on using screw terminals and perfboard down the road so I can throw together different circuits and swap them out.

Always been a fan of cocked wah tones for flair here and there. Would be cool to have different center freq points, etc.

 

[Novarocker]

As you guys can tell I can be a bit long winded, I'll try and keep this short n sweet.

Here's my original lumber shot on the start day. I originally planned on using the pine board for the body, but happened across the joined pine board at Lowe's and thought it would be nice to make two bodies. I'll only be making one for this build off, but I plan to either make a bass VI or a guitar with the pine board at a later date.

First I cut and glued the blank

I was impressed with how flat the board was, well planed and required little to clamp it flush to itself. I believed they labeled it as stain/paint ready, very smooth.

A side note, I found someone who can resaw my cedar board so I'll have a nice 1/4 - 1/3" thickness for my top.

 

[Novarocker]

The next day I started on the template and pulled the blank out of the clamps. Since I hope to use the shape for multiple builds I figured it would be a good idea to have a template.

Cut out more with the jigsaw, then sanded the edges. Still have a little work to do on the shape, but it's there. I also started on the template for the pg, top cavity routes, and the body cavity route. You can see it's attached to the shape template.

 

[Novarocker]

I've now got the layout of all my templates finished. Started working on cutting them out and cleaning them up.

I also remember how much of a pain it is to get smooth curved lines without a belt sander...that and how nice a real spindle sander would be (not my press). I will admit that the press works, just I have to clean the paper more frequently and you get grooves that you have to hand sand out.

Will be looking at the Ridgid osc. belt/spindle sander. Anyone have any other recommendations? The Wen and others don't look bad and seem to get good praise, but for a little more the Ridgid seems like a no brainier...

Oh and I picked out my strap buttons.

 

[Novarocker]

I had my first "major" hiccup. I admit it was done in haste on one of the first days. This is something I really like that most of the builders here include in their threads. It gives insight to their thought process that led to it and unique, innovative solutions.

Anyway, you can see it in the first picture of the previous update. I got a little overzealous on the curve near where the forearm contour will go and cut into the curve by a few mm.

No big deal as I will just pass lightly there with my router when cutting out the body and top. The only downside was that it was on the first shape template...however it truly is a minor issue that reminded me to take my time.

 

[Novarocker]

So the mash-up theme is
- Toronado/mustang/Reverend offset back half
- Jazzmaster/Jaguar upper and lower horns
- back half of the pickguard is from Eko, while the front is inspired by fender offsets.

Last but not least, the neck will be like a firebird neck with tuners on the treble side.

Updated the 1st post with a breakdown of the mash up.

 

[Novarocker]

Not much in the works for pictures and I was a little strapped for time this last week, but I finished up all the templates besides some final sanding.

In other news though, the neck is done besides painting the headstock, oiling the neck, and drilling the holes for mounting. Beautiful work by @Englishman, real upstanding dude to boot! Can't thank you enough. I did a quick mock up with the body template and it's got me really excited!

Note the little tyke squirming on the floor, he didn't wanna let it go. Both of the kiddos love diddling around with the neck, the older one especially. Not to mention the other instruments, amps and pedals. So many buttons haha!

 

[Englishman]

Gonna look great!

 

[Novarocker]

Just got up for the day, should have some extra time this morning and make quite the progress.

By the way for the experienced guys, any advice is more than welcome. I know I've learned the most in the LC from the crucial tid bits that get thrown in during dilemmas.

One question I do have though, is how deep would you go for the body cavity? I've guessed 1/4" thick on the back and ~1/2" on the sides gives me enough strength. I figured most true hollow bodies or at least acoustics are 1/4" thick on all the parts and rely on the bracing though.

 

[Englishman]

Those figures would be enough for structural integrity, however they leave little room for error. And there will be error lol. I always go one inch for the sides. If you are using a forstner bit to do most of the chambering, at 1/4 inch that point will be really close to the back. Don't forget to leave extra 'meat' where the strap button screws will be.

 

[Jon Clegg]

As @Englishman said, allow yourself room for error; if you're want 1/4:, aim for 5/16; you'll probably end up at 1/4. If you end up at 5/16 and you really want that extra 16th, you can easily remove it with your router

 

[Novarocker]

Good points, I learned about the forstner point the hard way on my test build with the neck pocket. I admit I let that lesson pass into the foggy parts of my mind already, glad you guys reminded me.

Didn't even think about the strap buttons screws! That'll save me a headache. I'll be putting that to use along with going short and taking more off if needed. Always a good idea when working with wood.

The other thing I haven't been 100% sure on is calculating the neck pocket depth. I remember how I did it for my test build, but it was convoluted and I think I mostly guessed based on my jazz IIRC.

The shape and size is simple, though multi step, but depth has eluded me. I'm assuming I'll be able to compensate with saddle height adjustment, and shoot for the middle of the screw adjustment.

What I'm thinking is take the height of the neck from bottom of the heel to top of the frets and subtract the height from the body to the top of the saddle at the lowest set point. If I'm picturing this right, that would have it so when the saddles are bottomed out, the strings would rest on the frets.

Thanks again for the help, much appreciated.

 

[Novarocker]

In other news, I wasn't able to get as much done as I wanted and didn't get any pictures this morning. I'll add some when I get home.

I was able to finish my templates and trace out/line up the body shape onto the blank. I also cut and glued up the cedar cap after I got it resawn to ~5/16".

 

[Englishman]

Good points, I learned about the forstner point the hard way on my test build with the neck pocket. I admit I let that lesson pass into the foggy parts of my mind already, glad you guys reminded me.


The Fender standard is 5/8” pocket depth. Use a straight edge on the frets and it should be real close to touching the bridge saddles with them all the way down.

Didn't even think about the strap buttons screws! That'll save me a headache. I'll be putting that to use along with going short and taking more off if needed. Always a good idea when working with wood.

The other thing I haven't been 100% sure on is calculating the neck pocket depth. I remember how I did it for my test build, but it was convoluted and I think I mostly guessed based on my jazz IIRC.

The shape and size is simple, though multi step, but depth has eluded me. I'm assuming I'll be able to compensate with saddle height adjustment, and shoot for the middle of the screw adjustment.

What I'm thinking is take the height of the neck from bottom of the heel to top of the frets and subtract the height from the body to the top of the saddle at the lowest set point. If I'm picturing this right, that would have it so when the saddles are bottomed out, the strings would rest on the frets.

Thanks again for the help, much appreciated.