Cherry Fenderbird ~ Luthiery Laboratories

Cherry Fenderbird

For those of you who thought my Stratocaster bass was an abomination, feast your eyes on this. The MusicmanBird. ThunderJazzRay. FenderManBird. I just call it FenderBird #2.

Specs:

Body: Thunderbird, cherry, Danish oil finish - someone's abandoned project from eBay
Neck: Mighty Mite Jazz bass, 34" maple
Logos: inkjet-printed waterslide decals under satin lacquer - hobby shop
Tuners, neck plate, misc hardware: GFS
Pickup: MusicMan-style, alnico, 2.5k/coil, 4-wire - Guitar Jones ?
Bridge: MusicMan-style cheap Chinese knockoff, top-strung - eBay
Pickguards & control cover: scrap material from old project
Fasteners: bright stainless steel - marine supplies store
Knobs: Precision bass dome style, Rickenbacker layout - parts box
Electronics: Guitar Fuel SBK-2 active bass & treble + 4-way pickup switch & dead-battery passive switch
Strings: d'Addario 50-105 roundwound

As oriented in the picture, the controls are:

North: volume, pull for passive output (dead battery)
East: bass 12db boost/cut, center detent
South: treble 12db boost/cut, center detent
West: pickup mode, 4-way rotary switch

Basses, Body - Bought, Body - Solid, Electronics - Active, Gibson, Long-Scale Basses, Neck - Bought, Projects,

Gibson Projects

Gibson Fenderbird Bass 1

Gibson Fenderbird Bass 2

Gibson Reverse Fenderbird Bass

Samick SG450 Guitar

The "Fenderbird" is a mash-up of a Gibson Thunderbird body and a Fender neck. You'd expect such a thing to be a mutt, but this mutt comes with a great pedigree - invented by no less than John Entwistle of The Who.

More: Gibson Projects ...

Long-Scale Basses

Basses built with the standard scale length of 34 inches.

Long-Scale Basses

More: Long-Scale Basses ...

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Double Lipstick Pickup Mount

Laying out for the angled double lipstick bracket. The straight one is at the left, in the center I have cut out my drawing and Scotch-taped it to the aluminum blank. Then I punched the centers through the paper. That's what the black tool is - a spring-loaded punch. It is used to make dimples in material to accurately start a hole. If you don't have one of these in your toolbox, get one - under ten bucks. It works great on woods and soft metals, and even mild steel. The accuracy of your drilling will improve tremendously.

More: Double Lipstick Pickup Mount ...