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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July 23, 2020

Radiatabacker Part IIc

July 23, 2020

Yesterday I hunted around for stuff. The trusty local hobby shop is all out of everything but balsa, and it didn't sound like they were getting anything else in, ever ! So I went down the road a piece to the high-end builder's supply / lumberyard (Dykes) to see what they had. And I turned up this nice piece of 5/4" x 6" maple. 5/4" is actually 1", the same way 1" is actually 3/4", and 6" is actually 5-1/2". I looked at a couple of pieces, and took three feet off the nicest one for about $18.

More: Radiatabacker Part IIc ...