NGBD :: Project Bluebird Complete

[Frogman]

Project Bluebird (or Bird King? Blue Robbin?) is complete & I LOVE it.

Part tribute to Robbin “King” Crosby, part “what if Charvel had included a firebird in their ‘Nitro Aged’ series”.

MJT does great work. I’ll be using them again for sure.
I was afraid of the aging being over the top so I asked for “light to medium” wear and “medium to heavy checking”. It came out milder than I anticipated to so will probably ask for a little more wear and checking next time.

The neck(s) turned out excellent (I’ve got two more builds in the works). One more thing I’m going to try is lightly sanding the back with 2000 grit and mineral spirits — supposed to make it slicker than ice.

Specs:
Body: Maple center/poplar wings (KNE)
Finish: Sonic Blue aged nitro (MJT)
Neck: Maple (oiled & aged by hand)
Pickups: JB / PAF 36th Anniv. (hand aged)
Controls: 375k push/pull (neck parallel) + 3 way toggle
Bridge: Gotoh GE1996T

[jeremy]

looks awesome! love the color

[JOLLY]

Love it!!

I've been wanting to do some type of hardtail Firebird assembly, and get the body from KnE. Did you just ask for a Firebird body or a reverse Firebird?

[eclecticsynergy]

A blue 'Bird of happiness. Looks great. Are you using very light strings?
Surprising to see just two springs with the claw so close to them.

[d1dsj]

Wow, love it… hell yeah!

[Frogman]

Love it!!

I've been wanting to do some type of hardtail Firebird assembly, and get the body from KnE. Did you just ask for a Firebird body or a reverse Firebird?

I just sent them a picture of what I was going for. Technically it’s a reverse Firebird but I assume most people think of this shape when they think of a Firebird.

My second body from KNE. Great guys, will continue to do work with them.

I wanted a solid soft maple body but they couldn’t find a blank thick enough, so that’s why I went with hard maple center and poplar wings.

It sounds (and is) huge. Hahaha look at it next to my ‘81 Greco

[Frogman]

A blue 'Bird of happiness. Looks great. Are you using very light strings?
Surprising to see just two springs with the claw so close to them.

The gotoh springs are strong. I have 5-6 of them on various guitars and use two springs on every one.
None and I repeat none of them ever go out of tune and they flutter better than any OFR I’ve ever had, German nor Korean.

I typically use Stringjoy Nashvilles (pure nickel):
Eb: 9 12 15 24 32 44
Drop Db: 9 12 15 24 32 48 (or 50)

Perfect balance across every string and my playing has improved significantly since I started playing lighter. Forces you to be lighter handed and subsequently tighter, more articulate and therefore less sloppy.

[jeremy]

strat scale?

[Frogman]

strat scale?

Yessir.
24.75 woulda been better.
I’ve grown to like shorter scales more.
My Vox is perfect though at 25.125”

[Aceman]

MOST Excellent!!!

Love it. I think it is NICELY aged. I bet it looks better live than in photos.

[PFDarkside]

Whooo yeah! Nice!

[Ashurbanipal]

Oof, that's hot.

Cracked bobbin is appropriately gnarly! What's the overall weight?

[Frogman]

MOST Excellent!!!

Love it. I think it is NICELY aged. I bet it looks better live than in photos.

It really does look fabulous. Thanks!

[Frogman]

Oof, that's hot.

Cracked bobbin is appropriately gnarly! What's the overall weight?

Thanks! I’m pretty happy with how the pickups turned out.

I’ve got another build almost done where I did the same thing with a Custom 8. Will have matching Lil Screamin Demon in the neck. A DeMartini/Lynch Dinky hybrid.

Not sure on the weight, I’ll find out.