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Permalink Reply by MadGomer on April 5, 2021 at 3:08am

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 5, 2021 at 7:28am

I have several Minibucker pretending to be Firebird pickups that I can choose from and convert to real Firebird pickups. Got 2 sets of Snake Oil pickups, a set of the SD branded pickups Gitty sells and I got one of the last sets from GFS before they quit selling them. The GFS ones have coil taps available, so I may save them for another build(Coronet/Wilshire).

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Permalink Reply by Southern Ray on April 8, 2021 at 3:52am

"I have several Minibucker pretending to be Firebird pickups that I can choose from and convert to real Firebird pickups.'

OOOoooooo, please tell us more?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 9, 2021 at 10:07am

First thing is to check each pole for it's polarity and mark it on the bottom plate.
Then put some tape over the edges of the bottom plate. Cut the solder blobs with a utility knife or my fav a cutoff wheel on a Dremel. Use some tape to remove any loose solder bits(don't want it getting inside the pickup.
Then remove the bottom plate and set it aside. Use a flathead pocket size screw driver to lift the bar magnet off the bottom of the coils. Use you fingers to keep the coils inside the cover.
Use a small pair of vise-grips to grab and pull out each steel rail pole.
Push the Firebird bar magnets into the coils where the steel poles where making sure that each magnet is the right polarity for each coil according to how you marked it. Check with a compass or polarity tester. The magnets won't be as tall as the rails were, I make sure that they sit just below the bobbins edge instead of flush with the bobbins bottom.
Next step is to make a bottom reflector plate of steel. I get steel framing plates at the local hardware store. They are about 1/16" inch thick and can be cut with metal snips or your Dremel. Cut the plate to fit tightly inside the pickup's cover across the bottom of the coils.(some argue whether this is necessary, but I think it's better to have it. It's supposed to reflect all the magnetic strength upwards towards the strings.) Then you must cut a wood or plastic spacer the same thickness of the old bar magnet and place inside the cover.
Then put the base plate back on lining up the solder blobs and resolder.
Check pickup to make sure it still has DCR readings.
If the pickup wasn't potted(coils were loose in cover and no signs of wax) then pot them and install. Then try not to smile too much. Yes it's that much difference.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 5, 2021 at 7:34am

I have pots,caps,switch and jack, but i'll have to get tuners, a rollor bridge and another Duesenberg tremolo.
Color idea for now is Gold Sparkle center with Dark Blue surround for a Burst type finish.

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on April 5, 2021 at 8:31am

Kool, I used to have an all original aqua reverse head Firebird that was pretty awesome, I believe the one I had was from the 1st year they did the reverse headstock? Pickups were hot too! Got some good money for it! I woulda had it still, but I didn’t like how thin the neck was at the headstock. In fact, guy I sold it to broke it in less than a year, so I ended up putting it back together anyway :)  You would figure Gibson could fix that defect after all these years, or maybe they don’t care like everyone says? Classic case where quantity trumps quality! There are also Firebirds with chambered bodies out there too, but I don’t think they started doing that until modern times?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 5, 2021 at 11:05am

The big issue with their headstocks is very little wood at the nut with a trussrod channel going through it and Fender does it differently with their step down headstock. Maple doesn't get as brittle as Mahogany does as it ages and that also plays a big part in the whole deal. Gibson no longer does the scarf joint, they cut the degree headstock and neck from a 4/4 stock and they have brought back the vollute at the nut area.

The Minibuckers that Gibson uses are just like the Gitty Snake Oil pickups and Toasterbuckers and they are good pickups. They don't have the same sound as a real Firebird though and once I heard one there was no going back. LOL I do use the same magnets as the first year Firebird pickups used in 1964 which are Alnico 2. 1965 Gibson decided to use Alnico 5's in everything, later years they would use the #2's for this or that, but it was just a business decision based on ordering one item instead of a few and maybe mixing things up. People say that you can mimic the tone of the A2 pickup with the A5 pickup by lowering the height, but I'm not completely sold on that.

Chambered Firebird bodies? Haven't heard, but I would think the neck dive would be a done deal on all of them unless they drilled some holes in the necks too like the Billy Gibbons model LP's.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on April 5, 2021 at 11:24am

Hi, the big contributor to the broken headstock syndrome is the severe angle of the peghead. It is the first part of the guitar contact a flat surface when the guitar is on its back. I have repaired necks that got broke in the case because the case got a bad knock or fell over.

With many cases, I have modified them to raise the peghead of the base of the case. 

A scarf joint is thought to be stronger than the one-piece neck due to the grain orientation at the peghead angle, however, a volute adds some strength in this situation.

As a matter of interest, I have just finished off this build that someone else started to the customer's design.

Big heavy neck.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 5, 2021 at 11:41am

Gibson uses 17 degrees for their headstock angle, that's a lot of leverage.
I used 7 degrees on my scarf joint, but I sometimes need a string retainer so I'm leaning to using 12 degrees. Red Oak is a bit harder though.

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Permalink Reply by Southern Ray on April 8, 2021 at 3:55am

Good looking guitar, Taffy!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 10, 2021 at 6:00am

That looks great. Looks like SD pickups? Which ones? I really wanted to get one of their 1978 pickups that Seymour made for Eddie. They were real expensive and only available for a short time. Maybe a promotion run or limited run to gauge interest? Don't know if it came back because I haven't looked on their page in awhile.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on April 10, 2021 at 6:27am

I went to Home Depot yesterday and bought 2 - 1"x4"x10' Red Oak boards for the neck trough piece. $64 dollars? I could've bought a 4"x4" piece of Mahogany for $55 plus shipping from stew mac, but their stock 4x4's are only 3' long and I need at least 4' for the body piece, neck and headstock.Wood has become too expensive these days like much of everything else. I also got a 1/4"x3"x2' Red Oak piece for the finger board. Thinking that with a Blue/Gold burst on the body, Blue headstock, the fretboard would look good in natural finish with Blue Dots or at least different.

I hand picked these boards for the ones with the straightest grain I could find(didn't have a lot to choose from). Hauling 2 - 10' boards home in a Ford Ranger's 6' bed on a blustery day was interesting to say the least. Now I have 4- 4' boards to glue together for the neck.Glued together one wing Yesterday, one more to go.

 

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