Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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07hubbardj
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Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:46 am

Hey guys
After browsing through the for sales on an offset guitars Facebook group, I managed to score a complete mij jazzmaster harness with pickups for £38 including postage to my door!

My plans are as follows:
-Make guild thunderbird plans (as I can't find any online)
-Adapt them for a squier strat neck pocket (my buddy has one I can have for free
-Build body using 4 layers of 10mm ply
-use JM pickups and electronics possibly with extra switches for series wiring or different caps
Last edited by 07hubbardj on Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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07hubbardj
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Re: Budget Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:49 am

I'm planning on making plans for the body tonight at some poont using a face on picture of a thunderbird and photoshop. We'll so how that goes and if I'm successful I'll post them on here :)

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kdanie
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Re: Budget Thunderbird!

Post by kdanie » Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:23 pm

Is the Thunderbird based on the Firebird? If it is here's some gibson drawings to work with:

https://sites.google.com/site/guitarpla ... s/gibson-e

ken
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07hubbardj
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Re: Budget Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:02 pm

kdanie wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:23 pm
Is the Thunderbird based on the Firebird? If it is here's some gibson drawings to work with:

https://sites.google.com/site/guitarpla ... s/gibson-e

ken
Hey Ken, I appreciate the help but this will be based on the guild thunderbird guitar rather than the gibson thunderbird bass. Heres an actual guild version and the image I'll use to make my template

Image

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kdanie
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Re: Budget Thunderbird!

Post by kdanie » Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:33 pm

Interesting, never seen one of those.. Good luck on your project.

ken
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07hubbardj
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Re: Budget Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:54 pm

kdanie wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:33 pm
Interesting, never seen one of those.. Good luck on your project.

ken
Thanks Ken, they're a bit of an oddball that's recently been reissued build is still out of my price range so I thought I'd give it a go building one myself

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epizootics
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by epizootics » Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:03 pm

That's an offset...Just the other way around! Those are cool little weird guitars. What are you planning to do for a finish?
Let us know if you need a hand with the template, it's a quick process with my CAD software. But it's a skill that's worth developing anyway :)

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07hubbardj
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:02 am

epizootics wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:03 pm
That's an offset...Just the other way around! Those are cool little weird guitars. What are you planning to do for a finish?
Let us know if you need a hand with the template, it's a quick process with my CAD software. But it's a skill that's worth developing anyway :)
I hadn't planned that far ahead if I'm honest haha. I was thinking I'd like to give the whole speedball black indian ink thing a go but I also think such a freaky guitar deserves a freaky finish. After reading up on the milk paint process thats a possibility. I'm open to anything that I can apply by hand as I don't have a spray gun and rattle can finishes can be hit and miss so with my limited experience it would probably not be good haha

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07hubbardj
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:05 am

epizootics wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:03 pm
That's an offset...Just the other way around! Those are cool little weird guitars. What are you planning to do for a finish?
Let us know if you need a hand with the template, it's a quick process with my CAD software. But it's a skill that's worth developing anyway :)
Also, help with the template would be great. It's been a long time since ive used any CAD software

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TeenageShutdown!
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by TeenageShutdown! » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:30 am

Over at the LetsTalkGuild forum there’s a lengthy T-Bird build thread going on that may be of use to you. I can’t post the link from my phone, but if you go to the forum it’s under the Solid/ Chambered section. The responses can be slow, but they’re a polite group of people & very knowledgeable. Good luck with your project.

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07hubbardj
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:43 am

TeenageShutdown! wrote:
Sun Jan 13, 2019 4:30 am
Over at the LetsTalkGuild forum there’s a lengthy T-Bird build thread going on that may be of use to you. I can’t post the link from my phone, but if you go to the forum it’s under the Solid/ Chambered section. The responses can be slow, but they’re a polite group of people & very knowledgeable. Good luck with your project.
Hey, thanks I'll check that out!

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07hubbardj
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Mon Jan 14, 2019 11:53 am

So, update time. My electronics have arrived and I've been sent through a plan for the body.
Next is to get the ply for the body (hopefully my friend can "acquire"some from work) and to grab the neck from my buddy. Also, I need to make a plan for what sort of bridge setup I'm going for yet. I have a few spares laying about. A few chinese strat trems, a squier tele bridge and a tuneomatic or 2 so I think the latter is what I'll go for. I also have some string through ferrules knocking about. So, TOM and string through rather than a tailpiece is on the cards!

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CROSS_guitars
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by CROSS_guitars » Wed Jan 16, 2019 6:24 am

Sorry to completely hijack this thread but I felt compelled to share this crazy idea I had.

Image

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07hubbardj
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by 07hubbardj » Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:47 am

<r><QUOTE author="CROSS_guitars" post_id="1540277" time="1547648643" user_id="1909"><s>
CROSS_guitars wrote:
Wed Jan 16, 2019 6:24 am
</s>
Sorry to completely hijack this thread but I felt compelled to share this crazy idea I had.<br/>
<br/>
<IMG src="https://i.imgur.com/qA2yZsq.jpg"><s>Image url="https://i.imgur.com/qA2yZsq.jpg">https: ... pg</URL><e>[/img]</e></IMG>
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</e></QUOTE>

god damn that thing is freaky and I LOVE IT!!!

you may have totally sent this project in a different direction. I've been backwardsing and forwardsing with a couple of people about templates. storyboardist sent me a really great thunderbird template but i don't have the ability to print it at full scale so epizootics said he'd help with that. however, ive been having trouble sendinb him the file. maybe ill send him this image instead!

Also, I'm helping a friend do a resto mod on a satellite branded teisco and he gave me the trem so I may put that on there rather than a jm style trem

Singlebladepickup
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Re: Budget Guild Thunderbird!

Post by Singlebladepickup » Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:46 am

CROSS_guitars wrote:
Wed Jan 16, 2019 6:24 am
Sorry to completely hijack this thread but I felt compelled to share this crazy idea I had.

Image
I love this, but it would be better if you kept a tiny bit of the dip near the upper contour, to make it slightly more like the guild. Just my 2 cents, which I give because that is so close to my dream guitar

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